Consumer complaint received 2016-11-11
Product: Debt collection — Credit card
Issue: Cont'd attempts collect debt not owed — Debt resulted from identity theft
Company: Fenton & McGarvey Law Firm, P.S.C. (TN)

My identity theft began in XX/XX/XXXX with a fraudulent mail forward request. My apartment leasing office claimed I had moved and changed my mailbox lock. Many of my account statements were forwarded to a new, unknown address for XXXX months. After this was corrected I thought nothing more of the incident. In XX/XX/XXXX I moved to another state and began being denied new credit XX/XX/XXXX. I joined XXXX and enrolled my entire family ; I also requested copies of all XXXX credit reports. XX/XX/XXXX I was served a court summons for a {$19000.00} credit card delinquency which was not mine. I immediately filed a police report and began to thoroughly review my credit reports. I was shocked to see numerous names, addresses, ssn 's, and accounts/debts which I did not recognize. I filed an affidavit with the FTC and began the time consuming process of preparing and sending debt validation letters via certified mail to all erroneous accounts requesting validation. XX/XX/XXXX I received another court summons and hired an attorney to assist me. In addition I disputed all inaccurate entries on my credit reports with the XXXX agencies. By XX/XX/XXXX I began to see an improvement in my credit reports and credit scores. My attorney was able to have both of my court cases dismissed for lack of evidence and validation. XX/XX/XXXX I was once again served a court summons. I appeared in court that Summer and was given a new court date, XX/XX/XXXX. I questioned the collection agency rep about the date since I thought it would be very odd for the courthouse to be open on a federal holiday. He assured me that was the correct date. I gathered all of my identity theft documentation and requested validation of the debt via certified mail. I never received validation nor did I manage to speak to an anyone at the collection agency to once again question the next court date. On XX/XX/XXXX, my husband and I drove to the courthouse only to find the doors locked and a sign reading that the courthouse was closed due to XXXX. I did not receive any further communication from the collection agency and I did not see any further evidence of the debt on my credit reports. I was quite surprised last year to discover that a judgement had been filed for the debt while I was refinancing my home. I sent the mortgage lender my identity theft documents and the judgement was dismissed, or so I thought. A month ago we decided to buy a new house and this same judgement, which has never appeared on any of my credit reports, was discovered by the title company. I have once again forwarded all of my identity theft documents and the attorney for the title company and the creditor have advised the creditor to file for removal of the judgement from my record due to the evidence of fraud I have provided. Almost two weeks later, the creditor has still not filed to remove the judgement or provide a payoff statement/amount. I have looked at the court proceedings online and of course the collection agency gave me the wrong date to return to court. I was supposed to appear on XX/XX/XXXX, not XX/XX/XXXX. Since I did not know the correct date and did not appear a default judgement was issued. I can not close on the new house until this matter is cleared and so far the creditor/collection agency is not responding to the attorneys request for dismissal or providing any justification for their lack of cooperation. I am living in a hotel with my family and pets because my other home was rented earlier this month and I am still waiting to close on the new home.