Consumer complaint received 2018-04-16
Company: Harvard Collections, LLC
State: NY
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: I do not know
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed
Sub-issue: Debt is not yours

Complaint:
In violation of FCRA, on/about XX/XX/XXXX and in prior communications with XXXX, XXXX and XXXX  and in response to my direct complaint against them on XX/XX/XXXX, Harvard Collections LLC knowingly and willingly provided false and inaccurate information in response to my dispute for the fraudulent account they placed on my credit report ( s ) on about XX/XX/XXXX.

On XX/XX/XXXXXXXX  responded to my complaint against them with the CFPB for failing to remove the fraudulent account on my XXXX credit report. In their response, XXXX  wrote, " Thank you for submitting your complaint on XX/XX/XXXX, through the CFPB Complaint Portal. We have reviewed the information you have supplied through the CFPB portal and directly to XXXX. In your complaint, you indicated there were items appearing on your credit report inaccurately reporting. The Results of Our Reinvestigation : We have researched the collection account. Account # XXXX The results are : We verified that this item belongs to you. Additional information has been provided from the original source regarding this item. If you have additional questions about this item please contact : XXXX XXXX XXXX, I, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, Attn.XXXX, XXXX, IL XXXX  Phone : ( XXXX ) XXXX '' On XX/XX/XXXX I filed a complaint on the CFPBs website directly against Harvard Collections LLC in direct reply to XXXX 's response that " We have researched the collection account. Account # XXXX The results are : We verified that this item belongs to you. '' and provides the name of the person, XXXX, who, presumably, verified the information.

In theirXX/XX/XXXX reply to my complaint against them through the CFPB, Harvard Collections LLC states, " We received a dispute from the consumer through XXXX XX/XX/XXXX stating that this is fraud and a case of Identity theft, following which the fraud packet was mailed to the consumer on the mailing address and the account was placed on dispute status. We have not received any proofs of Identity theft from the consumer till date however, we are in receipt of multiple XXXX notification stating that this is a case of fraud. We request the consumer to send us a copy of police report or a copy of affidavit in order to investigate this matter further. '' By their own admittance in theirXX/XX/XXXX reply to my complaint filed through the CFPB Harvard Collections LLC acknowledges that they have not validated the debt as mine and they can't because it's fraud, and furthermore states they've requested I provide them with a copy of police report.

I have been dealing with identity theft since the XXXX XXXX breach, which I have a letter notifying me of the breach and my identity information being comprised. I'm not about to start jumping through hoops and hurdles for every frivolous fraudulent account that some collection agency is sold and places on my credit report.

The FCRA provides consumers with the protection to dispute accounts on their credit reports through XXXX, XXXX  and XXXX  ( the CFPB and the FTC ) and the onus is on the respective collection agency ( ies ) to validate debt ( s ) as legitimate.

Harvard Collections LLC clearly did not nor can they validate the debt as legitimate because it is fraud. Furthermore, Harvard Collections LLC knowingly and willingly provided false and inaccurate information to XXXX, XXXX and XXXX by notifying each of them as indicated in XXXX 's XX/XX/XXXX response that " We verified that this item belongs to you. '' ( presumably ) by XXXX of Harvard Collections LLC.

Harvard Collections must cease henceforth any attempt to collect this fraudulent account and delete it from their database to ensure it is not sold to another collection agency

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation