AFNI Collections ripoff dishonest fraudulent billing Bloomington Illinois
I went to my mail box today & was floored to receive a bill from AFNI Collections with first a name on it I have not used in over 20 years, from a City address I had not lived in for more than 15 years. What was even stranger it was from a state I had not lived in for 15 years. Then top it off from a company I have never had service with a day in my life. A $755.75 bill. I contacted my attorney of course right away, because this appeared to be an identity theft situation, but it is incrediable easy to show someone has some seriously bad information, then I find out that it is this company simply trying to obtain funds that I do not owe to them. I see I am not alone in this matter & due to all the points, wrong name, address, state all wrong, this is incredible that a company would do this. I sincerly pray that a class action suit can be filed against these folks, because this is far beyond crossing the line & I do not know about other people here, but I can show far beyond any doubt by my circumstances they are simply trying to steel money from people that is not due to them. I was informed to not contact them, see if it is on my credit report & obviously due to my circumstances, the credit bureau will have no problem seeing the debt was not incurred by me. These folks do not answer their phone & send you to a website to obtain personal information such as your SS#. I hope people are not filling that in & giving this company any information at all, because like I said on mine, they are way off by 20 + years. They need to update.
Samantha
Creston, Iowa
U.S.A.
4 Updates & Rebuttals
P
Dallas,Texas,
U.S.A.
AFNI CONTACT INFO
#5Consumer Suggestion
Thu, January 25, 2007
Corporate Headquarters
404 Brock Drive
Bloomington, IL 61702-3097
800.767-2364
Afni, Inc.
404 Brock Drive
Bloomington, IL 61702 USA
Contact: Jim Hess, Director, Business Development
Phone: 800-767-2364, ext. 3321
Fax: 309-820-2632
Email: jimhess@afninet.com Afni, Inc. IL 309-663-4510 Jim Hess
Website: afninet.com
President and COO:
RONALD L GREENE
404 BROCK DRIVE
BLOOMINGTON 61701
Secretary: GREGORY J DONOVAN same address
Bruce F. Griffin
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Ronald L. Greene
President and Chief Operating Officer
Greg Donovan, CPA
Vice President of Employee Services
Stenia Dziadiw
Vice President of Sales & Business Development
Michael D. Garner
Vice President of Call Center Services
John Mobley, Jr.
Vice President, Information Technology Services and
Chief Information Officer
John O'Donnell
Vice President of Credit & Collections Services
Organization Number 0491821
Name AFNI, INC.
Profit or Non-Profit P - Profit
Company Type FCO - Foreign Corporation *****
Status A - Active
Standing G - Good
State IL
File Date 3/27/2000
Authority Date 3/27/2000
Last Annual Report 5/1/2006
Principal Office 404 BROCK DRIVE
BLOOMINGTON, IL 61701
Registered Agent C T CORPORATION SYSTEM
KENTUCKY HOME LIFE BLDG
LOUISVILLE, KY 40202
Current Officers
President Ronald L. Greene
Vice President Gregory J. Donovan
Secretary Gregory J. Donovan
Treasurer V. Curtis Oyer
Director Bruce F. Griffin
Director Ronald L. Greene
This organization has no assumed names
Previous Names
previous company names:
06/24/1986 - CREDIT CHECK INC.
06/29/2000 - ANDERSON FINANCIAL NETWORK, INC.
For collection-related inquiries, contact our Recovery Team at 1.800.371.3645, by mail at Afni, Inc. PO Box 3517, Bloomington, IL 61701 or email at: recoveryteam@afninet.com.
To handle your collections account on the internet, visit the collections website at AfniCollections.com
Important Note Regarding Collection-Related Inquiries:
If you choose to communicate via email, please remember that no matter how many measures Afni takes to ensure the confidentiality of your email, the Internet may be a non-secure medium for communication. If you choose to communicate your collection-related inquiry via email, Afni cannot be responsible for any possible disclosure of an account to a third party
COLLECTIONS PORTION OF THE COMPANY URL APPEARS TO BE AFNINET.COM
Anderson Financial Network, Inc.
404 Brock Drive
Bloomington, IL 61701
Administrative Contact:
Girard, Chris g@AFNINET.COM
Afni
404 Brock Dr
Bloomington, IL 61701
(309) 828-5226 fax: (309) 820-2610
Technical Contact:
Anderson Financial Network, Inc. oktober_isbell@HOTMAIL.COM
404 BROCK DR
BLOOMINGTON, IL 61701-2654
US
309.828.5226 fax: 123 123 1234
GENERAL INFORMATION FROM VARIOUS SITES ON DEALING WITH COLLECTION AGENCY'S
Tell them to validate by
. What the money you say I owe is for;
Explain and show me how you calculated what you say I owe;
Provide me with copies of any papers that show I agreed to pay what you say I owe;
Provide a verification or copy of any judgment if applicable;
Identify the original creditor;
Prove the Statute of Limitations has not expired on this account
Show me that you are licensed to collect in my state
Provide me with your license numbers and Registered Agent
1. NEVER talk to a collection agency on the phone. Period.
2. Keep good records. This can be the difference between a good and bad settlement. Don't expect them to remember you or what you agreed upon.
3. Send all correspondence via registered mail, receipt requested and put the registered mail number ON THE LETTER. DO NOT SIGN THE LETTER TYPE YOUR NAME
4. Keep a copy of every letter you send.
5. Penalties and extra interest are typically fictious amounts of money added on by the collection agency to pad their profits. Sometimes as much as to 50% of the debt or more claimed to be owed by a collection agency consisting of interest and fees. This is illegal, every state has usery laws (which dictate the maximum interests allowed to be charged. That is except North Dakota. There are no such laws which is why most credit card companies incorporate there.) Junk debt buyer pay anywhere from 1 cent to 7 cents on the dollar, there is no way there is this much interest.
6. Time is on your side. As time passes, the creditors will likely stop calling and the debt will be filed away for future attention or until the SOL runs out ..
Gloria
Tucson,Arizona,
U.S.A.
AFNI getting info from Verizon's old GTE accounts
#5Consumer Comment
Wed, January 24, 2007
That's right! When I started looking into the 2 letters we rec'd today, one for me with an old number (GTE account), then from another number on my husband's account when we lived in another county in California. We had GTE then too.
I started looking at Wikipedia and found that GTE was acquired by Bell Atlantic on June 30, 2000, to form Verizon Communications. The 7 GTE operating companies retained by Verizon are now collectively known as Verizon West division of Verizon (including east coast service territories). 6 others were sold off:
[edit] Retained by Verizon
Verizon California, Inc.
Verizon Florida, Inc.
Verizon Northwest, Inc.
Verizon South, Inc.
GTE Southwest, Inc. d/b/a Verizon Southwest
Verizon North, Inc.
Contel of the South, Inc. d/b/a Verizon Mid-States
[edit] Sold/Transferred
GTE Alaska Inc., sold to ATEAC
GTE Arkansas, Inc. sold to CenturyTel
Verizon Hawaii, Inc., sold to The Carlyle Group
Micronesian Telecommunications
GTE Midwest Inc., sold to CenturyTel
Contel of Minnesota, Inc., sold to Citizens Communications
GTE of Iowa - Spun off to Iowa Telecom
If you had GTE way in your past somewhere that's probably where they got the info from.
Info was from Wikipedia.
Write your certified letters now!
Gloria
Tucson, AZ
Samantha
Creston,Iowa,
U.S.A.
Response to Steve
#5Author of original report
Tue, January 23, 2007
Yes, The bill I received was a Version account. I have never had an account with these people.
Steve [Not A Lawyer]
Bradenton,Florida,
U.S.A.
Samantha, It's NOT identity theft! It's just JUNK DEBT BUYERS!
#5Consumer Suggestion
Tue, January 23, 2007
Samantha,
AFNI are JUNK DEBT BUYERS. They buy very old, usually uncollectable debts for far less than a penny on the dollar. These old debts have little or no documentation to verify who the actual debtor is, so every one with the same or similar name gets contacted.
They ARE NOT looking for YOU. They are looking for someone else and have pieced together mixed information from public records. That's it!
No identity theft here. just read all of the other posts here on ROR on AFNI, and how to deal with them, step by step.
Was this a VERIZON account?