VERIZON NORTHWEST - AFNI Both companies attempting ILLEGAL & FRAUDULENT collection of over $1.000.00 using 12 yr. old closed account! BLOOMINGTON, ILLINOIS, CONCORD CALIFORNIA

Out of the blue I received this so called 'settlement offer' from afni inc. collections. They state they are making ANOTHER attempt to collect $1221.65 for Verizon Northwest Inc. on a non-verizon phone number I had closed the account on 12 years ago when I moved away from that city! WTF??? They have MY name, MY social security number. 1st thing odd of course is the amount. 2nd thing odd is that it is so outdated. 3rd thing is that it is for a phone number I really used to have, and closed out when we sold the house. I notice the address for this Anfi Inc. is a P.O. Box in Bloomington, Il , yet the upper corner left has Department 555 PO Box 4127 Concord, Ca 94524 below which is a generic looking upc code. I call the phone number provided immediately and a recording informs me that the wait will be 40 minutes! SO..I call Verizon Northwest Inc., that being one and same as Verizon. They weakly try to convince me that they can be of NO help because they no longer OWN (?) the information connected to me, my phone number, or ANY billing details AT ALL. They know NOTHING I am told because now ANFI INC. owns/BOUGHT that file! Verizon gives me a different number and that phone operator then gives and CONNECTS me to another number that is supposedly Verizon's Finance and billing department - BUT I get stuck with Aaron #21041 who was with ANFI and OMG! GRRRRrrr! He starts off real nice telling me "he FULLY understands my position here", asks me if he can have the number I am calling from so he can keep me updated - I almost fell for it! I stopped after the area code asking him if he was gonna send me a bill for my current phone too! He then asks if my number is 503-767- and four digits not even close to ANY number I've ever had! He flat REFUSED to tell me where he came up with that number, where he got that information, that phone number. He could not provide me with ANY details or ANY billing info, only that it was MY name, MY social security number used to open the phone billed in 1986 and caught himself just short of then saying 'CLOSING' the account in 1997. He stuttered and finally tried to say he only showed the money owed was for sometime AFTER 1986 and up to 1997. Those are the exact years we owned that house and used that number. This guy was OBSSESSED by this time with reassuring me that I HAD TO PAY THIS DEBT, BECAUSE THE LAW WOULD MAKE SURE OF IT! Over & over he tried quoting the act of something fair collection something else and congress this and then had the GALL to demand my promised Attorney's name, stating that they could not discuss anything with him when he calls without my permission!!! HA!!! I ended up telling him I WOULD NOT ARGUE with him and had to hang up! What a joke! Here is what I really think could be a possible scenario: OK, Verizon bought out my old phone company, (along with hundreds more all over the country, many during all the same time period). They then had my old phone companies files and records.

I lived in a smaller coastal town in Oregon, and my old phone company did business in a small town personal way. I'm sure that when I left with a broken jaw and my kids, leaving my husband, that they had a record of the call I made telling them I couldn't come in and sign off my name to the account, but that it was ok coz' hubby paid anyway and I knew he would cancel service when he left. I'm sure that Verizon now had access to the old billings showing that we always paid our especially high phone bills - $200-$450 or more a month.

Here's another thing: when I called my over 12 year old phone number that is in dispute...IT RINGS!!!! and rings and rings.
So, I wonder how much is being paid for someone to go through all these old phone company bills that Verizon purchased. I wonder what kind of trained eye spots files like mine and see's the perfect circumstances and numbers$ to use, and I figure there are MANY perfect scenarios amongst the old files all over america for VERIZON ,this HUGE company, and this putrid ANFI INC. to use.

I am shocked at Verizon! These people are STEALING my IDENTITY, using my name, social security number and private information to FRAUDULENTLY attempt to EXTORT money for CLOSED ACCOUNTS using private information in the CLOSED files of CLOSED companies! They are GETTING AWAY WITH IT TOO...Many of us all over america have this crap on our credit reports, and ANFI is suing for collections left & right!

ONLY VERIZON has the power to reactivate my 12 year old phone number so that I might fall for the old 'oops, forgot to close the account' trick! That number has been dead for years til who knows how recently. There is not a doubt in my mind that VERIZON & ANFI are both in this criminal enterprise TOGETHER!

I bet the people all over the US and who knows where else that are being billed by them for larger amounts of money on these old dead accounts are ALL folks who paid high bills for their service in those time periods. What more perfect prey! If every Verizon customer got tricked into paying even just $5 more than they were supposed to - just think how much money that would make for Verizon! Hell they could even afford to pay ANFI!!!

The worst part of this story is the major family upset these people have caused. For two days doors have been slammed, voices raised, I have been verbally and mentally attacked for not having done something to stop this before it happened, and it will not let up until I successfully stop the attempts to collect and keep this SCAM off our credit report. I have been just as nervous as I have been angry about this - and that is HUGE in scale.

Warrior woman
aumsville, Oregon
U.S.A.

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