Consumer complaint received 2019-05-20
Company: ENCORE CAPITAL GROUP INC.
State: CO
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Credit card debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed
Sub-issue: Debt was result of identity theft

Complaint:
I had been receiving a call from a collector for a XXXX XXXX 's account that is passed due for {$1200.00}. I never received anything so I told them to mail me something because I thought it was a fishing scam. I had my son come over to pull my report and we found that a account had been opened for XXXX XXXX. I reached out to XXXX XXXX  to whom we explained the situation and they said they would get us forms out and then investigate the account we filled out the forms and sent them back to them. They contact me last week and said they found the account fraudulent and were going to buy the account back and clear my name. 

The account was in collections with Midland Credit Management. This is who my complaint is with. I spoke with XXXX XXXX and I thought it was the bank until he said he wasn't with the bank. I told him that the account was in fraudulent and I was not receiving the letter from them because they were sending the notifications for collections to the address of the person who opened that account. I told XXXX that I spoke with XXXX XXXX and he told me it didn't matter because they own the account and because it was my name and social I would have to pay. I did a three way call with my son and we spoke with XXXX who acted at first like he received all the info I sent to XXXX and said we would need to pay. My son told him does he have records of the info we sent to XXXX and he then backed down. My son told him he was going to file a complaint with the FTC And he immediately sent us to a Manager named XXXX XXXX. I dont believe this is a manager there because we have called back and asked a few times for this name and they always say she is not available. In this conversation with XXXX she told me we could dispute it with them but that most of there disputes are denied because they have the name and social of the person on the account. Even though the address is somewhere i never lived. She told us that she would handle it and for us to call the bank again and if needed do a three way call. So we called XXXX XXXX and they said that the account was bought back as of XX/XX/XXXX and letter was send to me as of XX/XX/XXXX showing it was fraudulent. I called Midland Credit Management again with my son and they said they would not call XXXX to check to status of the account and they they never heard of a bank buying back the account. The rep we spoke to today said that he has only seen that once. I asked him to call the bank and he said he wouldn't. He said he didn't understand how XXXX could do the investigation if Midland had the account. I told them we would be putting a complain through their website and writing one here. When I went to the Midland website I did the complaint and hit submit to get the message that there site is down and to call them to make payment arrangements. You can get to the site and all the pages but when you try to launch a complain it is down. What a scam. I am now writing this letter with the help of my son as i am XXXX years old. If it were not for my son I would of been taken advantage of by Midland. They tried to strong arm me into payments and never listened to my story. How many other seniors are being treated like this and paying not knowing what my son knew to protect me?

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation