Consumer complaint received 2020-04-01
Company: Niagara Restitution Service Inc
State: TX
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Payday loan debt
Issue: Took or threatened to take negative or legal action
Sub-issue: Threatened to arrest you or take you to jail if you do not pay

Complaint:
I received a voicemail from Niagara Restitution Service at the end of XX/XX/XXXX. I was contacted by someone named XXXX. The voicemail stated that I was going to be prosecuted for writing bad checks.I called the number she had left and was told that I was going to be sent to court for writing bad checks. I explained that I never wrote a bad check and she stated that there was a loan open with XXXX XXXX XXXX and I had stopped paying on it. I explained that my father just had a XXXX on the XXXX of XXXX and had spent most of the month in the hospital. I explained that I had a lot going on over the past few months and did not want to have any legal issues. I was told by XXXX that it could resolved for less than what I owed and they needed my debit number and amount. Had I known this was illegal I would have never given my information. I explained that I get paid on the XXXX and XXXX. XXXX stated that they would email me the docusign. I gave her my email address to sign the document. After not receiving anything for several days, I contacted XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. I asked what kind of company this was because I never received anything. XXXX proceeded to tell me the document had already been sent and that I was lying. I gave her an alternative email to try and send it to and still received nothing. After going back and forth several times and getting frustrated I told her that I thought this was a scam, as to why I wasn't receiving anything. I finally received the documents and let her know to which she again told me it was very convenient that I had now gotten them. Upon looking over the agreement, I noticed that the pay dates were not what I had told her. I called back and told her it needed to be corrected to which she then threatened me several times saying I did not want to pay and could just go to court. She then stated that I did not have the money to pay and hung up. I called back and stated that she was threatening me because I was trying to get this taken care of even though I had given her all of the information. She hung up again refusing to work with me. I called back and asked to be transferred to someone else to which she refused. The corrected document was sent to me and I refused to sign after that interaction. I was never sent any written notice from this company and did not know that the practices they were using were illegal. I have not signed the docusign to date ( XX/XX/XXXX ) and continue receiving daily emails reminding me to sign. They have so far debited {$400.00} ( XX/XX/XXXX,XX/XX/XXXX,XX/XX/XXXX,XX/XX/XXXX ) from my checking account with no contract in place or having ever sending me any information to verify the debt. I only recently found out these practices were illegal after looking up debt collection laws. I will be requesting my bank stop any future payments from this company and will send a written request to the bank as well. I will also be contacting the company to request they stop debiting my account and to verify proof of the debt in writing. I will then follow up with them as well via a written letter. I have never felt so threatened and violated by a company before in an already hard time. They are absolutely terrible people and need to be shut down.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation