Consumer complaint received 2017-11-29
Product: Debt collection — Other debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed — Debt is not yours
Company: Diversified Consultants, Inc. (MD)

On XX/XX/XXXX I received a notification from my credit monitoring agency that there was a change to my credit report. When I pulled my report, I found a collection in the amount of {$1000.00} that I knew nothing about. I called the agency to find out what this was about. The woman I spoke to kept asking me what type of debt this was for, and of course I could n't help her because I had no clue. She took my name but it would n't pull up in the system but my phone number did. She then told me it was a XXXX home security system for an address I 've never lived at. It ended up belonging to my ex-husband for an services he procured a full year after our divorce. We were divorced on XX/XX/XXXX and I moved to Maryland on XX/XX/XXXX ( the court papers even state that my legal address is in Maryland ). His XXXX account was opened around XX/XX/XXXX. She said the name and address was his, but the social security number and phone number was linked to me and she could n't help me because even though I lived 500 miles away, it was my social security number so it had to be my debt and she ca n't guarantee it will be removed from my credit report. She tried to get me to make a good faith payment while I worked things out with my ex-husband but I refused because I am not in any way taking ownership of this debt because it is not mine. 

I then called my ex-husband and he told me that the collection agency has been calling him directly to try to collect the debt. The last time they called him was in XX/XX/XXXX. If this was truly linked to my number, why have I never heard of this debt before? He called the agency himself to explain that I should n't be on there at all and that there was an error and it needed to be fixed and the debt should be tied to his social security number and not mine. The man she spoke to did n't want to hear anything about it or even try to investigate the situation. When my ex-husband mentioned he was going to talk to an attorney regarding possible fraudulent or deceptive practices to collect a debt by any means, the man said he could n't talk to him because it was n't his social security number linked to the account. Ironically, they had no problem talking to him to collect money or put it on his credit report as well.. 

He then called the Original Debtor to find out exactly how the original account was set up and he was not denying the account was his. They could n't print the document but they did verify that it was only his name, social security and signature on the contract and mine was nowhere to be found. 

What have I done to try to resolve this? Since my ex-husband is an XXXX military XXXX, it started with a conference call between my ex-husband and the JAG officer on base. He said for me to start with disputing the collection on my credit reports, which I did online and by letter as well. He also said for me to write a certified letter with return receipt requested to the collection agency and request all of the documentation they purchased from the Original Debtor so I can validate the signatures and numbers on the original account since it is my legal right to do so. The letter I sent to the credit reporting agencies is the same letter I sent to the collection agency. I did name the names of the people we talked with. I want this dispute to be as transparent as possible. This is supposed to be and INDIVIDUAL account ( not joint or with a co-signer ) and yet the collection is on both of our credit reports. How did they get my social security number? Something is just not right.