Consumer complaint received 2018-12-15
Product: Debt collection — Other debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed — Debt is not yours
Company: Convergent Resources, Inc. (NY)

In XX/XX/XXXX I received a letter from the collection agency Convergent   notifying me that they were collecting on a debt from XXXX of {$430.00}. I never opened an account with XXXX and this was my first time being contacted about this debt. I was never contacted by XXXX and the debt does not exist on my credit report ( XXXX ). They provided no other information about the debt, other than the name of the company and the debt owed. I sent them a validation of debt request on XX/XX/XXXX, stating that I have never had an account with XXXX, and believed this was fraud. I asked them to provide the following : 1. The amount of the alleged debt 2. The full name and mailing address of the original creditor for this alleged debt 3. Agreement with the creditor that authorizes you to collect this alleged debt 4. Documentation showing you have verified that I am responsible for this debt, or a copy of any judgment 5. The agreement bearing my signature stating that I have agreed to assume the debt 6. Valid copies of the debt agreement stating the amount of the debt and interest charges 7. Proof that the statute of limitations has not expired 8. Complete payment history on this account along with an accounting of all additional charges being assessed.

9. Documentation showing you are licensed to collect debts in the state of New York, including license numbers and Registered Agent On XX/XX/XXXX I received another letter from them. The only proof they provided was a list including the dates of the debt ( XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX ), the amount of the debt ( {$430.00} ) and the service address for the debt : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, NY XXXX. They also provided The New York City Language and License numbers for their Washington State, Texas and Arizona   offices. They did not provide the following : 1. Agreement with the creditor that authorizes you to collect this alleged debt 2. Documentation showing you have verified that I am responsible for this debt, or a copy of any judgment 3. The agreement bearing my signature stating that I have agreed to assume the debt 4. Valid copies of the debt agreement stating the amount of the debt and interest charges 5. Proof that the statute of limitations has not expired 6. Complete payment history on this account along with an accounting of all additional charges being assessed. 

I have never lived at XXXX XXXX XXXX and was living at my current address in XXXX with my husband. I recognize the XXXX XXXX address from a previous identity theft experience I had in XXXX. At that time, several accounts were opened in my name using this same address. I filed a fraud report, reported it to the police, and all debts were cleared and removed from my credit report. XXXX XXXX XXXX was also removed from my credit report. To my knowledge, I have not had a problem with identity theft since this incident in XXXX, and the address does not appear on my XXXX Credit report as of XX/XX/XXXX. Nor does the debt from XXXX. 

My complaint is that XXXX allowed this fraudulent account to be opened in my name without my knowledge and after it was determined that XXXX XXXX XXXX was not my address, contacted a debt collection agency to pursue the resulting debt without my knowledge and without notifying me of the fraudulent account, and Convergent continued to pursue collection after I declared in writing that I never opened an account with XXXX, and they declined to provide all the information I requested in my initial validation of debt request.