Consumer complaint received 2025-03-26 00:00:00
Product: Debt collection — Credit card debt
Issue: Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly — Talked to a third-party about your debt
Company: Apelles, LLC
State: UT

Complaint narrative:
Approximately XXXX weeks ago a company named Apelles LLC started calling me several times per week. I never answered because I don't answer phone calls from unknown numbers or people due to the amount of fraud that is going on recently. After several weeks of them calling several times a week, I decided to answer the phone once, and the person on the other end of the phone asked me who I was and I asked them who they were. It was a woman on the phone who did not identify herself, but said that she needed me to verify my name and address and phone number, which I refused to do because I had no idea who this person was and stated this. And she told me she was attempting to collect a debt, and I said how am I supposed to know? You have given me no identifying information you just asked me to verify personal information which you should already have if you are a debt collector of a debt that I supposedly owe. And she said if I wanted to know who they were, I should call XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. And I asked her why I would do that, and she told me to contact XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and then call her back. I did not do as she instructed me to do because I could not see a reason to do so. Several weeks later I received a letter from Apelles. Since I had already had a run-in with them, I decided to hire an attorney to handle this situation. The attorney I hired sent Apelles LLC a cease and desist letter, stating that I had only social security retirement and XXXX  XXXX income, and for them to quit trying to collect the debt. 2 days later, I went to the ATM to withdraw money from my XXXX account into which my XXXX and retirement are direct deposited, and found that I was locked out of my account. Apparently, Apelles forwarded the cease and desist letter to XXXX, even though they are a debt buyer and not associated with XXXX. And XXXX therefore froze my checking and savings account, along with the credit card Apelles was trying to collect on. My attorney did not send XXXX a cease and desist letter as the debt had been sold to Apelles LLC. As far as my attorney and I are concerned, XXXX was completely out of the loop by now. My attorney said that no letter was sent to XXXX and therefore no action should have been taken by XXXX, none of my associated counts should have been frozen, but when I called XXXX to speak to them, they had changed the address on my account to my attorney 's office, and told me to contact my attorney if I needed any further information. I have not been able to access my account, I can not touch the funds that are in it, and my direct deposits are going in there on Monday XX/XX/XXXX, and I don't have enough time to change them to another bank account. Again, I verified with my attorney that no letter was sent to XXXX. XXXX was never contacted in any way by my attorney, and XXXX was never sent a cease and desist letter. According to XXXX, Apelles LLC is a debt buyer, and has no association with XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. How they were able to affect my XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX accounts and freeze them is beyond me, but I want this harassment to stop. XXXX should never have stopped my access to my checking and savings account which are completely separate from the credit card, and they have already been censured for this in the past, and had to pay restitution to people to whom they did this. The credit card, my checking account, and my savings account are XXXX separate entities and one should not affect the other. And that is aside from the fact that no cease and desist letter was ever sent to XXXX, from my attorney, at all.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation