In I was living in Arizona temporarily while in school and started to receive numerous magazines that I did not subscribe to, and a bill for over $300 in charges and fees for these magazines. I called the number for National Service Corporation of Virginia Beach, VA and spoke with a representative. I was told that I had subscribed to these magazines and owed the a large sum of money. They claimed to have my voice on a recording ordering these magazines. This all coincided with large sums of money (several $300 transactions) missing from my checking account.
Needless to say, I never subscribed to any of these half-dozen magazines (one was Marie Claire and another was Cosmopolitan, I am male and not exactly representative of their core demographics).
Their recording was a person speaking in a monotone, mispronouncing my last name and providing an incorrect first name (I am known to most by my middle name, but for any and all "official" use, I provide my full name) and reciting my debit card number.
Aside from the mispronounced and incorrect names, I do not allow myself to be recorded over the phone nor do I give my debit card number over the phone. The address to which the magazines were sent was temporary and not my mailing address, which was in a different state altogether.
I told the representative that I had never contacted them in regard to magazine subscriptions and was informed that they had in turn contacted me in relation to some manner of promotion. I asked for the number they contacted initially and the one they provided was completely unknown to me, and from an area code in which I had never even lived.
There were threats of collections action and this going on my credit report. I was stuck and ended up having to close my bank account to put an end to this. I have yet to see anything regarding this debacle on my credit report, thankfully, and have never been contacted by a collections agency, but they do not have any valid contact information for me, only an old temporary address and a phone number that was never mine.
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