Consumer complaint received 2021-02-04 00:00:00
Product: Debt collection — Other debt
Issue: Took or threatened to take negative or legal action — Threatened or suggested your credit would be damaged
Company: Velocity Portfolio Group
State: FL

Complaint narrative:
In XX/XX/XXXX I was contacted via mail by a company called Velocity Investments LLC who referred to themselves as a " debt collector ''. I responded to them disputing their attempts to collect some debt they were saying I owed them since I never heard of these people, following up in XX/XX/XXXX after they ignored my request to validate. I again followed up in XX/XX/XXXX when these people failed to give me what I asked for, which was proof that I owed them money, and told them if they can not provide this to stop contacting me. Approximately one year later I received a letter from an attorney named XXXX XXXX XXXX  ( also identified as a debt collector ) stating that they were collecting for Velocity. I have no clue who either of them are, and I asked him to also prove to me that we had a relationship, provide me with a contract etc. fast forward to XX/XX/XXXX, a docket was opened in XXXX County Florida ( Case # XXXX ) stating that Velocity Investments was now suing me, meanwhile I have written multiple letters etc prior to this telling them to stop contacting me and to simply prove to me that I have done business with them. Now their attorney or whoever it is has been trying to bully me into paying them when the initial questions I asked were never addressed. Even on the docket, I asked for discovery and they deflect etc. This case has been ongoing since XX/XX/XXXX and we havent gotten to the actual merit of the case their attorneys are trying to defeat me based on court procedure because I am representing myself and I am not an attorney, nor did I feel that I needed one because I did not think this would drag on like this because I do not know these people. I simply asked them to present a contract and proof that I owe them money and up until this point they haven't. We were forced by the judge to a court ordered mediation where they presented some " witness '' XXXX XXXX ( I am not sure if it was really him because he was a black silhouette and went by the name XXXX XXXX ) and they were trying to force me to settle ( although they never proved I owe them money ) which I do not understand how if we never discussed the case at all, so naturally I refused and we are prepping for a trial I guess. I am willing to continue at this point but the deceptive and abusive practices of companies like this must stop. To keep this going is a waste of time and tax payers money, and to attempt to force a person to settle on a debt that they have not proven was owed to them seems to be a common practice unfortunately in the debt collection industry and it appears that now they are leveraging the legal system in attempts to obtain default judgements, especially from what they perceive as low income minorities, which they seem to target exclusively.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation