Consumer complaint received 2018-07-14
Product: Debt collection — Credit card debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed — Debt is not yours
Company: CAVALRY INVESTMENTS, LLC (CA)

This is a long story and has withstood for too long I am now extremely fed up with the Customer Service of this company, it's harassment, and unethical debt collecting practices. Sad that these people are even able to call themselves debt collectors. Let me begin my complaint by stating some facts. 

In the first two week of XX/XX/XXXX, I received a letter from " XXXX XXXX '' stating that they were collecting a debt on behalf of Cavalry Portfolio Services, the debt which supposedly originated from a XXXX account. The Account Balance stated was {$1800.00} however, they were offering a settlement amount of {$1100.00}. This seemed odd to me that a debt collection I wasn't aware would approach me through a third party and offer me a settlement offer right of the bat. I assumed this was some sort of scam, but regardless tucked the letter away for record keeping. As the months passed by and this account became irrelevant to me I suddenly received a second letter from a different THIRD PARTY collector by the name of " XXXX XXXX XXXX '' on XX/XX/XXXX stating that they were collecting on behalf of XXXX for the alleged XXXX account. They claimed that they would escalate to a law firm if the amount was not paid. At this point I decided to check my credit reports and realized that this account was indeed on my reports as a collection account. I freaked out, I was not aware that debt collectors could just report accounts as collections without validating them first. At this point I began to consult professionals on this matter and stressfully assume that at this point my life was over. Within a month on the XXXX of XXXX of this year I received another letter yet again from " XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX  '' about the alleged debt, claiming that they would allow me to settle the debt for less than owed. At this point I decided to draft a debt validation letter, however due to my young age of XXXX years and lack of experience with this subject I decided to stand by and hope it would blow over. On XX/XX/XXXX I received yet another letter. However this time it was directly from XXXX XXXX, stating that I must act within 30 days in order for the alleged account to not be placed with a law firm. At this point I freaked out and soon received a call from them in which they offered to delete the account from my credit report if I paid in full. Reluctantly I agreed, as I am approaching homeownership and was in urgent need to get this off my credit report. Before the payment was being processed I decided to consult with an attorney and inquire about this issue I was having. I was advised to not allow XXXX  to aggressively harass me in this manner, at that point I decided to send the debt validation letter in which I clearly stated that I wanted clear Validation that the account was mine or removal of it from my reports. It was clear and concise, and somehow XXXX  responded by saying that they weren't sure of what I was trying to dispute but that they would agree to put my account in a dispute status and would respond in 150 days. ANOTHER WAY FOR THEM TO CONTINUE TO REPORT AN ALLEGED AND UNVERIFIED ACCOUNT ON MY CREDIT REPORTS WHILE RUINING MY CREDIT AND TRYING TO AGGRESSIVELY FORCE ME TO PAY AN UNVALIDATED DEBT, COMPLETELY ABSURD THAT SOMEONE CAN DO THAT!!!!! If this is legitimately my debt why couldn't they simply send a correspondence verifying it, instead they decided to use a technicality to prolong the process in order to try to get me to pay the alleged debt. 

All this shows a pattern of increased harassment from Cavalry, their inability to provide validating correspondence on this debt is pure utterance of their fraudulent manners. They escalate their threats and harassment 's and when they see you don't abide by what they say they offer you more enticing ways to end the " issue '' such as offering a less amount or offering to delete this from your credit report if you pay. 

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices act states that collectors may not use false or misleading statements to garner a debt. Something that Cavalry did throughout this whole process, but most importantly these Acts state something very clearly. BOTH OF THESE ACTS STATE THAT DEBT COLLECTORS ARE OBLIGATED BY LAW AND BY CONTRACT WITH THE CREDIT AGENCIES TO REPORT ACCURATE INFORMATION. NOT ONLY ARE THEY NOT REPORTING ACCURATE INFORMATION, BUT IF THIS ALLEGED ACCOUNT WERE TO BE VALID THEIR OFFERING OF PAYING TO DELETE WOULD HIGHLIGHT VIOLATION OF THE CREDITORS AGREEMENT TO REPORT ACCURATE INFORMATION. 

Cavalry plays the hostage game of holding your credit hostage until  you pay the amount and offering to delete it once they get their money on a debt that has never been validated!!! I have spoken to my a professional advisor on this matter and I have hereby decided I will be contacting my State 's General Attorney office to bring these shady debt collection practices to their attention and help stop these unfair and illegal practices.