Consumer complaint received 2019-08-26
Company: Perfection Collection
State: MD
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Other debt
Issue: Took or threatened to take negative or legal action
Sub-issue: Threatened to sue you for very old debt

Complaint:
On or about XX/XX/XXXX, I received a phone call from an " Unknown number. '' The caller identified herself as a process server and asked whether I would be home during a certain window so that she could serve me with court papers on a lawsuit that had been filed against me. She stated that if she could not serve me during this window I may miss the court date and have a judgment entered against me. I am an attorney, and immediately recognized what she was saying was not correct. 

I asked what address she was talking about, and she provided an address in XXXX   XXXX  that I had not lived at for over 3 years. I now live in XXXX. I asked what the case number was, and she would only give me a phone number to call and a reference number, which I recognized was not a court case number in XXXX XXXX. I then asked what court the case was filed in and she responded, " XXXX County. '' I looked up my name on the XXXX County XXXX XXXX public judicial index and no case had been filed against me. 

I called the number she provided and gave them the reference number. The company did not immediately identify themselves, and instead began to attempting to collect an old debt that, to my knowledge, had been cleared and discharged by both the original company and another collections agency it had been sold to. I asked the person to back up and identify the Company she worked for. She told me the company 's name was " XXXX XXXX XXXX. '' She then went on to tell me that a lawsuit, or a third party lawsuit, for breach of contract had been filed against me related to a debt from XXXX from a security company, XXXX, to collect {$4200.00}. She mentioned that a collections company had written off the debt as noncollectable and now their company, or their client, was trying to collect the debt. I could either pay right now or go to court. 

I stopped her and told her that I had cleared that up in XXXX with both XXXX and Perfections Collection. The debt had been sent to collections in my name in error, and I did not owe any money pursuant to the contract. Perfections Collections provided me a letter stating the same. ( The amount of the debt Integrity quoted me was about {$800.00} more than the amount of the debt in XX/XX/XXXX. ) I relayed this information to the woman, who then transferrred me to her supervisor. Her supervisor 's name was XXXX. 

I asked XXXX about the lawsuit that had been filed against me. He backtracked and stated that the Company he worked for was actually a " private mediation company '' and " his client '' was assessing whether or not to pursue a lawsuit against me ; it had not already filed a lawsuit. I again told him about how I had already cleared the debt up with XXXX/Perfection Collection and had the letter acknowledging the debt had been written off because I had no obligation to pay it. He appeared to have the XXXX contract in front of him, and he agreed that my name was not on the contract and only the name of my former landlord and someone else were on the contract. He then asked that I send email him the letter from Perfection Collections and gave me an email and a phone number. He then told me that he would " recommend to his client '' not to pursue a lawsuit against me. I hung up and attempted to email the address he gave me, but the email bounced back. The phone number he provided also did not work. I have no idea if this company is still out there attempting to collect this debt. 

I read elsewhere online and on the XXXX  website that this company has used similar fraudulent techniques on people across the country. I believe this practice violates the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act ( FDCPA ) and other federal laws.

Company public response: Company believes complaint caused principally by actions of third party outside the control or direction of the company
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation