Consumer complaint received 2025-03-07 00:00:00
Product: Debt collection — Private student loan debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed — Debt was result of identity theft
Company: Ratchford Law Group, P.C.
State: RI

Complaint narrative:
This is a new complaint in regards to the letter sent XX/XX/XXXX from third party organization Ratchford Law Group , P.C . on behalf of XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX with the original creditor being XXXX XXXX XXXX. This is in regards to a loan that has been deemed fraudulent by multiple third party representatives starting in XXXX. These representatives are as follows from the most recent in XXXX of XXXX : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX. The previous one being XXXX XXXX XXXX, both have officially deemed this loan as being fraudulent and have subsequently closed the account. XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX is well aware that their previous attempt under XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX were not valid due to the fraudulent nature of the loan. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, my father, XXXX XXXX XXXX, applied for a smart options student loan to XXXX XXXX ; he did this without my knowledge or consent. My father told me that all my school 's tuition would be taken care of and kept me out of the details, and he asked me to hand him all letters pertaining to financing my education. My father, XXXX XXXX, died on XX/XX/XXXX of XXXX. Before he died, he and his then wife, XXXX XXXX ( " Spouse '' on the loan ), told me what I was to receive when he died and what I was responsible for. They told me to pay the last semester of the spring of XXXX ( I personally paid {$22000.00} to XXXX XXXX and additionally I paid one other loan belonging to XXXX XXXX ). I was never informed of any additional loans. On XX/XX/XXXX of XXXX, I received an email from XXXX XXXX stating that I owed {$26000.00}. This email was a reminder sent to my school 's email address, however, prior to that I received advertisements only from XXXX XXXX offering me new loans and to consider a smart options student loan in the future. My father previously took out a federal loan from XXXX XXXX to pay for my previous school, XXXX XXXX  XXXX. The same advertisement was delivered to my school address at XXXX several times starting in XXXX. I do not have an email regarding a specific loan from XXXX XXXX between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, only advertisements. Only a notification later that a password was changed and that a new document was available, again my father handled everything. XXXX XXXX is stating that a specific email was sent to confirm that a specific loan was approved to my XXXX address, I have no such document. From the latest email regarding this conflict, " When an online account is created, we sent notifications to the borrower and cosigner at their email addresses, when correspondence or documents are available for viewing online '' ; this is generic. What I did receive on XX/XX/XXXX ( this was the first time I saw this ) was an email stating " Dear valued customer, you have a new document available online. You must log in to view this document. Please use the same user ID and password you created for your XXXX XXXX online account. ". Again, my father previously had an account with XXXX XXXX and I assumed this was from that since I did not personally create a loan with XXXX XXXX. If the document was created in XX/XX/XXXX, why wasn't I notified then? I believe the burden of proof fell to XXXX XXXX to establish that this loan was mine, and that I knowingly knew of its existence. 

When I finally received a physical copy of the loan after asking several times, all of the information on the loan was my fathers. The fact that he worked for XXXX XXXX, the fact that he was married, the fact that he made {$100000.00} was under my information and under his as cosigner. XXXX XXXX insists that the student 's name, social security number, and an electronic signature, which can be falsified by anyone without their knowledge ; as it is in this case. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX is well aware of the entire situation due to the fact that this entire story has been repeated several times. I have filed originally complaints with the FTC and to the Rhode Island state police, as well as contacting all three credit bureaus. As you can see, I have filed a complaint with the CFPB several times. Please refer to the case numbers below : XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX ) XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX ) XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX ) XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX ) XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX ) XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX ) XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX ) Unfortunately, XXXX XXXX should have seen that the body of this loan was fraudulent and that they never should have approved the loan in the first place. Therefore the responsibility is theirs to bear.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation