Consumer complaint received 2024-06-07
Product: Debt collection — Payday loan debt
Issue: Took or threatened to take negative or legal action — Threatened to sue you for very old debt
Company: DISCOVER BANK (MD)

I received a call and before I could ask who's calling they ask to confirm my information ( which is always a lil suspicious to me ) so I told them all I can confirm is my name for purposes of avoiding scams. They first told me they are a mediation agency calledXXXX XXXX XXXX asking for a response regarding a previous loan taken out. I told them I don't recall taking out a loan recently and they told me this was back in XXXX  and the debt has actually been XXXX  to Dept. of Banking and Finance due to an XXXX violation. I can't find much info on what that is but basically an attempt to fraud the company by intentionally not paying back the loan. I said I can't confirm this loan is mine because I don't recall getting or requesting a loan within the last 10 years. They had my old employer info, my previous address and last 4 of my social. Whether this company is Legit or not is one issue, but they also threatened that if this doesn't get resolved that it will have to get reported to XXXX as fraud then I'd had to pay back via garnishment. 

They used a lot of legal jargon that made no sense to me like I'm " giving up my right of voluntary restitution '' as if they are a victim and I committed a crime. They called my mother and left her a voicemail which is concerning because they apparently have her current address. I asked for a notice from the debt collector because I can't share any information until I know the details of this debt. The Manager of this agency told me it's actually not in collections anymore this has been changed to a " federal case '' which is why they're calling me for a response on how I'd like to proceed. I asked for proof of loan because I don't know what they are talking about for me to provide an answer. She emailed me a generic correspondence that just had what they claimed to be the original debt amount ( {$1800.00} but was told over the phone that it has increased to {$3800.00} ) and demanded a response within the same day. They have a lot of personal information for a company that might not be legitimate and if I did take out a loan it's way past the amount of year agency have to collect. They said apparently my case doesn't fall under that rule because of the claim of trying to fraud loan company.

They need to provide me with proof of the original loan application, An itemization of the current amount of the debt that reflects interest, fees, payments, and credits up till this point in time.

Additionally, they need to provide details on why the debt collector believes I'm responsible for the debt, how old the debt is, and whether the agency is licensed to collect it or even mediate collecting debt.

The document I have is an email correspondence from the Manager that she sent when I asked for verification of the debt. I was expecting an official document with some sort of Letter Head and Title stating this is a Debt Validation notice but that's what she sent and then hung up on me as I'm challenging the lack of information in the email.