Collections Agency Scam?

[IOBA]

Let us know what happens.

I didn't read where they proved it was your debt.  OR that they had the legal right to collect on the debt.

What should be done?  

[Anonymous]

Something similar happened to me.  My son, who is 21, and is no longer my legal dependent, went to the hospital. The CA started sending me dunning notices.  I called them and told them it belonged to my son, not me.  Because my name was on it they told me I was responsible for the debt.  I said it is not going to happen.

I contacted the hospital and they said it was accidently put under my name.  My name shows up when you pull up his info because he was my dependent and I used to be the responsible party.

At any rate they said they would inform the CA it was not mine.  It did take a while but it did happen.

I would contact the hospital.  It is their mistake.  Did your brother have insurance at the time?

[Anonymous]

 IOBA: They only sent me the billing statement of the hospital bill. No where does it have my signature stating me to be the guarantor, etc. Just had account #, name and address.

 Yeah, guiness56, I called my hospital and they were able to agree, though not formally as in writing or anything, that the account is not mine. Purely based on different name and different birth date. They told me to contact the CA they sold the debt to. I did and only thing I provided was date of birth minus the year, and (highly hesistant but did anyway) the last 4 digits of my social. They told me they are able to verify that the debt did not belong to me. They had me write letter stating specific facts on why debt is not mine and faxed it to them and they forwarded it to the hospital.

I called back to verify they received the fax and what they're going to do about it, they said that's all they have based on and will send me confirmation of cancellation of debt, meaning it does not belong to me, I'm assuming. She assured me I can call her direct number any time to check on status of the account, etc.

I'm a bit more at ease now, but I felt weary of calling CA directly. By the looks of it, things will be alright with the CA, but can't know for sure till I received a confirmation letter and constantly harass them via phone call about it  kind of like a taste of their own medicine.

Also on it, I noted they must not report further or delete anything negative reported to credit reporting agencies, etc. Last I checked it was all clean free of CA.

Anyhoo, I'll keep this thread updated if anything comes up or answer any questions on what I went through, etc.

Thanks for all the support in this community 

[IOBA]

That is great!

Yes, keep us in the loop.   

[Anonymous]

Well, just to keep ya updated:

Over course of this week, pretty much call-spammed the hospital billing department and the CA. Billing department says CA shouldnt be hitting me up for anything anymore, they gave them a call transfered me to someone in CA. The person in CA told me as long as I dispute anything that shows up on my credit reports and was approved by the Credit Report Agencies, then I don't need to do anything else and the CA will not be contacting me anymore, etc.

So I guess this is win?  I kept asking if they'll take me off their record, they(CA) keeps telling me, under the account # in their system it has been noted that I am not the owner of the debt, etc. So I guess all I can do now is put it past me and move on.

[Anonymous]

If it is not your account and the CA knows it, they legally have to remove it from your credit report.  If they have not done so in 30 days I would be sending them an ITS.  In the meantime, file complaints with the BBB, FTC and your AG.