Consumer complaint received 2018-12-11
Company: Populus Financial Group, Inc. (F/K/A Ace Cash Express)
State: WA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Payday loan debt
Issue: False statements or representation
Sub-issue: Indicated you were committing crime by not paying debt

Complaint:
I took out a small unsecured payday loan from ACE Cash Express in XXXX for {$300.00} ( maximum allowed under XXXX  ). I was unable to repay the debt in full and called prior to the due date to setup a payment arrangement guaranteed to me under Washington State law as ACE still had locations in Washington at that time. I was refused a payment arrangement by the store clerk who told me I would never be able to loan there again. 

Some months passed with no communication from ACE or anyone else until the end of XXXX from a company called XXXX. I asked XXXX for the paperwork to be sent to me to validate the debt, the information was never sent. Repeated calls were received after asking that they stop and only communicate to me via mail, which they refused to do. From XXXX of XXXX until the XXXX of this year I received multiple calls a day until I blocked all calls from XXXX who left me voicemails threatening legal action and that I could be found guilty of a legal case and left a case number. In one of those voicemails the message claimed that they could help me with my debt to the IRS, this was in fact XXXX as the case number was the EXACT same as left by XXXX previously. The voicemails can be recovered by my service provider upon legal request only at this point as voicemails did not transfer over to my new phone. 

Today I received a call from a private number stating that legal action would be taken against me and that I should be aware of this as documents were already sent to me I told the lady that I was completely unaware of this and she provided me a number to XXXX  XXXX and a case number and wished me good luck. The woman never identified who she was calling for nor did she establish any type of validity of any type other than asking my name. I was later informed that she may be working for a location service. 

I called XXXX who informed me that they were filing legal action against me for defrauding a loan agency with XXXX XXXX ( where I live not where the debt was incurred ) and for knowingly trying to deceive a lender on a secured loan. I informed her that a payday loan is an unsecured debt and she told me I was wrong and they were going to file a civil case against me. I informed her that the address they had was wrong and I was told it was my duty to tell ACE where I had moved. I replied that I had not moved in 4 years and that the address where I could be contacted was on the original loan application as well as the check used. She stated they were not obligated to send me any information regarding this debt as I was already contacted by ACE and XXXX verifying the validity, which I never was. 

I then called ACE who told me they no longer had the file and it was transferred to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX so I called them and they stated the file was with them through XXXX  but they had sold it to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. The lady at XXXX XXXX XXXX stated that they would send me a copy of the application from XXXX which was a full 1-2 years after I applied for the loan, I never filed for a loan in XXXX through ACE. 

Multiple calls to XXXX XXXX XXXX go unanswered to a voicemail line.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation