Afni review: Fraudulent 11 year old verizon bill! 113

Today, June 14, 2007, I received a collection notice from Afni, for a Verizon Bill in the total of $138.18. The bill was for my mother's address that I had not resided since I was 17, which was 13 years ago. The representative informed me that the account was opened in 1993 and i was responsible because I lived at the address. Needless to say he was RUDE and accused my mother of stealing my identity. At that point, I lost it... Needless to say, I am looking for guidance on how I can report these people and have this information taken off my credit. This is the first time I have ever received a notice about this bill and I know this is not my account.

I just contacted Afni about an 11 year old bill sent to collections by Verizon. This bill is from 1996 when I lived in California. This is the first time I have heard from this company or Verizon concerning this matter. Verizon (formally GTE) has no record of it. Afni says that the burden of proof is not on them because I received bills years ago. Now I must dispute this with Afni and request a copy of the bill (which I do not think they have).

I did a search and realized I am not the only one having problems with this. I am interested to know how others have gotten this matter solved.

My wife received a similar collection from Afni Inc for a Verizon New York Inc bill from the early 1990s.

I took a look online and found an excellent website that details how to query this. Here is the link to the form letter that you need to send Afni Inc. Once they receive this they will most likely lose interest or sell the collection on to another agency. If they break the rules you can report them to your state Attorney General, FTC and the Better Business Bureau and use the fact in small claims court :-

http://fair-debt-collection.com/Disputing_Collections/initial-dispute-letter.html

Here is the link for the procedure you need to follow to ensure you have documented proof that you have mailed the dispute letter :-

http://www.fair-debt-collection.com/Disputing_Collections/mailing-instructions.html

Here is an exert from the Form Letter :-

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Be advised that I am fully aware of my rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act. For instance, I know that:

· because I have disputed this debt in writing within 30 days of receipt of your dunning notice, you must obtain verification of the debt or a copy of the judgment against me and mail these items to me at your expense;

· you cannot add interest or fees except those allowed by the original contract or state law.

· you do not have to respond to this dispute but if you do, any attempt to collect this debt without validating it, violates the FDCPA;

Also be advised that I am keeping very accurate records of all correspondence from you and your company including recording all phone calls and I will not hesitate to report violations of the law to my State Attorney General, the Federal Trade Commission and the Better Business Bureau.

I have disputed this debt; therefore, until validated you know your information concerning this debt is inaccurate. Thus, if you have already reported this debt to any credit-reporting agency (CRA) or Credit Bureau (CB) then, you must immediately inform them of my dispute with this debt. Reporting information that you know to be inaccurate or failing to report information correctly violates the Fair Credit Reporting Act § 1681s-2. Should you pursue a judgment without validating this debt, I will inform the judge and request the case be dismissed based on your failure to comply with the FDCPA.

Same problem. According to them it's $230 from 1994. Hilarious since I had a Verizon phone # for 12 years six months after closing the one AFNI questions. I doubt Verizon would give me a new number if I was in arrears for a past #. Time to get some heavy hitters on these guys.

I NEVER had a verizon account they said I owe them $283.03. I looked them up with the better business bureau. everyone should file a complaint, they are members there and if they are trying to collect on accounts that are old, or never existed that has to raise some flags for the BBB. How can that be considered ethical business practices?

Go to www.bbb.org to file a complaint, I am!

Their address is P.O. Box 3427, Bloomington, IL [protected].

I just received a bogus collection letter today, and had drafted a letter threatening to sue them when I stumbled upon this web site. I now have additional information to include with my response. THANKS!

These people sent me a notice for a phone company Ive not had for over 10 years probably 12 and theyre just NOW telling me that I allegedly owe them money? Isnt there a statute of limitations? Can they wait until Im 80 and hit me with a so called bill, from 60 years prior? How can this be legal? We should all get ogether and inform THEM that they OWE US all money and put collections against THEM on their credit reports. Just writing BACK to them verifies your address to them. So more letters can come, and calling them verifies your phone number, so they can call you a million times. This type of behavior ought to be illegal. How can anyone just pull up something from 12 years prior and claim you owe them when youve never reciedved so much as a single bill stating such in the past 12 years? No one should be thought capable or remembering if a certain bill was or was not paid, 12 years later- thats insane. The IRS doesnt even require that you keep records THAT LONG!

My wife just received the same notice. 10 year old Verizon Bill for $106.98. Any confirmation on whether this is a fraud?

Received a similar letter last week... 11yr old bill from Verizon.. there seems to be a common theme here, Verizon.

Same problem here. A collection notice listing the original creditor as Verizon South Inc. I've never had a phone number with any company that Verizon acquired, and have never received any documentation of a delinquent phone account at any time in the past. This is very fishy to me.

I just recieved a letter today from these a++holes, and they say I owe 97.00 from 1993. I was 17 in 1993, living with my mother, and we never had a phone in my name. I have talked to AFNI today and as usual they got crappy on the phone. I have prepared all the proper documents to send to them tomorrow for a dispute. My question is, since all of you have gone threw this already, what have they done to try to collect their money? Have they took any of you to court, and if so what was the ending result? I hope someone can help with my questions! There is no doubt Im calling the Attorney General tomorrow and also follow thru on my dispute.

I received a collection notice from these clowns three days ago, claiming I owed Verizon $51.14 for a 1995 phone bill. I have called them twice and both times been told that the burden is on me to prove I that don't owe the amount. I told them that my phone had never even been disconnected. One of the women I spoke with told me that I obviously made 'only the minimum payment required' in order to keep my service connected. I called Verizon, and they said they sold the account, so it's out of their hands.
This sounds like a major scam. They should be sued rigtht out of business.

WOW reading all this is amazing. Today my fiance' received a $200 bill from afni for a NYNEX phone bill from 1989! After calling the company twice i learned several things, first is they have no clue. The information they have is all wrong, they have her maiden name and she was married in 89 with a different last name. The address for this bill is our current address and she wasnt living here then and the phone number is for a town 15 miles away and they are 10 years off on her birthdate. The Afni rep told me this was a verizon bill from when they took over NYNEX but she has never received a bill from verizon and we continue to use them as our phone carrier with the phone in her name...oh did i mention the phone was in her ex husbands name when this old phone bill was suposedly neglected and that it was a different number than whats on the bill. well at least they got her first name correct, wtg Afni! Looks like just "Another Fraudulent No good Idiot" to me...

These collection agencies are violating federal law. Seeking to collect a debt that is barred by the statute of limitations is a violation and seeking payment of a debt that isn't owed is a violation. Minimum penalty is $1000 plus actual damages (usually none) and attorney's fees (which can be many, many thousands.) Attorneys LOVE these cases because of the high fees. Look in the phone book under consumer law attorneys and go get them.

I saw a $56 AFNI, Inc. charge show up on my credit report. Upon further inquiry, I was told it related to my Verizon service from years ago. I had never heard of this issue before. Thanks for the dispute letter link! I am sending it now.

Neat. My husband just got a bill from AFNI on behalf of Verizon Pennsylvania. It does not list a date, but the bill is for $1184! What's impressive about this is that we left PA over 7 years ago, and when we lived there we never had a cell phone. Nice try, AFNI.

I got one today form these [censored]es saying I owed Verizon $177.28. It has this debt connected to a phone number i have never heard of. This is the only 845 area code number I have ever had and Verizon does not provide phone service here at all. This is the first time I have ever lived in the 845 area code. I have had the same cell # for 10 years, and that is not a 845 number either. I think these guys are scammers. I am sending them the letter, writing the BBB and my attorney.

Just got one, called my local Verizon branch and they sent my call thru to AFNI so AFNI is for real and is working with Verizon. I never lived at the address that AFNI claims I did, I never had that phone number under my name. But AFNI does have my SS# on record so they are saying it is me. They asked me my parents names and the ones AFNI has on record are not mine. They were VERY rude and asked me to cut a deal and only pay them 200.00 instead of 361.00 I SAID no! He said well whats more important the principal of the matter that its not you, or your credit being ruined! They have some nerve saying that!

Any help out there?

This is just UNBELIEVABLE. Just yesterday I receives an Afni collection bill also. It was for a verizon disconnect notice in 1998 in the state of Maryland. The address was just down th block from where I used to live but I only liver there from 1984 to 1986. Afni told me the service was connected in March of 1998 and disconnected in November 1998. I lived in upstate NY from 1992 until April of 2004 when I moved to North Carolina. They also said that "I HAVE THE BURDEN OF PROOF". It's scary but when I asked them to verify the last four digits of my SS # they were correct. Yesterday I contacted the credit bureaus and the FCC to report this identity theft.

I don't know what else to do. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Refer. Acct. [protected] is not my bill and the address that you gave me was my ex-girlfriends and now this is on my credit report and I would like for this to come off with no problems. I live at 1110 tenn. st. paducah, ky. 42003 and I have never lived at the street address in tenn. Memphis. So if you can take off of my report I would thank you very much. someone took my name and my DOB and used it for them self. so please take this off of my report so I can live in peace.

Add my name to the list. I received a "settlement offer" letter the other day, and the theme remains the same: an eleven year old Verizon account that I supposedly owe $81.93 on... but that Afni is willing to accept half the amount on. Having read this page that is FILLED with Afni/Verizon phone accounts that were supposedly not paid, I am EXTREMELY skeptical of Afni's business practices. There is no doubt that we paid any Verizon phone charges when we moved to Oregon, but it's difficult to document when the rule of thumb is that you keep your records for seven years. How convenient for Afni! I think it's time for someone with a little clout with the general public to investigate this shady business practice...

I am glad I found this site...I got the the same bogus bill today! Don't pay it it is a scam. The bills everyone is getting are low enough that some will unfortunately pay. Even if it was real they can not put anything on your credit over 7 years old.

I's so glad I decided to look this up. My husband got a letter in the mail almost two months ago saying that he owed Verizon Florida $234.05 for a phone number where he did live before... but it was not a phone number he ever had. The bad part on our half is that we can remember what the old phone number was. The plan was we were going to write them a letter to receive a copy of this bill so we could see when it was from and if he was really in Florida when this bill was. We wanted to get all the facts to see if for some reason, he did owe this money. We missed our 30 day mark to send the letter in. A few weeks later after the 30 days, we got another letter from them trying to get a settlement offer, saying to resolve the matter, we could just pay $117.03, half of the bill, and case closed.

Still sounded a bit odd to me. I got a phone call from a friend who had gotten a bill from the same people for a phone bill that was not his. He called a lawyer to deal with the matter. So I decided to look this Collection place up to see if they were real. It seems something is really odd that everyone here has a problem with Verizon for bills that were almost all done in the 90's. My husband right now is going to check his credit today and see if this place has gotten on his credit report. If this place is as bad as it sounds... we really should do more than just let people know these people are frauds and report them and stop them with what they are doing.

If anyone does have any new information of what to do to try and stop these people in there tracks, please respond. I also would like to say the same thing someone else said before, has anyone failed to pay there bill and had something happen to them, like going to court? Thanks again everyone for putting this out there.

I received a letter from these jokers in July saying I owed a debt to Alltel from many years ago (can't remember now). I found it funny because I have Alltel now, pay them monthly and how'd I stick with it if I owed $93.62 all this time? Well I figured I'd just pay it, make sure it didn't show up on my husbands credit report, etc and wash my hands in it. My husband is in Iraq on an 18mth tour and we don't need this crap. So THEN I get a letter in the mail from Afni, inc AGAIN this month and this one said my husband owes Verizon Florida Inc. $592.28! Hu? From 1999. Well although they had my address right I am not giving them another cent! I am disputing it and telling them I want proof in writing. I didn't have Verizon, never have. They said it could be from GTE which I might have had then but I KNOW I paid my bills. If I hadn't they would have contacted me THEN and it would have been on the credit report! I don't know what these guys think they are doing, but I am reporting them to every agency I can think of!

My son in law got one of these notices from Afni saying he owed $ 400.18.. He got scared and called them up and sadly gave out a little info he shouldnt have. Hes only 21 and hasnt dealt with the harshness of the world yet. They claim that this is for a Phone with Bell Alantic in 1998 my he was 9 years old then and definately didnt have his own phone with Bell Alantic. Its sad that this practice goes on and they seek out those who arent aware of con games and who are taught to trust in his fellow man. My son in law is a great kid!

I received a bill from Afni, Inc., and spoke with a representative who offerred me a settlement payment of $50.00 on a $74.12 Bell Atlantic bill from November 1984. I asked why I was not disconnected from service if I indeed had a unpaid balance. He could not answer me, so I decided to check things out myself.

I was delighted to find I was not the only person who was questioning the collection agency and I will be forwarding this information to my Attorney General's office.

I have a new appreciation for the general public and the internet.

I was kind of suprised to discover that I actually do have bills, posted check receipts , etc from 1999 (I was almost certain I would have shredded everything prior to 2000 by now), and since my service continued much longer than Afni alleges, I did have a copy of the final bill, and I have to tell you folks that I have no idea what these Afni people are looking at when they create these collection notices. It's starting to smell a lot like deliberate fraud in my specific case. They have some information correct, some is so far off base it is laughable, checks were cashed every month and well beyond the time Afni says the account was closed, and the final bill reads, "Paid in Full".

I would strongly advise anybody receiving a notice from Afni to question the authenticity of their claims and take all neccessary steps to protect yourself.

Add me to the list. I have received two of these. The first was closed after I complained by calling them. Now the second one arrived.

This is unbelievable and still going on! I just got one today for 582 dollars for nynex who is now verizon, I never had a nynex account OMG! Hubby said check on internet and low and behold, here everyone is w/ the same BS. I'm saving those links M Thomas, this info makes me feel much better! I thought someone stole my identity, now I know better. Thank You Thank You Thank You!

I received a similary notice from Afni, Inc, Inc for a $39.90 (unpaid verizon bill). This whole episode looked strange to me because I have always paid my bills and the phone number did not belong to me. Moreover, this Afni, Inc has posted this notice on my credit report which I think is outrageous. Something must be done immediately with Alfi, Inc, because this is harrassment.

Verizon are the most greediest companies around. Unfortunately I did not siee this message on time and already made a payment. I left Verizon a few years ago when I learned that they had disabled blutooth features on their blutooth phones in order to prevent people from transfering files to and from their computers. This was when blutooth first became available. All other phone companies left all the blutooth features on their same model phones, but verizon wanted to ensure that they could charge 4.99 for a freakin ring tone (unb elievable). They are GREEDY; this Afni deal proves just how ruthless and greedy these people are. If I could help it, I will avoid getting any of their products and services. Hopefully they got my money for the last time. (10 year old bill "97" damn ###).

I am also dealing with many of the same issues already brought up. I have been hit with an AFNI bill from more than 10 years ago at an address that I did live at. I do not recognize the number but am not 100% positive that it wasn't my number. However, I always pay my bills on time and could not see this as something I would have overlooked. The bill is for over $300 and Afni has 'so generously' offered to collect half in order to close the account. I am tempted to get it out of my life and off my credit report but of course do not wish to be scammed. My question is, how do I find out for absolute sure that this is or is not an outstanding bill of mine. Unfortunately, I do not have any records that far back. I find it very unlikely but I am willing to accept the possibility as I don't have any proof. What I need verification. Does anyone have experience with this?

I had the same issue with AFNI and cleared it up very quickly. Send a letter via certified mail to their corporate office stating only:

I DISPUTE THE VALIDITY OF THE DEBT.
PROVIDE VERIFICATION OF THE STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS.
YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED TO CONTACT ME UNLESS TAKING ADVERSE ACTION OR CLOSING THE ACCOUNT.

File a complaint with your local Attorney general's Office.

Check Your State's Statute of limitations. Most of the bills they are trying to collect are well past the statute of limitations.

DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE THE DEBT OR MAKE ANY PAYMENTS. DO NOT GIVE THEM ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION.

If you acknowledge the debt or make any type of payment, you are re-setting the statute of limitations clock allowing AFNI to proceed with the collections.

Who are these people BSM/SBA Enterprise, they have charged my accout and I cant find out who they are. This is BULL ###. In order for my bank to take the charge off I have to close it and reopen another accnt. Please help Thanks

Well couple months ago I received a letter asking me to pay an old cell-phone bill that I owed and I thought that they was a real and responsible agency, the bill was for $1,03.00 for like more than 8 years ago, the offered me a Settlement for only $732.00, and telling me that I was supposed to do it, or either they was going to take me to court, so that scares me, and I started to make payments installments each month until I paid off what they asked me, so at the end I haven't received any THANK YOU letter even for telling me that i don't owed anything else. Can anyone give an advised for what should I do, to that information of paid-off goes to my credit report too? thanks.

DO NOT PAY THEM ANY MONEY - No Matter How Small of an Amount! Do not even make payment arrangements! Do not admit that it is/isn't yours. Simply tell them you are requesting proof of debt, which legally they are required to provide upon request, and if they ask , say you are not confirming the debt either way, but would like more information about the account so you can decide what legal action to take.

I just received a Settlement Offer today from Afni for a Verizon bill from an account that was open for nine months from [protected]. That would make the bill at the very least 7.5 years old. I currently have an account with Verizon Wireless and asked them if I owed Verizon a bill for a landline would I have been approved for a cell phone with them. They said NO. So, by that alone this bill is invalid. Additionally, I specifically remember paying off my Verizon landline when I shut-of fthe service, so know for a feact that I do not and did not owe them any monies. It has never showed on my credit reports and I have never recieved a collection notice from any debt collector in regards to a Verizon account and have a hard time believing that if this was a truly vald account I would not have received some sort of correspondence before now. I called and requested proof of debt and the exact date that it was turned over to Afni from Verizon. I know it is easy for a debt collector to get my current address & info so I wasn't worried that after 8 years and over 16 moves they were able to get my current personal info. I will be following up with a letter to them and referencing my phone call and the rep's ID# that I spoke with. I had informed the rep that in the State of Washington they cannot legally pursue the debt since it is 5+years and since it is more than 7 years they cannot report it to the CRA's. She told me that the age of the debt doesn't erase it, doesn't make it not mine, doesn't mean that I don't owe it, doesn't get me excused from paying it. I simply restated my state's law to her in response.

For a list of the Statue of Limiations for your state, use the link above. Also check out your local Attorney General and file a complaint with them against the company. Filing a BBB complaint is good in general, but it will not do anything, but list your complaint.

Today I received a letter from AFNI to settle a debt of $1737.78 for half that amount for a debt they claimed I owed Cingular Wireless. Never had cingular phone service. I live in Alabama and discovered the account was opened in Abilene, TX. Never been there. These guys need to GO!

AFNI is billing me for a past due bill from the ATT, then Cingular, now ATT company. Still a customer there and in good standing! I hope they like waiting. I'm a very patient person!

i dont think its AFNI or Verizon. i remember a while back verizon was hacked so im sure some kind of hacker could have obtained information.. and made up some kind of scheme to obliterate everyones credit report. its happened to me, so i wouldnt pin the blame on afni

We received a collection letter from Afni, Inc. yesterday for a 10 year old Verizon bill for which they want $99.28. This was from a phone number my husband had while still in college. We called them yesterday and they immediately offered to settle for 50%. The operator suggested that this was probably a final bill that had never reached him after he disconnected the phone. We informed them at that time that they cannot post this debt to a credit report as it is more than 7 years old. It is past the statue of limitations and I have sent them a letter by certified mail today informing them we dispute the debt and asking them for validation of the debt. Part of me hopes they'll just go away, the other part hopes that we'll get to sue them for $1000. As recommended above, we will also be filing a complaint with our Attorney General.