Enhanced Acquisitions, LLC Enhanced Acquisitions, LLC, Online Advance, Payday Loan Debt Not Valid, Scam, Fraud, No Proof of Documentation. Amherst New York

In early December, 2014, I found I'd gotten a voice mail from a number I did not recognize.  Listening to the voice mail, I was pretty sure it was a standard recorded message.  The speaker in this automated message told me that they represented Enhanced Acquisitions, LLC, and this was a legal matter that required I return their call immediately.

So I did that.  I was put through to someone who called himself "Director Fanelli."  He told me that my husband had taken out a $400 payday loan at the end of April, 2013, and never repaid it.  As such, with fees and interest added, the total now due was $568.  He told me if I didn't pay this amount today, a sheriff would be sent to my husband's workplace tomorrow with a court summons.

I asked this Director Fanelli the name of the payday loan company.  I asked him if this payday lender was an online lender or a storefront lender.  Director Fanelli told me the name of the payday lender was "Mesa" (he wouldn't give any further name details about this alleged payday loan company), but he said the complaint could have come from "Mesa's" parent company, which is Bahama Media Group.  Director Faneilli told me this "Mesa" company was an online payday loan lender.

I asked Director Fanelli if this company or its parent company would have sent a letter to the email address it had when the loan was approved.  Director Fanelli said yes, an award letter would have been sent via email.  I asked Director Fanelli to please stay on the phone with me and I would do a search in the email account that he'd told me was the one the company had on file for my husband.  That email address happens to be one my husband and I share and we NEVER delete any received emails for the purpose of researching just this kind of thing. 

So I tried to search this gmail account using any possible kety word I could think of.  Then I tried looking through all received emails in all possible email and spam folders for all emails from withing a time frame of 10 days before the end of April to 10 days after.  IN all cases, I could not come up with anything remotely related to any email from any payday lender or its parent company.  I told Director Fanelli I could find nothing about any loan award from any company.

He seemed genuinely surprised, and backed off from his threat to send the sheriff to my husband at work the next day, telling me instead he would sent me a Letter of Debt Validation and an affidavit sworn and signed as proof of the validity of this debt.  I told Director Faneilli that I would have our bank pull old bank statements for the time frame related to when my husband allegedly took out this payday loan.

I got his rather vague Letter of Debt Validation, however, by the laws of the state I live in, such letters MUST include the assigned license number of the collection agency that has been approved to collect on debts from residents in my state.  And the second page, the affidavit?  That too was rathr poorly handled.  The person swearing to the validity of the debt (the debt was not defined in her statement) was someone by the name of Cassandra Mercado.  (Who she worked for, or how she was related to having knowledge as to the validity of this alleged debt was not defined on the affidavit, even though an alleged notary had signed and placed her notary seal on the amateurish affidavit document.

Once our exchanged documents were received, (our bank statement giving proof that no electronic deposits from any payday lenders had been deposited to our account, just as I'd told Director Fanelli was the case) I called Director Faneilli to further discuss the issue.  I asked if he'd reviewed the bank statements and he said he had, but I'd forgotten to tell him about the electronic deposit on the bank statement in the amount of $1,600.  That, he said, was related to the non-payment issue.  I told him that was not possible, as that was an installment loan we'd taken out that month, and we are on good terms with that lender.

So then he said he'd been doing some further research, and the issue wasn't about an unpaid payday loan after all  That actually it was about a loan processing fee for $195 we'd never paid.  I told Director Fanelli if that was the case, that evidence would be on the bank statement as well, showing up as an attempted debit for that amount that was declined by our bank, and no such thing was on our bank statement.

Then I asked him who Cassandra Mercado was.  He said he didn't know, but she was probably the notary who works in the coporated department of his company.  I told him I was not asking him who the notary was, I wanted to know who swore to and signed off on proof of the validity of the debt.

He ignored my question and began running his mouth about debts, and liars, and legal issues, etc., etc.  I continued to repeat my question, asking 5 or 6 times who this Cassandra Mercado was over and over while he continued to patter on without stopping to listen to what I was saying.  After about the fifth or sixth time I again asked him, loudly, "WHO IS CASSANDRA MERCADO?"  He simply hung up the phone on me.

We have not had any communication from him or his company by any means since then -- a little more than 2 months ago now.

I did do a Google search on his alleged company, Enhanced Acquisitions, LLC, and found several web pages full of complaints about this company scamming people.  Some of these people, out of fear and because they haven't take the time to learn the basics of state and federal debt and collection law, felt compelled to hand this company sometimes as much as $1500, out of fear of going to jail.

This nation ended the practice of debtors prisons centuries ago.  You cannot go to jail for an unpaid debt.  I hope anybody who reads this, now understands that matters of debt are civil matters only.  I highly recommend that anybody who receives a collection call make sure the collection agency has sent or will send a valid Letter of Debt Validation.  If you haven't gotten this document, you don't have to discuss the debt with the caller until you have it.  If they tell you they are not a collection agency and so don't have to follow collection laws, ask them if they are trying to collect money from you for an unpaid debt.  Tell them you know that is what they are doing and because they are doing that, that makes them a de facto collection agency and you will deal with them AFTER you have that document.  Tell them, too, it must show the state license for the state you live in that legally allows a collection agency to operate in your state.  Lacking that, it is against your state's laws for them to attempt to collect any debt from you.

If they tell you they notated the date they sent that letter, but you claim you never got it, ask them if they asked for a proof of delivery when they sent the alleged official Letter of Validation of Debt to you.  If they tell you they don't do that as it would be too expensive based on the number of letters they have to send people, tell them that THEY are responsible for ensuring any mail they send you is actually delivered directly to you.  If you don't have to sign for a letter sent to you, who's to say you even got it.  YOU are NOT responsible for receiving mail others claim they sent you because for all anyone knows, if they indeed did send the official letter without requesting proof of delivery by way of your signature indicating you did receive their letter, it may have become lost in the mail, delivered to the wrong address and so on. 

Tell them if they are serious about ensuring you get any letter they send, they need to request proof of delivery when they send it, or it's their problem if you say you never got it.  Only your signature on the proof of delivery form that would be returned to the them, the alleged sender. is the ONLY proof that they sent you something, and that there is PROOF they now have that you did indeed receive it.

Without that official Letter of Validation of Debt, including their state practice license number on it, you can legally refuse to discuss the matter until you have that official letter and it bears all of the licensing information required by your state (look that up, don't be lazy about this because this is YOUR money we are talking about).  Once you have that official letter, and it includes all the legally required information, you have 30 days to respond from the date of the letter as to their claim of an unpaid debt.  If you do not respond within 30 days, they have the legal right to assume the debt is valid, and may then proceed against you.

I cannot state it enough that we as citizens have the responsibility to know the basics of debt and collection law at both the state and federal lever.  Please do not depend on the person calling you to be acting in a legal fashion when they attempt to collect money from you.  These scam companies, which are cropping up more and more often, are obviously a bit successful in what they do our there wouldn't be more of them starting up all the time like they are.

They prey on you in the hopes that you will be ignorant of debt and collection law, and will use threats of legal action against you at any opportunity.  Like I said, you have the legal right to refuse to talk to them if they have not sent you that initial and official Letter of Validation of Debt WITH all the necessary legally required information on it.  Don't buy it if they tell you they did send it, but you know you never got anything from this outfit.  They will try to frighten you into giving them money without bothering to follow the legal channels.  Do not let them frighten you and DO NOT give them any money.  Not even a partial payment. If you do that, it is as if you are legally admitting you owe this debt they claim you owe, and then you will be legally stuck to pay it off.

In these hard times,  with so many of our jobs shipped overseas, people are trying to find ways to make money any way they can.  Unfortunately, some of them have turned to doing illegal things to make money.  With all of us working hard just to get by as prices go up but wages do not, can you really afford NOT to know the legal aspects of debt and collection law at the state and federal level?  Really?  I don't think so. At least I know I can't afford not to have learned about those laws.