Consumer complaint received 2023-09-05
Company: McCarthy, Burgess & Wolff, Inc.
State: NH
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Other debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed
Sub-issue: Debt is not yours

Complaint:
In brief, a contractor in my locale -- operating as XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ( hereafter " XXXX '' ) -- has been fraudulently using my name and home address as the contact information for its business. In connection with this, I have received a debt-collection letter, claiming to be from McCarthy, Burgess, and Wolff ( www.mbandw.com ), attempting to bill XXXX for {$8700.00}. The letter is dated XX/XX/, and arrived at my home address on XX/XX/. However, I have never had any connection with XXXX, aside from its wrongful hijacking of my name and home address, so even if the debt-collection letter is genuine -- something of which I am not certain -- the debt in fact has nothing to do with me. I am not a contractor and have never represented myself as one, and I was completely unaware of XXXX 's existence until very recently. 

XXXX 's fraudulent use of my name and home address began no later than XX/XX/2023 -- when I first became aware of it -- and has likely been going on for longer. Utterly without my knowledge, much less my permission, XXXX linked itself with my name and home address online, particularly on XXXX, a website claiming to be associated with the XXXX network. ( I am uncertain that XXXX  has any real connection with XXXX, with whom I've been in contact twice, including today. This afternoon, the XXXX employee I spoke with indicated that XXXX  is faking the connection with XXXX. ) I remained altogether ignorant of how my name and address were being used by XXXX until this XXXX, when one of XXXX 's dissatisfied customers came to my house in person, because my address was the only point of contact the cheated customer had, other than a phone number ( not mine ) that XXXX was no longer answering. The customer contacted the XXXX, NH, police, along with the XXXX, NH, police. In XXXX, I left a message with the XXXX, NH, police in support of the customer 's complaint about XXXX. I also contacted XXXX by phone and was assured by them that all traces of XXXX had been erased from their website. 

And so things remained until today ( XX/XX/2023 ), when I received the debt-collection letter I mentioned at the beginning of this explanation. Again, MB & W is seeking to collect {$8700.00} from XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX on behalf of " XXXX  aka XXXX '' ( note that the misspelling of XXXX XXXX as " XXXX '' is repeated throughout the document ). Because, as described above, XXXX has been dishonestly using my name and home address as its supposed site of business, the letter was sent to me. 

At present, it makes no sense to me that " XXXX '' ( which doesn't technically exist, unless the typo is an honest mistake ) would seek to collect a debt of that size from XXXX. Certainly no communication from anyone claiming to be " XXXX '' has ever been mailed to my home address, either to inform me that XXXX, operating out of my home address, owes " XXXX '' money, or to request that XXXX stop harming XXXX 's reputation by fraudulently claiming to be part of XXXX XXXX 

Therefore, at a minimum, the debt has nothing to do with me, since I have never had any connection with XXXX. I think the probability is high that " XXXX '' is a bogus entity presenting the debt-collection agency with a false claim, and to be honest, I am not completely certain that the letter I've received from MB & W is itself genuine. I am therefore reluctant to contact MB & W by phone or e-mail, for the simple reason that I don't want the letter writers to have any more information about me in the event they are scammers. Even if the letter is from MB & W, I understand that they have numerous complaints lodged against them, including with the CFPB, for dishonest practice. 

Upon request, I can provide screenshots of the fake XXXX advertisement with my name and home address included. I can also provide a photo of the MB & W letter I received today. I can also provide the names of the defrauded XXXX customers who first made me aware of how my name was being used. ( As well as their case numbers with the police, the name of the police officer they and I contacted, etc. )

Company public response: Company believes complaint caused principally by actions of third party outside the control or direction of the company
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation