Consumer complaint received 2019-09-19
Company: PORTFOLIO RECOVERY ASSOCIATES INC
State: VA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Credit card debt
Issue: Communication tactics
Sub-issue: Used obscene, profane, or other abusive language

Complaint:
In early XX/XX/2013 Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC. contacted me several times, harassing me up to 12 times a day from different spoofed numbers of real people. On one occasion, a female representative advised me that they had filed a suit against me and the only way to stop them from suing me or coming to my job to serve me with a summons was to make a payment with her over the phone. I refused to provide her with my social security number fearing it was a scam but I asked her questions about the debt and to my surprise she was so angry with me that she gave the name of a creditor that I had not done business with in over 10 years. When I explained to her that Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC. was breaking the law by filing a suit on that debt and that she disclosed the information regarding a debt without verifying who I was, the young woman simply cursed at me and hung up on me. Immediately after that interaction I wrote to them at their Virginia address and provided very clear instructions to cease and desist contacting me then, and never to contact me in the future regarding any debts purchased by their company. I outlined each of their unlawful business practices and requested that they blacklist my SSN and Name together to prevent any contact from their company on any debt ever, past present or future. About 20-25 days later, all of the mail stopped coming from them, all of the phone calls stopped, and I never received any acknowledgment of my request. Portfolio Recovery simply stopped the harassment. 

Today, I live in constant fear and anxiety from their current onslaught of harassment EVERY SINGLE DAY. They are reporting multiple accounts on my credit reports ( XXXX, XXXX, XXXX ) and I get on average, 6 to 8 BACK TO BACK phone calls from Portfolio. Sometimes they call me using their company phone number but the majority of phone calls they spoof from different area codes/cities/states all over America and I have to trace back to Portfolio Recovery. Their company calls me using every different kind of auto dialer and spoofed phone number they can generate ( using the phone numbers of real people, companies, government agencies, etc ), I have called the phone numbers back and there are real people whose cell phones and business phone numbers are being spoofed by Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC. in order to mask the true business calling. Because they are calling me on my work cell phone, I dont always have the option to not answer the phone. Their representatives are horrifically rude, caustic and have reduced me to panic attacks at work. When I try to explain that I dont want to be contacted and tell them that Ive already written them several times and to stop contacting me ; the representatives tell me that they have no record of any one at their company speaking to me and that they dont have any information and cant help me unless I tell them my social security number. It is very clear that they are falsifying contact records because of the way that they violate Fair Debt Collection Practices Act ( FDCPA ). When they repeatedly call me, they get extremely agitated and demand my social security number ( which I have never provided on an inquiry call ). They have called my work provided mobile phone ( I dont have a personal phone ), day and night and when they dont get anywhere with me they hang up in my face or dial me back to back and leave long voicemails with them eating on the phone. Ive been cursed at, hung up on and then they dial me back to back to back as if it is a sport for them. I have SEVERAL VOICEMAILS from Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC. that their phone collection agents leave just to harass me. Most all of the voicemails range 30 to 45 seconds in length and consist of them breathing on the phone, eating on the phone, while I hear very clearly the other people in the background introducing themselves and saying the Portfolio Recovery collection company name to the other people that they are harassing for the day. I live in constant fear of this company and how they aggressively encourage, train and develop their collection agents to yell at and intimidate me. They have made it impossible to for me to live a normal life out of the constant fear and verbal assaults from their call centers. When I returned their monthly attack of postal mail from my home in Virginia with attachments advising them to cease and desist contact on any accounts past, present or any debts that they purchase in the future ; they amped up their phone campaign and then started to contact my family by postal mail. They have begun to send harassing letters to my father ( by the same name but lives over 2000 miles away ), and my parents have returned mail to Portfolio Recovery Associates LLC every single month but continue to get harassing letters even after explaining that Portfolio is going after the wrong person. I wrote Portfolio again about two months ago and I made it very clear in my complaint that they were disclosing my debts to other people and that I was requesting for them cease all communication on any accounts held currently and prohibit future contact on any future accounts. I also explained in that letter that I was filing for bankruptcy and when I have everything put together, that I would have whatever attorney I choose to work with, send them a copy of the filing by mail. Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC has made a conscious decision to ignore my REPEATED requests for no contact and violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act ( FDCPA ) by continuing to harass me and disclose the debt to 3rd parties after they have received notices from me on several occasions by mail and by phone. Im requesting escalation of my complaint to the FTC. I am confident that a review by the FTC will show that Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC has been dishonest and continues to break the law. After consulting with a legal advocate attorney who is handling other complaints against Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC, I intend to seek all options including any compensation available to me in every instance of violation based on the evidence ( extensive phone records, voicemails, and postal mailings ) I have accrued that documents in full detail their illegal use of telecommunications, continued aggressive harassment, their collection agents verbal abuse and coercion against me, disclosure of the debts to 3rd parties, forceful intimidation, falsification of communication records and failure to abide by repeated cease and desist requests for no contact on any debts owned past, present, or purchased in the future by them.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief