Trying to help my dad with a debt collection against him. I also have posted this at credit boards, but have not received a response, so trying FWF.
First off, my father has paid all his debts in full every month, is never late or had any financial issues. Has had great credit for 30+ years. This is the first negative action against him.
About a month ago, my mother received a call from a collection agency stating they were owed $205. Upon looking at his credit report, we saw an account opened up in Nov/2008 that he did not recognize which was written off in Aug/2009.
We figured out right away that his identity was stolen, so we placed credit freezes with the CRAs. Given that this is the first time we are dealing with credit fraud, we looked around this site for help. My dad also filed a police report. We then sent a follow up letter, certified mail, return receipt, to both the bank and the collection agency disputing this fraudulent charge, including copies of the police report.
The collection agency has responded today saying they have validated the debt. They sent us copies of the original credit card statement. The statement is in my dad's name, but it is not the address he lives at. We have no idea whose address is listed.
We are unsure of the next steps here. This is definitely not his account but the CA says it is. The original bank is Metabank, and the CA is Genesis Financial Solutions. The funny thing on the statement is that the person who opened up the credit card transferred $349 to the card and paid it off. The subsequent $205 came from recurring $10 monthly participation charges for the credit card and late fees, which were never paid.
Appreciate any information on what to do or what our next steps are.
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PMonkeyDishwasher said:Someone stole your dad's identity to do a balance transfer!?
I know it sounds weird, but that is what happened! Person did a balance transfer, then paid it off in full, and finally the monthly credit card participation fees were not paid, which led to late fees and eventual account closing.
We just want to know how to resolve this and get the CA to stop asking him for the $205 and get the delinquent accounts off the credit reporting agencies.
You can dispute the debt directly through each credit agency. You can call in or do it online, though maybe you want to call in if you have questions to ask.
Did you go to the police again with the bogus credit card information? Maybe they can look up who is living there. In any case, another police report showing that someone is using your dad's name at a different address can't hurt to bolster your dispute with the CRA.
Also, I think they will require 30-45 days to look at the dispute.
Unfortunately, this is typical of the way collection agencies operate. If you dispute a debt as not yours or as in error, they simply respond that it's "valid" but do not provide the basis upon which they made this determination. Your dad is probably going to have to go to court.
Obama4Prez said:Hopefully CN47 will chime in as well.
You can dispute the debt directly through each credit agency. You can call in or do it online, though maybe you want to call in if you have questions to ask.
Did you go to the police again with the bogus credit card information? Maybe they can look up who is living there. In any case, another police report showing that someone is using your dad's name at a different address can't hurt to bolster your dispute with the CRA.
Also, I think they will require 30-45 days to look at the dispute.
We have disputed with each credit agency and all have said the debt is valid, although they did remove the incorrect address from their files. The police report does state that the address listed on the CRAs is not where my father resides.
tripleB said:Obama4Prez said:tripleB said:Debt is not validated if your father never lived at the address on the debt.
If this is true - how do you go about denying the validation then?
Just say NO!
That is what we were thinking of next steps - respond back with another certified return receipt to the CA stating that he never lived at the address and that they have not validated the debt. Would appreciate CN47's insight to whether there are any FDCPA violations going on..
Thanks for the link. We've looked there too. Besides the police report, he did also get an affidavit of identity theft which was also sent.
As I mentioned in my earlier post, the thief didn't charge anything. He did a $349 balance transfer, paid it off in full, and then racked up $10 per month credit card participation charges and late fees. Purely amazing.
I wonder if it's a valid, not id theft, account, and the CA/JDB did an idiotic job of skip-tracing the debtor. For that matter, I wonder if they are trying to collect from multiple people with that name if it's a JDB.
sdkjr said:We have disputed with each credit agency and all have said the debt is valid.The Credit Report Agencies will simply report the info which they receive from the creditors (Metabank / Genesis Financial Solutions). You need to clear the charge with the creditors. I also find it a little wierd that an identity thief would pay off the $349 and not use the card again. Is it possible (thru Metabank) to trace the original balance transfer to it's originating account, and see who owns it?
This doesn't smell like ID theft, sounds like someone else's legimate account that they forgot about and pinned on your dad. I have an old account of my father's on my CR (Same address, first and last name) but its not negative so I don't bother about it. Closed home despot LOC. They aren't always the best at matching things up.
Start a letter campaign. Office of the president of the bank, the OCC, the credit agencies, the collection agency. If that doesn't work ask for the bank's legal office so that you can talk to one of their attorneys. The last thing they'll want is litigation over $205.
taxmantoo said:I wonder if it's a valid, not id theft, account, and the CA/JDB did an idiotic job of skip-tracing the debtor. For that matter, I wonder if they are trying to collect from multiple people with that name if it's a JDB.
Thanks taxmantoo. Looks like I have more reading to do from the link you sent. The CA included the original credit card statements, which list my dad's name but not his address. However, he has a pretty unique name, so not sure if that is the issue.
curtisekarr said:sdkjr said:We have disputed with each credit agency and all have said the debt is valid.The Credit Report Agencies will simply report the info which they receive from the creditors (Metabank / Genesis Financial Solutions). You need to clear the charge with the creditors. I also find it a little wierd that an identity thief would pay off the $349 and not use the card again. Is it possible (thru Metabank) to trace the original balance transfer to it's originating account, and see who owns it?
When we tried to call Metabank, they wouldn't even talk to us. They said the account is closed and they can not give us any more information; they said it was handed off to the collections agency.
Usorry said:Start a letter campaign. Office of the president of the bank, the OCC, the credit agencies, the collection agency. If that doesn't work ask for the bank's legal office so that you can talk to one of their attorneys. The last thing they'll want is litigation over $205.
We've done the letters to the bank and collection agency and did the online disputes with the credit agencies. Looks like it is time to write even more letters to some of the people you've mentioned.
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