ARA sent me a letter referring to a past due account with them. I had never heard of them before, so it would be hard to have a past due account with them.
The letter said the original creditor was Key Bank USA na, with a current balance of $14,383.51, and that an "approved settlement" would be$10,068.46. There was no other identification providedfor the debt.
The letter said, "Unless you notify this office within 30 days after receiving this notice that you dispute the validity of the debt or any portion thereof, this office will assume that the debt is valid." They wanted me to either send $10,068.46 (!) or make monthly payments of $50 for an unstated amount of time before they would release my "FINAL RELEASE PAPERWORK."
This is a nonexistent debt. I have never had an account with Key Bank. I just went to the Key Bank and confirmed there is no record of me or the account number ARA listed to Key Bank. The customer representative called ARA and ARA could not confirm the claim based on the ARA file number on the letter. Key Bank said the original account number givenis not one of theirs. Key Bank is having their security department look into this matter. My hope is that Key Bank will take issue with ARA using their name and corporate image falsely to collect money on nonexistent debt.
Looking at the Better Business Bureau site, there are a number of complaints. This company has a "D - quot; rating with the Better Business Bureau, which states, "Under the Federal Trade Commission's Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, collection agencies may not use any false, deceptive, or misleading representations or means to collect debts. They may not harass, oppress, or abuse any person while attempting to collect a debt."
Other consumers have gotten false claims of debt. I suggest that others who receive these collection letters from ARA (Asset Recovery Associates) of Villa Park IL should check their credit reports and then to report the false claims to: 1) the ORIGINAL CREDITOR listed on the letter, 2) Better Business Bureau, and 3) their State Attorney General to report ARA.
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