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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!

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United States

Collections Agencies

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Comments

517 days ago by Christy T. [send email]
Thank you Catlady for the letter format =) I will help my mom send in the letter tomorrow. I will be back to update after I have received a response from them.

515 days ago by Ticked Off [send email]

Same thing happened to me. They claim I owe $1037.00. When I called them one of there reps spoke to me like I had a tail! First I emailed my dispute to Afni and the Federal Trade Commission, then I sent my dispute via registered mail to Afni and Verizon. Received confirmation from Verizon (sig required) for some reason Afni has not they were both mailed on the same day go figure!!!!! So far no word we'll see what happens!

515 days ago by Cris Conover [send email]
I received one also, but to my surprise it is an actual true statement, I owe Sprint $128.00 and they said they would take 1/2 payment to clear the debt. Of course I am not falling to this scam. They wont get a penny from this rock ;) I noticed I received mine a few days later after I was getting a free credit report from https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp so beware!

513 days ago by Catlady [send email]

The website Cris posted www.annualcreditreport.com is a legitimate website set up for people to get their credit reports.

In my state we are allowed one free one per year from all 3 major credit bureaus (sp?). We got ours by printing out their form and mailing it in, not through the website.

This is the ONLY website that you can get your credit reports from that doesn't attach a hidden fee, service or other 'catch' as many others do. Legally you have a right to see your credit reports. How often you can get your report depends on what state you live in.

The fact Cris got his Afni statement a few days after is probably totally coincidental. That or Afni has some way of knowing when people get their reports then mail out the statements just so you can't check on your report again for a year without a fee, although that doesn't seem likely.

508 days ago by Erin [send email]

I just spoke to Verizon they advised they have sold AFNI in bulk accounts that where outstanding, because a statute of limitations clause was removed. Per Verizon billing rep "They can now go back and collect debt from when or where they choose, we just had an instance where a customer called about a collections letter from AFNI in her deceased fathers name dated back to 1953 and he passed away 15 years ago".

My husband is deployed and I received a letter from AFNI stating that he was reported to collections for an account previously help by GTE now VERIZON. Talking to my husbands parents its for a personal phone line my husband had in high school and college that they paid for.

My concerns regarding this debt are as follows, why has this not shown up on his credit report in more then 10 years. He has lived in California now for 7 years and has not been notified once. He has been pulling his credit report from Experian, Equifax and TransUnion for the past 6 years and have not seen this debt reflected with in the 3 credit reports. His parents have resided at the same address for 17 years. They have not received a bill or notification of payment due since the bill associated with the phone number AFNI provided, was paid in full about 13 years ago. What is the statue of limitations for Arkansas or California? And why is this the first time I have heard about this in years?

AFNI has not been cooperative and Verizon can not find they ever had land line service in Arkansas.
I am not sure what to do from here how do I prove this was paid???

507 days ago by Sarah [send email]

Erin -
Here is a link for statue of limitations http://www.bcsalliance.com/y_debt_sol.html

As long as you don't admit over the phone you owe the debt, because if you do, the statue can start all over again. This is from what I have been reading. And remember the burden is on them, not on you to prove the bill is paid.

My question (from your post) "I just spoke to Verizon they advised they have sold AFNI in bulk accounts that where outstanding, because a statute of limitations clause was removed. Per Verizon billing rep "They can now go back and collect debt from when or where they choose,"

What does that mean?? Who removed it and why do they think they can and it doesn't apply to them? Does anyone have any ideas on this?

I sent in my certified letter and they received it on the 8th so the clock starts ticking.

Anyone made any progress or have any news from their attempts yet??

507 days ago by Dan Powell [send email]

I got my letter Jan 2, asking for $816. When I called Afni they said it was from GTE long distance form 1996 from a place I never even lived at. Verizon has no record of this debt. This is a fraudulent attempt to collect from anyone that will pay out of fear for their credit. I called the FTC help line and logged a complaint. Their advice was to call the State Consumer Protection Agency because the statute of limitations has run out. This has never shown up on my credit and recently surfaced after buying my house. I will fight this! Next is to send them a letter demanding proof of validation. What a waste of valuable time.

506 days ago by Darryl [send email]

The repercussions from this scam are going to be huge. It totally discredits the whole credit history system when some scammer can come in and destroy a a person's good credit like this. The banks better take notice and take action, AFNI is undermining their entire argument for approving or denying a person credit.

(I got a letter today concerning an Alltel debt, whom I have never had any transaction with)

506 days ago by Nml [send email]

Chiming in to say I received a similar notice, dated 1/31/07 supposedly for a Sprint account for which I "owe" $606.90. I nearly didn't open the mail at all because it came in my previously married name and I haven't used that name for more than seven years and never when I was living in my current location. In fact, most of the time I was married, I was living out of the country altogether and would not have had any sort of accounts like telephone service!

My scam detector went off big-time and a quick Google search brought up listing after listing of people suspecting fraud.

505 days ago by Robert E. Couvillion [send email]
I received a bogus collection on an Alltel phone bill I satisfied 9 years ago. At the time that I satisfied the bill, I was living in a different location of the state that I live in now. Now many years later I get a BULLSH&T letter stating that I owe $429.09. Some form of government agency needs to step in and investigate this BS company.

504 days ago by Catlady [send email]

What surprises me is with all these complaints, on this an other sites, about Afni, not ONE single reference to their deceptive ways appears under any authoritative news source. Maybe we should be reporting this to the newspapers and tv news stations instead of FTC and BBB. Actually reporting to FTC and BBB does little good as Afni has a legal right to try to collect, it's up to us to force them to validate it for them to be able to further collections.

Maybe if a bunch of media sources got hold of this it would get so much bad publicity that not only would they stop sending those notices that are outside the statue of limitations or outright bogus, but people that don't know any better would be informed so they don't pay these people anything.

Something to think about.

I've got one more week before Afni's time runs out to provide proof of validation for me. I'm betting they won't send a thing and I never hear from them again since it's a bogus phone number they say I had.

503 days ago by Lisa [send email]

Wow, I can't believe how many people have stories similar to mine.

I got a "settlement offer" from Afni regarding AT&T Long Distance. on Thursday. I've had Sprint for as long as I can remember, so it seemed odd. I called Friday -- the number listed was 888-804-2409, and there are two addresses listed: PO Box 3427, Bloomington, IL 61702 and Department 555, PO Box 4127, Concord, CA 94524.

After waiting 20 minutes I spoke with a woman who told me the charges stemmed from 1993 -- and were for a phone number that wasn't mine at the time.

What I loved about this operator is that even after I told her the number wasn't mine, she still said I had the option of settling. Yeah, right, I love paying bills that aren't mine just because someone asks me for the money!

She did give me a fax number to which I will fax my letter contesting the charges on Tuesday: 309-820-2682 and said to put it to Attn: DP Support.

Thank you all for posting your stories about this, and please fight these charges! These people are scam artists plain and simple. I am thinking about contacting a consumer reporter for one of my local TV stations to alert him to this mess

501 days ago by Gary [send email]

I checked my credit on experian and found that this scam of a company had given me a negative report. They said I owed Dish Network $167, when I called Dish they said my account was current and that I had no other accounts. Long story short, the people at afni wanted a copy of my ssc and driver's license, which I refused to give. They also said it was "probably another person with the same name." Apparently they report to credit agencies with name only.

500 days ago by Adam [send email]
I got one too. Mine was about an argument with Sprint from 1993. I disputed the debt and reported them to the FTC via phone. The status of limitations on these debts is way way way over. I urge everyone not to pay these people a dime.

500 days ago by Marychain [send email]

I have indeed heard back from AFNI after having sent them a DEBT VALIDATION LETTER (Certified, return receipt requested and in accordance with the FDCPA). In the letter I requested they validate the debt and provide any and all documentation as well as stating the debt was not mine. The letter I received back was again a bill that stated they could NOT provide verification of the debt at this time but needed more information from me including a copy of my driver's license, ID page of my passport, proof of payment of the debt, such as a receipts--basically nothing that I would or could provide them. How do you provide receipts for a service you never had? How does sending them my sensitive private information help them if, as I suspect, they have nothing to compare it to? I am beyond furious. I am now scouring the FDCPA because their refusal to provide any documentation on the Verizon "debt" seems they have violated the law. The onus is on them to prove the debt and so far they seem unwilling.

I would be interested to know if any other people who sent such a letter have received anything back. I absolutely agree that the news media needs to be involved with this, as it is the only way to fully expose the harm AFNI, or whoever is perpetrating this scam, is inflicting on such a widespread group of people.

500 days ago by Catlady [send email]