Consumer complaint received 2019-05-09
Company: WINN LAW GROUP, APC
State: CA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Credit card debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed
Sub-issue: Debt was result of identity theft

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX I purchased a new auto insurance policy through XXXX XXXX XXXX, and I gave the Insurance consultant goes by the name XXXX XXXX my XXXX  XXXX XXXX Checking Account information to set up an automatic payment plan. XXXX XXXX XXXX took {$190.00} from my account that day. I believe Mr. XXXX has something to do with my case because three days later on XX/XX/XXXX, {$1200.00} ( that was all the money I had in my bank account ) was withdrawn from my account by the Winn Law Group located in XXXX, California. I immediately investigated this suspicious transaction with my bank and they told me that a Levy was placed on my account by the Winn Law Firm who represents XXXX XXXX. I knew right away that this had to be fraudulent, because I never had a XXXX Credit Card. Upon reviewing the levy in person with a banker at a XXXX branch located in the city of XXXX, I learned that my name, social security number, and a random home address appeared to be in the City of XXXX XXXX ( I never lived at that address, and I don't know anyone who lived there ) were used to apply for the XXXX Credit Card and got approved for nearly {$14000.00} sometimes in XX/XX/XXXX, and this person whoever applied for the credit card spent {$13000.00} on an account ending in XXXX. 

When I initially called XXXX XXXX to ask them about this, no one could find a credit card account ending in XXXX. Then they asked for my social security number, and I gave it to them because I thought they already knew my SS # as showed on the levy. After I was placed on hold for awhile, the representative of XXXX XXXX came back and told me that she found the account ending in XXXX, and if I wanted to dispute the levy I had to contact the Winn Law Firm directly because they were hired to collect the money and they would have all the information pertaining to the case that XXXX XXXX  did not have. I asked her if XXXX XXXX had any record of payments made to the account and she said yes and she also told me she would send me a hard copy via regular mail. 

I made several attempts to contact the Winn Law Firm for about two weeks after I first learned about the levy via telephone but did not get a reply. I filed a police report and tried to work with XXXX to dispute the unauthorized transaction and have not made any progress. People from the Winn Law Firm wouldn't talk to me if the conversation was put on speaker phone or recorded. 

On the last week of XX/XX/XXXX, a female representative from the firm finally spoke to me about the case. She told me that the case had been placed in dispute status and I should receive " some paperwork '' from them within 2 or 3 days in the mail. Almost 2 weeks later and still no paperwork arrived in the mail, I decided to show up at their office to investigate and get the paperwork in person. At the Winn Law Firm I learned that my case was assigned to an attorney associate named XXXX. I asked XXXX if his law firm obtained my XXXX XXXX XXXX account information from XXXX XXXX XXXX to which he did not deny and only said this, and I quote " we have a research team and that's how we got it. '' I also asked him who would I talk to regarding the dispute, Winn Law Firm or XXXX XXXX, and he specifically told me not to contact XXXX XXXX about the case and to only speak to his law firm regarding the dispute because they were the one who would conduct the investigation and determine its outcome. I also told him that the only people I know personally who had access to my personal identity information at that time were my mother and ex-domestic partner, XXXX XXXX. After he gave me some paperwork to take home to complete and send back for investigation, I asked him when can I expect the investigation to end and be notified the result of the finding. He told me the investigation would take about 2 weeks to complete. Within a week later, I certified mailed all documents required by the law firm, including the police report, an Affidavit, and a personal handwritten answers to all the questions they asked. Two weeks after the Winn Law Firm received the documents from me and they did not contact me regarding the result as they promised. During this two weeks of waiting period, a female staff from XXXX XXXX investigation department called me and demanded that I must submit a utility bill that could prove I did not live at the address indicated on the XXXX XXXX application. She told me that this would be the deciding factor of her investigation. I told her that her demand of a utility bill from a place I lived more than 10 years ago was unreasonable because any normal person would have not kept a copy of their utility bill that long. I asked if she would accept another form of document that would prove I did not live at that address like a credit report or a DMV record, and she insisted that the only form of document she would accept as proof was the utility bill and that the utility department would have it available for me upon request. I called the XXXX XXXX utility department and they told me they did not have any record older than two years. From this point forward until I received a a second letter of the result from the Winn Law firm today, both XXXX XXXX and the Winn Law Firm changed their story completely around.but accused me of being " confused '' and misunderstood them. 

On my second trip to the law firm after more than two weeks from the day they received my documents but showed no ending in sight, XXXX wouldn't come out and talk to me in person. Instead, he sent another guy out to talk to me, whom when asked if he was a lawyer answered " no '' and " yes '' at the same time very quietly. He also informed me that the firm did not know when the investigation was going to end, and they did not do anything shady. Meanwhile I received several calls from a male staff who said he was from the same XXXX XXXX investigation team told me that they never said the utility bill was a requirement, let alone the deciding factor of their investigation. He accused me of being confused because they were the one who solely responsible for the investigation and its outcome, and the Winn Law Firm was only available to collect the money and not to do the investigation. Also, the utility document was never a requirement, only optional, let alone the deciding factor of their investigation. They also said that me showing up unannounced at the law firm office was unconventional and should not be repeated. 

Today XX/XX/XXXX, I received a second letter from the Winn Law Firm with the result of their investigation. According to the letter addressed to " Sir or Madam '', which by the way has a completely different letterhead compared to the letter documents I received from XXXX XXXX   about the payments made to the account ending in XXXX weeks ago, XXXX XXXX concluded that the balance of the account ending in XXXX to be valid, and the only evidence provided to support their claim is a copy of two checks made as payments to the account, one from my sister and the other from XXXX XXXX. A quick look at the writing on the checks I can tell you with 100 % certainty that the writing on the check does not belong to XXXX XXXX, whom I had a 14 years relationship with. When I showed my sister the copy of the check, she said someone tried to make it looks like her handwriting but it is obviously not her handwriting. She confirmed that she did not write that check. 

I noticed there are two different versions in form of the court order or levy. The original one I got from XXXX XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX looks very different from the one I received in the mail package today XX/XX/XXXX. 

Also the dates and names of the creditor XXXX appears on the documents they provided are all over the place even though they are presumably about one account. For example, the date appears on the XXXX  XXXX XXXX check is dated " XX/XX/XXXX '' and " XXXX '' is written on the space designated for Pay to the Order of, and the date appears on the XXXX XXXX XXXX check is dated " XX/XX/XXXX '' and " XXXX Platinum Card '' is written on the space designated for Pay to the Order of, meanwhile the actual name of the credit card in question appears on the statements is XXXX XXXX XXXX and the dates are from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX. The exact date the account was opened was not provided or indicated anywhere. If you would like to receive a copy of the two different versions of the levy and the billing statements, please contact me directly via phone call or email at anytime. I would be more than happy to send them to you for review. 

I have suffered a huge financial loss as a result of this fraudulent incident, including lass of work and very bad credit scores that have prevented me from getting loans for my business. Please help me.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation