Consumer complaint received 2015-07-20
Company: Atlanticus Services Corporation
State: CA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Credit card
Issue: Taking/threatening an illegal action
Sub-issue: Threatened to sue on too old debt

Complaint:
I received a call XX/XX/XXXX, I believe, on behalf of a court summons for my mother. The woman on the other side of the line would n't tell me what the summons regarded, and only stated it was personal business for my mother. I ended up writing down the phone number, and letting her know that she was n't expected a court date, that she had heard nothing of it. She seemed obviously surprised. With that, I took this seriously, and told my mother to call as soon as possible. 

Here 's that number : XXXXShe did end up calling a few days later between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX while I was at work. Now, keep in mind, my mom 's not a courageous person, and is easily intimidated. I suspect that the thought of a surprise court summons caught her off guard, and activated her flight response in dealing with this asap. Here 's where I believe where she 'd dug herself a hole. She owes money to Aspire Visa, a company I researched, and they apparently have their own issues with debt collection. Apparently, this debt 's been around since XX/XX/2001, according to my mom. His name was XXXX XXXX. They verified the last XXXX digits of her ss, and started at a high number for payment, around XXXX XXXX for her to pay off. They got lower in negotiation, we do n't have much in the form of income, so another debt/bill to pay only adds to the struggle. They took it down to around XXXX, and agreed on bi-weekly payments. She agreed, and gave them her debit card number. I was floored when I found out she did this. They sent her a contract to sign, which she did. Aspire Visa is the original creditor, though there 's no trace of it anymore, and XXXX XXXX XXXX ( a company that does n't even collect debt, I 'll get to that later ), was the debt collector. 

I contacted an attorney for a free initial consolation, l brought him up to speed on the details above, and the main thing that stuck out to him was the 'court case ', the woman also said she 'd put it on 'courtesy hold ' for my mother. This tipped him off, he recommended we stop making payments, so we did, we canceled the debit card my mother was using to make the payments, and here we are. They can not threaten a court case according to the FDCPA. 

Just today, XX/XX/XXXX, around XXXX, the same man my mother spoke to called. I did n't pick up, but I did listen to his message. He left a case number for the debt, stated my mother could still resolve this willingly and to call him back, but it was a 'timed matter '. He did n't give a deadline. The number was also different, XXXX. I researched this number, too, and found it to be linked to XXXX XXXX XXXX, apparently another debt collection company XXXX XXXX works with. I researched both companies, and found that they are not debt collection companies, not the official ones I could find registered in theXXXX. This is all up-to-date, and I do expect more calls from this person regarding my mother.

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