Consumer complaint received 2016-07-13
Product: Debt collection — Other (i.e. phone, health club, etc.)
Issue: Disclosure verification of debt — Right to dispute notice not received
Company: Diversified Consultants, Inc. (CA)

The collection agency, Diversified Consultants Inc., repeatedly called me regarding a {$66.00} bill from a canceled XXXX account associated with a commercial XXXX Oregon address. I was extremely surprised as I never lived in XXXX Oregon my entire life ( the address with that account was a hotel address, not even a residence ), and had always paid my XXXX bill on time electronically -- I have never received any sort of bill related to the {$66.00}. I contacted XXXX and told XXXX that the address was not mine, and asked XXXX to provide me with the bill for the {$66.00}. XXXX said it could not provide me the bill, and asked me to contact the Diversified Consultants directly. Diversified Consultants repeatedly threatened me that the account was mine because it was opened under my SSN, even though I explained to them repeatedly I had been a victim of credit thefts multiple times!!! I told Diversified Consultants that the XXXX Oregon address was incorrect and fraudulent, and I had never seen or received any bill related to this amount of {$66.00} ( I opted for electronic payment with XXXX and had always paid on time ). Since the {$66.00} collection item and the fraudulent XXXX Oregon address were reported to the credit bureaus were hurting my credit scores for a home loan application, I was in a tight timeline to have the collection item and the fraudulent address removed. I asked Diversified Consultants for the bill, and they could not provide it. Instead, they tricked me into paying by promising that they would inform the credit bureaus that I 'm not liable if I agreed to pay for it. I was in a time crunch as I needed the collection item and fraudulent address removed as soon as possible for my mortgage application to go through, so I reluctantly agreed to pay the amount under the false belief that Diversified Consultants would remove both the collection item and the address with the credit bureau. Boy I was wrong!!! After I paid, Diversified Consultants immediately changed stance and told me that by paying I admitted to them that I lived at that XXXX Oregon address and owed the amount, and they refused to remove the collection item and said they would NEVER EVER do that. I immediately contacted the credit bureaus regarding my dealings with Diversified Consultants, reported identity theft, and informed them of Diversified Consultants ' dirty dealings. Although XXXX and XXXX immediately investigated my dispute with Diversified Consultants and verified my fraud claim and removed BOTH the collection item and the fraudulent address, XXXX insisted that Diversified Consultant refused to do anything about it so XXXX could not do anything about the items to be removed. I called Diversified Consultants and they told me that they would NEVER remove the item as it was opened under my SSN and I paid for it. I asked for a bill and they were never able to produce it, basically just repeated the same garbage that it was my SSN and therefore it was mine. Diversified Consultants used deceptive collection tactics to trick unsophisticated consumers into believing they could remove negative items on credit report and then immediately changing position once they got the money. They repeatedly refused to provide me with the bill, help verify the address was fraudulent, or remove fraudulent items from my credit report. They are crooked liars and manipulators!!! They used nasty tactics of making false representations to trick consumers into paying without any written agreement and failed to inform them the right to dispute debt in order to receive their petty payment of {$66.00}, and later refused to correct the misinformation sent to credit bureaus once they received their money. Diversified Consultants Inc. victimized consumers and made innocent people suffer for their greedy, unlawful, and deceptive tactics!!!