I received a "Confidential Message" fro Universal Fidelity, LP claiming to be the legal successor of Hollywood Video on 01/24 claiming I owed $119.45 for videos rented 12/17/09 and 02/19/10. They claimed to be a national collection agency experienced at collecting debts "just like yours." I called the number on the letter and after 10 minutes on a feedback look of waiting for a representative I got a woman to talk to. I wanted to know why this bill was with a collection agency when I had never been notified by Hollywood Video of the debt. She explained that they were not allowed by bankruptcy law to contact customers. I told her that I did not think I owed this debt because if I have a late fee I always pay when checking out the next video and that I believe it was policy not to rent to a customer who has outstanding fines anyway. I asked for documentation of the debt and she said they had none because Hollywood was defunct. When I persisted that the debt seemed highly questionable she said that Hollywood was offer to settle and that the amount offered to clear my account was $59.72. I asked what would happen if I refused to pay and she said that the matter would be sent back to Hollywood Video and they would decide what to do, implying it would appear on my credit rating. I asked if I could contact Hollywood Video directly to formally contest the claim the phone went mysteriously dead. I redialed 6 or 7 times, the phone would ring until it got to the phone tree and then go dead or it would ring once or twice and go dead. I did a web search, which led me to Consumer Affairs which displayed pages of complaints that were identical to mine. It appears this is a complete scam.
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