Consumer complaint received 2018-03-09
Company: Wakpamni Lake Community Corporation
State: UT
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: I do not know
Issue: False statements or representation
Sub-issue: Indicated you were committing crime by not paying debt

Complaint:
Date of incident : XX/XX/2018 My XXXX told me he had received multiple calls from XXXX ( XXXX ) XXXX and that they were looking to speak with me. I called the number and was hung up on the first attempt, I called back and a woman answered with a vague statement like " civil investigations '', I asked what company this was and she replied " Statewide '', I advised her that someone had contacted my Grandparents in order to reach me, she took my number and said she would look into it. Several minutes later the line disconnected again, I called back a third time and the man answered with a different greeting for the department I had reached, I again asked what company I was speaking to and he replied " XXXX '', this struck me as odd as the woman I was previously speaking with said it was a company called " Statewide ''. He too tried to look my phone number up and when we couldn't find it under my number he tried my Grandparent 's number, he asked me if I was XXXX XXXX, I advised yes and he transferred me to my caseworker. 

My caseworker, Investigator XXXX with the Finance and Fraud department, immediately started the call by telling me that he " Would NOT, I repeat NOT violate any FDCPA laws '' because he says that they monitor collection companies. He then went on to tell me that he was calling about an account that had an original amount of {$750.00} and that the account had been sold to seven different collection agencies, three of  which were sister companies which is illegal. He advised me that these people had said that they tried to send me mail to an incorrect address and that as a result this balance had accrued interest of over {$4000.00} and that it had resulted from a wire transfer to my bank account and that due to the fact that I had subsequently defaulted on the loan after several payments under statue this and code that I had committed wire transfer fraud. He told me it was a good thing I was contacting him because he was " just about to find in favor of the plaintiff. '' I told him that he was using a lot of jargon that I found confusing and terrifying because I am not a criminal, I asked him if I needed to retain a lawyer for this conversation and he immediately went on the offensive. He conference called the local court house, the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Utah and asked them how much it would be to have me served with court papers and how much it would be to file with them, he was advised by the woman at the courthouse that he would need to call the XXXX XXXX as they don't deal in small claims anymore. She provided him with the contact number and the exited the call. He never called the XXXX XXXX at that point, instead he lead on with " As you can see this can be very expensive, we can also add travel expense costs to have you served to the balance of the debt which could mean that amount would end up being between $ XXXX {$8500.00}. '' I advised him that I don't have that kind of money, I don't have any money as I haven't worked a full time position in over a year due to the fact that I'm a single Mom and that as a result I've been considering bankruptcy because my financial position is so strained. He told me that I shouldn't have advised him of that over the recorded call but he never advised me as to why. 

He immediately asked me if I wanted to go get my lawyer or if I wanted to work with them, if I could afford to go get a lawyer then obviously I could afford to pay this off. I advised that I didn't have money to do either and that if I did obtain a lawyer it would obviously have to be through one of my parents, he asked me if I wanted to handle this honestly because he's trying to help me, he has no guarantee of what the state will do if they pursue with filing a charge against me for wire transfer fraud. He advised me that talking to him is " a privilege '' not a right. He advised me that he would let me make XXXX payments of {$150.00} and that once I started making payments I would receive an email, I asked him if it would have information about the original loan seeing as he still hadn't told me anything about the loan other than that it was originally {$750.00}, had been sold to seven different agencies, three of whom were sister companies. He advised that after I made payments I would receive a pay off letter with that information on it. I was still terrified so of course I gave him my information. 

He provided me with a case number ( XXXX ) and told me that I would need to keep this on me for the next 24 hours in case I was stopped or went through a check through point so that I could give the police officers that case number and they would know what it meant so I wouldn't get arrested. 

After the call ended I looked up the company and found out that they've had cases filed against them in the past for abusive collection tactics. I contacted my State Attorney General 's office and explained the situation, they referred me to the FTC and told me it sounded like I was dealing with scammers. I contacted the FTC and the woman that I spoke with listened as I sobbed my way through recounting what had happened and then she asked me to calm down and think about this situation logically, she said that no debt collector is allowed to threaten any further legal action than seeking a judgement against you. 

I feel XXXX XXXX used tactics designed to frighten me, he misrepresented himself by saying things like " I was about to find in favor of the plaintiff '', when he is a debt collector, not a judge who would actually have the power to do so. I have never been so terrified in my life as I was when he accused me of committing wire transfer fraud and I feel like these debt collection tactics should never have to be used on anyone else.

Company response to consumer: Untimely response