Child Item

Site Totals

61396 Questions Answered 269 Categories

Verizon Wireless, did you send my personal information to a collection agency by mistake?!?

Dear Verizon Wireless,

I've been a Verizon Wireless customer since 2007 and have been enjoying your service.

I have played my part as a customer and Verizon Wireless has acknowledged this by providing me with special offers and such.

However, I recently received a letter that might change my positive opinion of VW entirely.

The letter was from a collection agency (Enhanced Recovery Company LLC) noting that I have a debt to Verizon Wireless.

Before I express my annoyance, I'd like to note that I DO NOT hold a debt of ANY KIND to Verizon Wireless. In fact, my bill is ALWAYS PAID IN FULL via automatic payment and Verizon Wireless has always given me one of those phone "appreciation" calls for being a "valued" customer, eligible for a phone upgrade, etc.

The letter says that I have a $657.36 debt and goes on to say I can "settle" this with $394.42.

Perhaps this is a scam, perhaps it's not. Regardless, it does not change the fact that my personal information (e.g., my address) somehow reached this real/fake collection agency via Verizon Wireless!

To make things even more sketchy, the name on the letter is some odd combination/version of my middle name and my last name.

Seriously, what is this?!

Is it that Verizon Wireless carelessly allowed my personal information to be leaked to some scamming establishment or is it that VW made a mistake and mixed up my information with someone else's who actually owes this sum?? Either way, this is NOT an evidence of sound operation.

I wonder if Verizon Wireless checks this page or answers in a timely manner but I certainly hope it does because this incident is wasting my time.

Please response as soon as possible with and explanation of how this even happened along with the news that you will rectify this matter.

Also, if anyone has had a similar experience, please feel free to comment/advise.

Comments

rcschnoor

It is most likely a scam. You could call CS *611 from your phone to confirm, but I would wager Verizon has nothing to do with this letter.

Whatever you do, do not call or make any type of contact with the people from the letter until you confirm with Verizon.

You may also want to report this to the local authorities.

unknown

https://www.erccollections.com/ They are real according to the web site. However if verizon has erroneously submitted your name to this collector you are in for a ride through ****. First under the fair debt collections practices act Verizon has to prove you owe that money, they have to post accurate information and verify the debt. However even if in error you will have to send certified letters of dispute to verizon wireless, to all three credit bureaus telling them of thge mistake and to remove the item, and you have to call the collection agency and file a certified letter of dispute with them. It is then up to all to investigate and get back to you. They will write you a response of it being legitimate or that it was a mistake and has been removed. Please note however if they say its gone you will find it many times is not removed and you may need to retain legal counsel to sue Verizon and tge three credit bureaus and that collection agency. Another horror is once any debt is listed as a collection account other bottom feeders (collection agencies) will just take up the collection activity and harass you. Also your fico score drops, this may cause you to be denied credit, credit amounts lowered, or even cancelled. If denied credit due to verizon wireless having posted false information I recommend you go for a high consumer item such as a home mortgage or luxury car and when denied you can sue them all for three times the value of the credit denied. Say home mortgage is $300,000.00 x 3=$900,000.00 per offender. Again read the FDCPA and your state laws on Collections and False credit reporting. Good Luck

unknown

https://www.erccollections.com/ They are legit and collect for cellular companies.

rcschnoor

The company may be legit, but that in no way proves the letter came from that company. As I had previously stated, the OP should in no way follow thru with the contacts on the letter UNTIL they confirm with Verizon.

Or even possibly calling the contacts on the website you posted to confirm they actually sent a letter.

Quite often, scams will come in the form of a legitimate company on the letterhead but the actual numbers/addresses for contact within the letter do not match those of the actual company.

rcschnoor

Of course it could also be a case of identity theft. Have you recently checked your credit history to see if any new unknown accounts have been opened?

syk624

rcschnoor & Elector, thanks for the advice.

rcschnoor, I shared your concern about contacting the agency but I couldn't help but call their 1-800 number.

I just talked to the representative there and 1) they seem legit and 2) to my relief, the representative told me that it seems that this letter was sent to the wrong address and I can disregard the letter for the following reasons:

- the name that the letter was addressed to, isn't even my name (it's like a portion of my middle name: for example, if my name were to be something like "Ms. Verizon Wireless Smith," the letter was addressed to "Wirele Smith," without my first name)

- the name associated with the reference number they gave me doesn't seem to match the name on file (the last name that the representative read sounded similar to my last name. Maybe the last name was the same)

- there is no SSN associated with this collection statement (since neither my social nor my name is associated with this collection statement, I'm not implicated)

- the year that I started using Verizon Wireless is different from the one that this agency had on file that is associated with this collection statement (and presumably the person who actually owes VW)

so for what it's worth, it seems that this was some weird mix-up of my information and the information of the person who owes VW.

I'm glad that I won't be associated with this since neither my social nor my name is linked but still rather disturbed by the fact that my information was somehow passed on to these people.

Verizon Wireless, I hope you can respond to this matter soon and make sure that, if my information was somehow mixed up with someone else's and was provided to the wrong source, you FIX it.

Verizon_Support

Thank you to the community members for assisting syk624! I would like to get to the bottom of this. In order for me to better assist, I would need to access your account. Please send me a follow request and send me a private message with your name and mobile number so that I can look into this letter and account status.

Thank you and I am looking forward to your reply!

Lena_VZW

Please follow us on twitter @VZWSupport

rcschnoor

When you are signed in under a generic username, "Verizon Wireless Customer Support", you need to be a bit more specific when you ask someone to "please send me a follow request..."

First of all, if someone were to hover the cursor over "Verizon Wireless Customer Support" and send a "follow" request, this request will NOT go to your username which I can only assume is @LenaA_VZW (see user bio HERE and to send follow request) since you don't even include an initial for your last name in the signature of your post. Instead it will sit in some unread "follow request queue" for the generic username "Verizon Wireless Customer Support". It would be much more helpful if you were to include a link to your user bio which has a link to send a "follow" request in the upper right hand corner of the page.

Additionally, I'm not sure you realize this, but you must also send a follow request which must also be accepted before any DM can be sent/received.

I find it amazing this lack of uncerstanding/communication about how DM's work has not been addressed!

Child Item