Last discussed

1. (0 minutes ago)
WC Value Plus
Taking money from my account

2. (0 minutes ago)
Wu-yi Source
Unauthorized payments taken out of my checking account

3. (7 minutes ago)
Definitive Custom Homes
Poor construction!

4. (11 minutes ago)
aec fbo low pay inc
drafting my account

5. (17 minutes ago)
Sandals Resorts
Worst travel experience!

Consumer tips & tricks

Avoid Telephone Bill Scams

Holiday Safety Tips

Don't let identity thieves ruin your trip

Worst rating

1. CIC Triple Advantage (-562)

2. Castaway Pools and Spas (-380)

3. KmartFeedback.com (-334)

4. Afni Collections (-325)

5. 360 Share Pro (-310)

Subjects of wide speculation

1. Novelty ID Factory (1241)
Take your money and run away

2. KmartFeedback.com (964)
$2500 gift card survey!

3. Castaway Pools and Spas (545)
Never came back to finish the job!

4. Dr. Sydney Coleman (538)
Buyer beware!

5. CIC Triple Advantage (513)
Signed up for service I never received and did not want or need!

Stay away

1. Airtel (1105)

2. CIC Triple Advantage (301)

3. Nokia (295)

4. Kmart (241)

5. Sears (234)

Afni Collections Complaints - These rip-offs must be punished for what they are doing!

Review all Afni Collections complaints

Afni Collections

Posted: 2007-01-10 by Vicki [send email]

These rip-offs must be punished for what they are doing!

Complaint Rating:

I received a collections notice from Afni, Inc., also Afni Collections stating that I owed Verizon Communications a bill for an outrageous amount of $637.25. I only owe Verizon for my current phone service.

Verizon stated that I only owe for my current bill. I have never at anytime ever owed Verizon this amount. If I ever did, I seriously doubt if I would have any type of phone service available to me today.

When I went to their website, it is a fake too! These ripoff con artists need to be stopped and prevented from pulling this with anyone else. Also from causing Verizon a needless bad reputation.

The phone number they are using on the bill they sent to me is not even my correct phone number. These rip-offs need stopped and punished for what they are doing and trying to do!

Comments

United States

Collections Agencies

Share with others:

More Afni Collections complaints

Afni Collections - Fraudulent billing!

Afni Collections - Fraud

Afni Collections - recieved settlement offer re money owed to Verizon on account never owned and name not used in 2o years plus name is spelled incorrectly

Afni Collections - Fraud and cheating!

Afni Collections - Phony bill!

Afni Collections - Incorrect and fraudulent collections!

Afni Collections - Scam and abuse!

Afni Collections - Fraudulent collections!

Afni Collections - Crappy business

Afni Collections - I think they are fraudulent!

Comments

248 days ago by Greg [send email]

From what I can determine based on extrapolating information about my own case and the cases of others, it seems that AFNI's just spun off onto a path that may lead to them being shut down.

90% of the complaints that are out there tend to fall into two categories:

1. Never lived there, never had that phone number, wrong person (they must be doing skip tracing and all sorts of other questionable stuff).

2. The bill is old "debt" beyond the statute of limitations from around the time period when NYNIX, MCI,Bell Atlantic, etc were are merging and record keeping was probably a mess and people were being moved by the company that would become Verizon from one phone company to another to another.... and sometimes another all in a short amount of time.

People that fall into the latter category paid every bill sent to them, they were never billed for the alleged amount, nothing ever appeared on their credit reports and they were never in collections for this alleged debt.

In my particular case, AFNI representatives had all the dates wrong, the area code was wrong, they claimed the account closed long before it ever was transitioned to Verizon, and I paid every bill my providers ever sent me, and the amount they claim I owe is very small.

I have no idea what kind of data these people are looking at, but it's a bigger mess than my financial records from 10 years ago (I haven't kept every scrap, but I did keep posted checks, and fair number of phone bills from the year in question, and I have teamed up with my bank to track down every charge against my accounts for the year before the alleded billing date up until the year after that date, and just starting with my posted checks and the phone bills I have, I was paying (some very large) phone bills to the pre-Verizon entity they claim I had closed the account with a good 4 months after they claim I had been moved into Verizon.

SO there it is. They are up to something, and it smells illegal.

248 days ago by Greg [send email]

One more update: Between November 1999 and February 2000, Bell Atlantic lost 227,000 customer change orders and blamed this on software problems with their billing system. Bell Atlantic agreed to pay millions in fines and was aware that their billing system was having huge problems, so it may be that many people who paid their bills, dealt with any order snafus that were going on at that time, never received a bill or collection notice, and so on ... are now dealing with AFNI who is pouring over the same errant records that caused Bell Atlantic to pay millions in fines already.

243 days ago by Ashley [send email]

ANYONE WHO HAS A COMPLAINT AGAINST THIS AFNI, INC. SHOULD REPORT THIS IMMEDIATELY TO THE POLICE. AND MAKE SURE THE POLICE SEES THIS WEBSITE FULL OF HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF COMPLAINTS. JUSTICE SHOULD BE DONE.

THE PEOPLE WHO ARE WORKING FOR THIS SUPPOSED NAME AFNI, INC. ARE COMMITTING AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS ILLEGAL CRIME!!!

SO, LETS UNITE TOGETHER IN MAKING THEM PAY FOR THEIR TERRIBLE CRIME!!! BY CALLING THE POLICE AND YOUR LOCAL NEW MEDIA, RADIO STATIONS, AND NEWSPAPERS!!! ONCE AGAIN, JUSTICE HAS TO BE DONE!!!

P.S. YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO HAS A COMPLAINT AGAINST THEM MANY MANY MANY OF US DO JUST READ ALL OF THE COMPLAINTS AGAINST THIS AFNI, INC. AND YOU'LL FIND HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE WITH THE SAME COMPLAINTS ALL OVER THE U.S. THIS DEFINITELY MEANS THAT THIS AFNI, INC. IS A SPAM OF PEOPLE WHO ARE COMMITTING FRAUD AND STEALING!!! CALL THE POLICE AND SHOW THEM OR PRINT OUT COPIES OF THE COMPLAINTS TOWARDS THIS TERRIBLE COMPANY OF AFNI, INC.

242 days ago by Ashley [send email]

DON'T YOU PEOPLE NOTICE THAT THIS AFNI, INC. IS DEFINETELY A FRAUD OF CHEATING ON YOUR MONEY!!
I KNOW SO BECAUSE ISN'T IT OBVIOUS ALL OUR COMPLAINT DATE IN THE RANGE OF BACK IN THE DATES OF THE 90'S AND THEY ARE SIMILAR IN THE PRICE RANGE THIS AFNI, INC. IS SUPPOSEDLY SAYING YOU OWE $50--$5,000

P.S. CALL THE POLICE AGAINST THIS AFNI, INC.
LETS ALL UNITE AGAINST THIS AFNI, INC. TO PUT LAW SUITS AGAINST THEM AND CALL SECURITY AGAINST THEM
SO THEY CAN PAY FOR THE TERIBLE CRIME OF STEALING THAT THEY ARE DOING!!!

241 days ago by Young [send email]
Why not put the pressure on Verizon (legal and otherwise) so they'll put pressure on AFNI? Also, get this to the attention of the media. It appears to be affecting military service families in particular, and I'm sure neither Verizon or AFNI would appreciate this kind of negative publicity.

241 days ago by Enough Credit Problems Already [send email]

Well i just got an alert from equifax today stateing a new collection on credit bureau. Guess who. Afni. I have never heard of them till today. And never got a bill from them And have had cingular since 1999 same number if i were behind they would cut me off. Am i a another one of there victims. Lets hope not for there sake. It has dropped my score 40 points. I am furious. Anyone who knows me and knows how i am. Knows i always get even. Payback is my middle name. It's like this throughout the years. In the beginning i start out as the victim.But in the end, with out a doubt they become my Victim.

238 days ago by Amenon [send email]
This is a scam. Don't bother sending any money. They'll only feed you another. Ignore the fuc**

235 days ago by Kristina Lula [send email]
they are fake!!!!!!!! THEY ARE TRYING TO STEAL YOUR MONEY!!!!!! FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE

235 days ago by Mike [send email]

A client of mine also got these letters. It appears that Afni is buying this alleged debt and they try to track down the location of the owners and then send them the collection letters. In all such cases, it appears that the debts are too old and are barred by the statute of limitations. Sending them a cease and desist letter with the right language should prevent them from communcating to them. IF they take action or even try to send you another letter, you can sue them in court and get them fined $1,000 per case and per violation, plus your lawyers fees. lets see if that hurts them.

Michael

234 days ago by Floresffx [send email]
You know I smelled something fishy. They had just enough information to make me think this was really. I found some old receipts and was able to talk them down from over $500 to $140. I just wish I had poked around first. What can I do now? Can I try to claim with the bank that they charge was fraudulent? Thanks, FloresFFX

232 days ago by Marychain [send email]

It is ridiculous that we have had to pay money out of our pockets to send them certified, return receipt requested mail and will have to pay to check our credit (clean free annual report within the past year) just to make sure Afni isn't ruining our credit.

There have been good observations here about their tactics (i.e. past SOL collection attempts or dunning the wrong people). It is important to note to those of you who are pretty certain the debt is not yours, you may find AFNI not in the negative accounts section of your credit report, but in the inquiry section. I agree with the poster that thinks there's some skip tracing going on here. Because these debts are so old, I doubt they have all the data they need to locate people and I also doubt they would have enough documents to win a legal case. However, they seem to have checked our credit prior to even sending us our first letter. I highly suspect they know they are throwing so much junk on the wall to see what sticks, but they figure they will have better luck with people who don't want their good credit ruined.

People, please remember that giving in and making a settlement payment to avoid a bad mark on your credit is wrong! If a debt is past SOL or if you are pretty sure it wasn't yours, all your payment does is give them the ammunition to report to the credit bureau that you have a delinquent settlement (albeit paid) debt that can now be on your credit!

Also, know that just because this is a real company that has been around for 70 something years, doesn't mean that what they are doing is legal. It is legal to buy really, really old debt, and it is probably legal to look up every "John Smith" and try to collect from them if you have any iota of evidence to think they owe it. Where Afni is probably crossing the line (or should be) would be in tapping into the credit history of people with whom they do not have evidence to support a debt and then dunning them erroneously.

Finally, I strongly urge anyone who has had any dealings with Afni to always to so in WRITING and KEEP everything you get from them and copies of what you send. They are pursuing a collection for a phone number in a city we never lived in. This is the second time they are doing this, new number, same headache. There have been few and far between news stories about this, one out of New York, but nothing really national. It's time this company is exposed and those dealing with this can reply to all the Afni employees posting junk on these boards with another possibility for why we have gotten these collection letters, "YOU AND AFNI ARE WRONG!"

227 days ago by Stephen Fell [send email]

I just received a bill for $ 253.72 and a second one for $65.00 that are eleven years old. I would think that sometime in the past eleven years Bell Atlantic now Verison would have sent me a bill. Called Verison and was told they do not show any outstanding bill for either of the two notices and the second number is the one I have been using for the past thirteen years.I asked Afni to send me any documentation for either of these bills and was told they do not have it and because they are a COLLECTION agency they do not have to supply anything. I just checked my credit records and I see afni is listed as account review inquiries 0n 12/2006 . Do I have to pay these people to keep them from screwing up my credit score? If you want to pay for the service you can go to zabasearch or public data .com and find almost anything on anyone. How far back do these people think they can go ? The federal goverment only requires you to keep records for seven years. If this is the way of the future I think I will try to give a bill to the DMV for the time I waste standing in line.Better yet bill verison for the time I waste on hold trying to get a warm body on the other end of a call.

225 days ago by Sandy Ramirez [send email]

Hi, I received a bill on 11/02/2007. I was so mad when I found out that someone had used my information back on 1998. of a balance of $693.41. I just called today 01/10/2008. And, I wasn't so happy for what they told me. That I was responsible for that account. Because, the letter stated that I had to write to them within 30 days of receiving the leter. I just did'n really paid attention or did'nt understand. Now I think it's not fair that I have to pay for this account. I think I should'nt pay for it. But they told me I was responsible for this account now. I am no so happy. What can I do.

218 days ago by Stephanie Short [send email]

Sorry people AFNI is not a scam. Just because that company doesn't have the records doesnt mean the debt doesn't exist. AFNI buys alot of the debts from the companies. Now the bill could have been your final bill and it wasn't sent to your new address. When a final bill is sent to your past address it says do not forward so it could be that you never received the bill. If the previous company says they sold the debt to AFNI than it had to exist because they don't sale fake bills to a collection agency. Maybe you should just pay your bills and you wouldn't have to worry about it. Get a life people! And of course people on the internet are going to say AFNI is a fraud because they don't like paying their bills and they are mad that AFNI found them.

217 days ago by Marychain [send email]

To Stephanie Short: How do you explain getting an AFNI bill for a phone number you never had in an area code and city you never lived in? When it was disputed with AFNI, they eventually sent a letter saying that the bill was not mine and the account would be closed. Now they are sending me yet another bill, for another phone number I never had in an area code and city I never lived in. I'm sure neither was a final bill for me and sorry to burst your bubble, but we're not so stupid we cannot comprehend the concept of a final bill when we move. Here's a newsflash, Stephanie, some of us are so smart that we even file forwarding addresses with the Post Office so we don't miss bills when we move! So, the first instance of this harrassment proved that it wasn't identity theft and my CR was clean, so how is it that you insist this bill HAS to exist, and for that matter HAS to belong to the person AFNI is sending it to. Get over yourself and get back to your AFNI cubicle.

217 days ago by Tracy Lupejkis [send email]

A few months ago I received a bill from Afni stating I owed Verizon over $600. I recall having AT&T when I was in college and never Verizon, not even sure Verizon was available then. However, my phone bill in 1994 was about $29 per month and I had no one to call long distance. There is no possible way I could have amassed a $600 phone bill. I called them and disputed the bill. The representative kept trying to get me to say it had been my phone number, thus I owed the money. The phone number was a little familiar, but it's been 13 years. I refused to give any personal information or state that the phone number had been mine. I told them not to contact me further and to remove the bill and warned them not to report it to a credit bureau. I have not had contact from them since and it is not on my credit report.

Even if the number had been mine, being a bill collector previously, I know it is what is called 'out of stat'- 7 years since the last time it could have been initially reported for collections or a payment been made on it. Therefore, not legally reportable to a credit bureau. So, they have no recourse.

If anyone reading this has such a bill- you have 2 choices 1) Tell them to no longer contact you and give no personal information- whether you remember the bill or not. 2) If you feel an unusually heavy moral
obligation and do remember the bill, you can pay an 'out of stat bill'. But if you pay it- in full or for 'legally less than the full balance' it can pop back up on your credit report-so weigh a credit hit against your feeling that you must pay a 14 year old bill. The original company has already taken a tax write-off on this so you have not 'WRONGED' them. Paying such a bill only puts money into the pocket of a collection agency.

217 days ago by Tracy Lupejkis [send email]

I just saw Stephanie's post. She is a mean and irresponsible bill collector.

It is TRUE that Afni was sold the old bills- possibly even from another collection agency. Afni did not make them up. After 3-14 years, bill information can become unreliable. After a few years, skiptraceing may become involved in order to try to find the correct debtor- but the person found is not necessarily the right one. It is not illegal to try to collect an 'out of stat' bill but if the collector is asked, the collector should know the answers in regard to 'out of stat bills' and provide them. It is also TRUE that the collector may not know how old the bill is that they are attempting to collect. It often takes a bill of over $1,000 for a collection agency to pull a 'mini credit report' on you and add it to the file the collector can see- to verify the date. If the agency knows it bought 'out of stat' bills, the individual colletor may not have any idea of the date of the bill they are attempting to collect.

If Stephanie wishes to collect bills, she needs a better attitude. Telling anyone that they are irresponsible and that they should 'just pay their bills' and 'get a life' is a strategy that never works for collectors, though I heard other collectors around me trying to use that disrespectful and inneffective strategy all of the time. It NEVER works. A few times I did receive in my 'collecting file' or via 'auto dialer' bills that I knew or suspected were very old. If I had the date and was asked, I gave it. If I didn't have the date but the customer suspected the date or didn't remember the bill (I always thought of them as customers, not debtors, they were responsible for my bonus check) I would attempt to collect the lowest settlement my company allowed- sometimes 30 cents on the dollar. If the customer disputed the debt outright- I would either tell them to dispute via mail or email (giving email instructions- they must first email that the agency has permission to communicate via email about account XXXXX) or if they claimed 'out of stat', I would thank them for their time and note the account. You can't force someone to pay an 'out of stat bill' or try to 'shame them' into it, it's ridiculous.

I also bet that Stephanie is one of those collectors that say "I pay my bills, you should pay yours." If bill collectors didn't have bills, they wouldn't be working at a collection agency- except for the very gifted few- there are people who are bill collectors because they have a talent for it and make a huge amount of money- thus they have no more bills. If Stephanie must try to shame someone into paying a $300, 10 year old Verizon bill, you can bet she needs that bonus check to pay her regular bills plus whatever SHE has in collections.

214 days ago by Afni Employee [send email]

Hello everybody, i have spent a good amount of time reading all of your complaints and i am sorry to hear that you all are unhappy with your dealings with afni. I have been working there for a while now and at first i was a bit skeptical as to what afni is doing, but here is what i have come up with. Afni is a real company and they operate within the guidelines of the fdcpa and the fcra to avoid lawsuits. Afni isnt going to sue you to collect the debt because it is not worth it financially speaking. These accounts are loaded into our system when thay are purchased from the original creditor. Yes some of them are rather old because afni cannot control when the accounts are placed in our office by the original creditor but when the are it is up to us collectors to try to collect on them. to say the least it doesnt make our job any easier when the account are that old. I understand if some of you have called in and spoke to a collector who you thought was rude to you now that is not my style and i get walked on alot but sometimes collectors have to been assertive to get people to pay their bills. because they are people out there who know the bill is theirs they just don't want to pay them. Now if you feel the bill is not yours then call us and claim identity theft on the account. You will have to contact the ftc and obtain the fraud affidavidt and fill it out and mail it to our office and we will investigate it for you and let you know by mail. And we do skiptrace on these old accounts and it is possible we have mistaken you for someone with your same name. It was an error on our part but please don't be mad at us everybody makes mistakes. All we will ask is if your ssn and dob are the same as the one on the account if not i am sorry and have a good day but if it does match then we honestly believe your are the right person. I try very hard to remain professional and polite on the phone and i get swore at and called names all day long and it is hard dealing with that all day long while trying to remain professional. I hope i have helped you out with my comment. i check this site on a regular basis and i welcome all questions.

214 days ago by Annon [send email]
I've received two letters and it's just so annoying. I never even used verizon. I dont understand how afni is a real company and how they are trying to work within guidelines when they dug all these accounts out of nowhere and trying to get people to pay for schomgus. Isn't there anything else we can do?

211 days ago by Nancy [send email]
I received a letter today, 1/22/08, from Afni, Inc. in Bloomington, IL, that resembles the Verizion collection except mine was a Settlement Offer to pay 1/2 of a balance of $228.15 with Sprint PCS. I have never had a Sprint account in my name!!! BEWARE, they are at it again!!!!!!!