Consumer complaint received 2019-08-08
Company: Equitable Acceptance Corp
State: TN
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Federal student loan debt
Issue: False statements or representation
Sub-issue: Impersonated attorney, law enforcement, or government official

Complaint:
Hi, I am writing this letter/notice of complaint because I feel that there are companies and agencies that are falsely impersonating U.S. Government agencies and personnel and as a result are and have fraudulently taken advantage of U.S. citizens such as myself. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, I was on the world wide web just browsing when I saw a Student Loan Relief Program ad and it was mentioning having a program that could assist people with consolidating and possibly eliminating Student Loan debt. The ad had some sort of XXXX number to call to inquire and see if you could qualify. Being I was suffering tremendously XXXX from coping with medical and student loan debt along with other problems, I was extremely curious to learn and discover if I could get any relief with my student loan debt so I called the number the ad listed and spoke to a gentleman whom said his name was XXXX XXXX. Over the course of about 30 mins, XXXX XXXX had asked me all sorts of questions such as my date of birth, social security number, income information, company and field information, household size and more. 
XXXX told me that based off my income and occupation of working for an agency that services the general public, I met the qualifications for the Student Loan Relief Program. He told me that to sign up for and to take advantage of the program, he would have to run a credit check on me to see if the program would finance me for what they called a service fee for the program but said that all I would have to pay would be {$39.00} a month for 2 years and gave the notion and promise that my student loans would be eliminated. XXXX then said that he would need to send me some documents via email for me to sign along with me sending copies of my paystubs for the past 30 days and I did so. 
When the email came to my email inbox, I noticed that it was from a two other and separate entities ( companies ) but all documents pointed one another back to the Student Loan Relief Department which to my ignorance and understanding was all the Federal Government. These two companies were the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, and Equitable Acceptance Corporation. Per Equitable Acceptance, they were the company to run my credit for a request authorization and added and opened a line of credit in my name and account for the {$1300.00} that they stated they paid to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX to finance me for the program for services. Please note and be advised that to this very day, I have never been able to speak to anyone at XXXX XXXX XXXX to inquire about my case and account. Equitable Acceptance Corporation, however, are the company and agency whom are to this present day of XX/XX/XXXX, are auto debiting {$39.00} from my checking account. 
Over the course of 2 years, I have called Equitable Acceptance to inquire about the validity and justification of their program and all I get is a bounce around and shift of responsibility back to XXXX XXXX XXXX and the Student Loan Relied Department. Then about a year ago or maybe more, I began to receive emails from a company called XXXX XXXX whom Equitable Acceptance has added to yet another 3rd party ordeal. Representatives from Equitable Acceptance say that they hired XXXX XXXX to come in and handle the document preps for customers whom when recertifications are due. Once introduced to XXXX XXXX about a year ago, that is when I started getting a gut feeling that something was not right and began to feel that my identity, banking information and more was compromised and that I being taken advantage of so I immediately called into the Federal Student Loan contact line to inquire about my loan status. I was then brought to the awareness that what Equitable Acceptance and XXXX XXXX were doing was simply and solely placing my student loan accounts and payments on a deferment plan. My student loan debt amounts have not decreased at all and are very much still present. 
Just yesterday XX/XX/XXXX I called Equitable Acceptance Corporation to inquire about the length of time I had left before they would seize from auto-debiting my bank account and was told I still had over 18 months left to pay the {$39.00}. I then became utterly and extremely perplexed about what exactly it was that this company was actually doing for me versus to me so I asked for justification and proof and was told I would be mailed the documents showing and proving that Equitable Acceptance did indeed pay XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX a total of {$1300.00} however I have learned that in situations like this, there is and will never be an actual file that would be provided to me to prove that Equitable Acceptance paid that amount of money on my behalf and are rightly justified in them debiting funds from me. All the while, I would be paying them nearly 5 years and would still have the student loan debt that I began with only the amounts will increase due to the forbearance and interests. 
Since having all these gut feelings and proof that someone is taking advantage of me by way of government fraud, I have searched the web and the Better Business Bureau to look up information and complaints against the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and Equitable Acceptance Corporation and to my surprise many others have the same story as I do and feel compromised and scammed.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation