Consumer complaint received 2022-03-20
Product: Debt collection — I do not know
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed — Debt was result of identity theft
Company: National Credit Systems,Inc. (FL)

Between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX I had received 2 letters from two different debt collecting agencies regarding the same collection of {$840.00} for damages made to a rental property after " moving out ''. I had immediately noticed that although I had lived in that community complex the unit in question was not the one i had rented and that in fact I wasn't even living in the same state where this property is located when a leasing contract was produced. I relocated to XXXX, XXXX  in XX/XX/XXXX after accepting a full time job offer and the lease of the unit in question had been done in XX/XX/XXXX ; almost XXXX months after I had left XXXX, XXXX to work. Although I had never even seen the alleged unit I had recognized the number because it was the one that my sister moved in to in order to downsize and be able to stay in the same community with her son. Since I had moved out she didn't had the need for XXXX bedrooms anymore. The building management had added me to that new lease mistakenly and without my knowledge or authorization. The leasing offices knew about my relocation and I even reminded them of this after receiving a call regarding a work ordered for that apartment. The person I'd talked to apologized for the situation and reassured me that she was going to take care of things since my sister had moved to the unit had informed me that my sister had officially downsized and that they would take care of the misunderstanding. She said that was going to be very easy fixing this because although my sister had moved to the new unit 3-4 months already a lease for that unit hadn't even been created yet. Little did I know that a new lease would be done and that not only my name would be added but my signature was forged too. I found out about this on XX/XX/XXXX after one of the collecting agencies sent me copy of the documents they had as " proof '' that I was responsible for the amount mentioned earlier. I called them right away to inform them that I had been a victim of identity theft. I also informed them that I was actually waiting for a police officer to arrive to do an official report. Because I use a motorized wheelchair getting a last minute special transportation is close to impossible but to my surprise the officer I'd talked requested for an officer to come to me instead to take that report. In addition to the police report, I also completed online an FTC Identity Theft Report and sent out copies of these 2 reports and of all supporting documentation to the two collecting agencies as well as to the leasing company of the property in question. In the package sent out to both collecting agencies I included a letter I wrote to each of them summarizing the events, confirming that I had been a victim of identity theft and the debt was not mine. I'd mentioned what was included in the package and asked them not only to notify the property but to also please stop the collection proceeding and communication with me in accordance with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act except as the Fair Credit Reporting Act allowed. Last but not least I'd asked them to send me a letter with the steps they planned to take to : a ) inform the property / community complex that the debt was the result of fraud, b ) stop collection proceedings against me and, c ) correct the information that they had reported to the three credit reporting companies. Although this letter I requested from each of them was never received I'd stopped receiving their calls and I slowly worked with each credit company to have that collection removed from my credit history. To my surprise though, a couple of days ago ( almost 4 years after this ordeal ) I received a letter from one of these debt collecting agencies warning me again about the same debt and advising me to call them as soon as possible in order to arrive to a financial settlement before they proceeded with notifying the credit companies. I was shocked and called them together with a representative from a security program I had enrolled in via my employer on XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX. We talked to one of the supervisors and explained everything. He'd let us know that the report against me had been sent to the credit companies on XX/XX/XXXX since according to the I had never submitted supporting documentation about my claim. I told him everything that had been sent to them back in XXXX and provided the day that they had received as I'd kept copies of everything including the postal service receipt with the tracking information which I'd followed closely. Initially he claimed that there was a typo because the 2 units only had one number that was different and that the property management was referring to the unit I had with. When he was informed that it couldn't have been because I'd had already relocated to a different state for the date the lease was created he asked me to submit copy of the lease from that state and that time period. I'd informed him that on the package I sent, as part of the supporting documentation I had included copy of the lease he was just requesting, copy of its renter 's insurance, copy of a utility bill, copy of my driver 's license containing the Unit I used to rent from the property that had made the false report and, copy of my new license containing the date I had changed it from the old state to the current. He left us on hold for a couple of minutes then proceeded to confirm that the original package sent in XXXX had indeed been received but that all the information provided was not enough and that they needed to send them more proof. What more proof than all the official documentation I'd submitted in a timely matter?! He wasn't able to provide me with specifics of the " documents '' they needed and simply proceeded to give me their new mailing address and his phone number before ending the call. I thought to myself, no wonder they never sent me a letter with their action plan because they were planning to continue harassing me almost 4 years later. I hope that the second debt collecting agency doesn't suddenly re-appear like this once since they never sent me their action plan either. What they have done and continue to do in their dealings with my case, not only violates federal law, but has caused XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX that has and is, once again directly affecting my family, my work and my overall health and wellbeing.