Consumer complaint received 2022-02-03
Company: CAINE & WEINER COMPANY, INC.
State: OH
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: I do not know
Issue: False statements or representation
Sub-issue: Attempted to collect wrong amount

Complaint:
I own an XXXX. The matter in dispute pertains to the XXXX. 

I have an account with XXXX to whom I currently pay {$37.00} / month automatically for the rental of two nitrogen gas cylinders, and from whom I purchase the contents of full containers as needed ( which as it happens has only been once so far in the 6 months or so of my association with XXXX ). 

Yesterday ( XX/XX/XXXX ), I received an email from [ someone claiming to be ] XXXX XXXX, Collections Specialist, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, CA XXXX ( XXXX ), XXXX. This email stated that I owe XXXX a debt of {$11000.00}. 

Of course I thought it was a scam at first. Which is why I didn't interact with the one or more attachments that came with our putative Ms XXXXXXXX XXXX email. But, wow!, if it's an out-and-out scam, it's a pretty slick one. The email didn't address me ( or my company ) specifically, which is a red flag, but as far as I can ascertain quickly, the named employee seems to have a believable XXXX page -- not with the named company as their current employer, but with " XXXX XXXX '' given as their occupation, while their name is associated with the named company on a XXXXinfo page ; the named company seems to have a webpage ; the email seems to be from caine-weiner.com ; names and domains all have consistent, seemingly correct spelling ; etc, etc, etc. 

I also got the impression that she might have been trying to contact a business called " XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX '' since that combination of words appeared in that order in the subject line. That is speculation on my part, and I haven't confirmed whether there is a business with such a name, or whether they have an account with XXXX ; and it's not my job to. But I mention it because my speculation seems reasonable, and the first word in my XXXX 's name is " XXXX ''... so maybe it's a matter of mistaken identity. I.e., maybe XXXX has trouble handing over the correct contact info or maybe our putative Ms XXXX has trouble navigating contact info to ultimately deliver appropriate notice to the appropriate place. 

Which is why yesterday I emailed my XXXX contact to ask whether this could be an honest mistake -- e.g., like if I had been mistaken for somebody with a similar name who actually does owe XXXX money as speculated above -- or if I should suspect fraud. She stated -- as I was already aware from the fact that I receive receipts from the monthly automatic settlement of my account with XXXX -- that my account is in good-standing with a {$0.00} balance. I also hadn't received any prior advice that my account was in arrears, at least one cycle of which would've been usual and customary before I was referred to a collections agency. She also stated that she figures it's fraud. After all, why would I have ever been referred out of XXXX in the first place under the circumstances? Let alone have an email from the collections agency be the first time I'd heard about it? Her interpretation of the facts seemed pretty sound. 

And yet here I was, as of lunchtime ( EST ) today, still not sure if the email was really fraud or some honest mistake, second-guessing myself about whether I should've opened the attachment ( s ) in our putative Ms XXXX 's email for more info that might save us all lots of aggravation, and I was just getting ready to reach out to our putative Ms XXXX about the situation. 

But just before I had the chance to get into it, I received an email from [ someone claiming to be ] XXXX XXXX, who didn't provide any personally identifying information beyond a phone number ( XXXX ), and otherwise gave the impression that his place of work is Caine & Weiner 's office at XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, KY XXXX, which I get the impression from a quick glance at XXXX is the headquarters of the company. That's if " Caine & Weine '' is bona fide... to be honest, the content of XXXX reviews of the place, frankly, make it pretty hard to discern if they're just unpopular but bona fide collection agency XXXX, or if they aren't even that, e.g., as if they're just an elaborate XXXX company for scams such as the one that may be in the process of being perpetrated upon me. But I digress : the point is that our putative Mr XXXX indicated the XXXX XXXX XXXX address as the site of his desk. 

And his email was mostly the same as before : looked legit to a first approximation ; came with attachments I didn't and won't open ; etc, etc, etc. 

Well, as a response to his email, I no longer care if they just made an honest mistake. I don't think I can afford to, regardless of whether they're scammers or an actual collections operation. To wit : 1. If they're legitimate and coming on this strong, I think prudence dictates that I get some type of protestation on the record asap -- i.e., even before I can get my lawyer to draft a response. These people are intimating that I'm going to be sorry if I don't wire them $ XXXX XXXX and using language strong enough that I'm worried -- if they actually are legit -- they could pursue a judgment or other order with the force of law while I'm still figuring out a course of action and / or waiting for my lawyer to draft a letter, and then surreal as it seems, perhaps these imbeciles could actually end up tying me to somebody else 's debt because they can't contact the right account holder about an account in arrears. That's not to say they shouldn't look forward to correspondence from my lawyer... it's just to say I don't think I can wait until I'm 100 % clear on who they are until I put forth some sort of res

ponse, such as this complaint. 2. Of course, I was only ever ca. 50 % sure they weren't scammers to begin with ; and that certainty just goes down the more they try to spook me with what they think passes for pressure tactics. So if they're scammers, they still have to be dealt with. 

Here 's the deal : either they're scammers, or they're not quite bright enough to use a contact list to correct effect. And if it's the latter, they use way, way, way too-strong language threatening action to this business over their mistake, which I won't abide. 

And somebody is going to need to do something about them either way. 

Accordingly, I'm putting in some kind of complaint with the FTC, the CFPB, the OH AG 's office ( I'm a resident of Ohio ), the KY AG 's office ( Caine & Weiner appears to be incorporated there, and one of the emailers represents a KY office as the place to reach him right? ), and the CA AG 's office ( because one of the emailers represents that her office is in CA ; and both emailers ask to be contacted by way of CA phone numbers ). 

Let me figure out how, and I'll complaint to XXXX and the SEC, too... but we'll start with these five.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation