In late September 2007, I received a letter from AFNI addressed to my husband for a supposed debt to Contel South. We had never dealt with Contel South before, and my first thought was that someone else had created the debt in my husband's name. A few days later, I received another one addressed to me, also showing the creditor as Contel South and showing a different phone number, so I started researching. I found that Contel South was connected to GTE, which in turn became Verizon. A then realized that the phone numbers were legitimate numbers that we had more than 10 years ago through GTE, but we owed nothing on either of them. The P.O. Box on our letters was the same as some other I've read here, 3427, but they came from Bloomington, IL and I've seen other comments here that stated they came from other states with the same P.O. Box.
I knew that it was a scam so, in each case, I went to their website and used their online contact form to dispute the debt, and simply said that it must be an error on the part of the original creditor, hoping that they would send me something else to use against them. Within three days of doing this, I received a form letter from AFNI for each case, enclosing a photocopy of a single page from an old bill, which looked identical to to the bill format that GTE used to use. In the meantime, I did some more research and found that, in most states, the statute of limitations on a debt of this type, even if it were legitimate, was three years.
Once I received the second letter in each case, I sent a letter to AFNI by certified mail with a return receipt to prove that they received it. Both letters I sent were identical except for the specifics regarding the amount, account numbers, dates, etc. Here is what I said:
"To Whom It May Concern:
Responsive to your letter dated October 9, 2007 (copy enclosed), I must reiterate that this debt is hereby disputed. As stated in my communication submitted through the AFNI website on October 8, 2007 (copy enclosed), when the referenced account was closed at my request more than 10 years ago, the account was paid in full and there was no balance due. Further, the photocopy of the bill dated October 13, 1997 enclosed with your letter referenced above confirms the zero balance. The notation on that bill referring to the amount of $97.22 as “UNCOLLECTIBLE (WRITEOFF-ACTIVITY)” is quite obviously an error on the part of the original creditor.
However, after sending the above referenced communication through your website, I contacted an attorney and verified that, even if the debt had been legitimate, which it obviously was not, the statute of limitations for debts of this type through Virginia courts is three years. Therefore, the statute of limitations for collection of this debt expired more than seven years ago.
Accordingly, I hereby request that you take the following actions regarding this debt:
1. Please contact any credit reporting agencies to whom you have reported this alleged debt, and inform them that I am disputing the debt; and
2. Please also forward a copy of this letter to the creditor who alleges that I owe the debt at issue, and inform them that I am disputing the debt.
Except as specifically outlined herein, I am hereby requesting that you immediately cease all contact with me about the alleged debt. Any further contact should be in strict conformity with the FDCPA. Specifically, it should be limited to informing me that you have ceased collection efforts on the alleged debt, or stating that you are taking a specific action in relation to the alleged debt such as commencing a collection lawsuit. Obviously, I would raise the statute of limitations as an absolute bar to any lawsuit.
Any further contact should be made in writing, and should be submitted to my home address by mail."
Regardless of whether or not your debt is legitimate, this letter should take care of it because it shows them that you are more informed than they thought, and there is no way that they will show their face in court. I received my return receipts and have heard nothing further from them, and I don't expect to. But, if I should hear from them in the future, I have copies of everything as proof, (including the name of their employee that signed for the both of the letters) and, if I have to, I will file a harassment lawsuit. The most important thing to remember is to dispute it from the beginning and never, ever give them the impression that you might be willing to pay or are even considering paying the debt because, as I understand it, the statute of limitations would then start over and they would probably harass you for another 3 years. |
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