shamrock
United States of America#2REBUTTAL Owner of company
Fri, August 24, 2012
Portfolio Recovery Associates LLC is a debt purchaser. Basically, they buy old delinquent accounts from original creditors for pennies on the dollar and try to collect the debt for themselves. DO NOT give them any personal information, for any reason. Most likely, the original account belonged to someone with a similar name and Portfolio decided to send collection letters to everyone that was a remote match to the original debtor. They are basically trying to trick someone into paying off the debt, regardless of whether or not that person actually was responsible for it. They pretty much just try to harass people into paying. Send them a cease and desist letter and a letter disputing the debt. They would then have to immediately stop contacting you regarding the debt and they would need to prove the debt belongs to you before taking any further action. Good news is, they almost always just give up and move on to the next innocent person that has the misfortune of sharing a name with someone that didn't pay a bill 13 years ago.
If you've already given them any additional information, things can get more complicated. They will try to use that information to "prove" you are the debtor and they will "re-age" the debt so that they put it on your credit report.