Re: MBNA, Wolpoff & Abramson, National Arbitration Forum

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From my husband's recent experience with Wolpoff & Abramson, my
best advice if you are innocent of the debt they are attempting
to collect is to secure legal counsel ASAP. We tried to go it
alone in responding to W & A's first letter without success.
My husband has an unusual name. There is only one other person
with his name IN THE ENTIRE STATE. Unfortunately, the bum
lives in the adjoining county in a city about 25 miles away.
W & A simply did an internet search in our state for people
with my husband's name. The bum with the same name has had 5
different addresses in the other city and county . . . moving
as soon as his debts catch up to him. We received 2 notices of
collection. The first from W & A. We requested validation of
the debt within the 30-day limit. They did not provide
sufficient validation. It was not printed on the original
creditor's stationery. It was a very brief description typed
on Palisades Collection Agency's letterhead. That is NOT
proper validation. It did not include the original creditor's
mailing address, nor did it include the billing address where
the original creditor was sending monthly billings. It DID
provide the last 4 digits of the debtor's Social Security No.
Not a match to my husband's. From what I've read on the web,
the first letter from W & A Law Firm was a direct violation of
the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act because it stated, "No
attorney has reviewed the supporting documentation for this
debt." The 2nd letter which came from Palisades stated, "Your
letter stated you are a victim of Identity Theft. Please
complete the enclosed Identity Theft Affidavit forms. They
must be returned within 30 days or we deem your dispute of the
debt to be invalid." OUR LETTER NEVER CLAIMED IDENTITY THEFT.
They just want my husband to complete their Identity Theft
Affidavit so they can get his personal information--full name,
Soc. Sec. No., date of birth, etc. Our attorney's office said
Identity Theft complaints are filed through the PROSECUTOR'S
office. The affidavit had printed in large bold lettering, "Do
Not Send to the FTC." hmmm, perhaps because the information
they were requesting was a direct violation of FTC
regulations . . . Their affidavit requests my husband's
COMPLETE name (they don't know if he's male or female by his
first name), how long he's been at his current address, HIS
SOCIAL SECURITY NO., date of birth, etc. Believe me, filling
out and returning this affidavit will only make matters worse
for you--DON'T DO IT! They need your Soc. Sec. No. in order to
put a smear on your credit report. Don't ever give them your
personal information! They will still pursue you for a debt
that isn't yours! They don't care if the true debtor writes
the check for the debt, or if an innocent person with the same
name does. A lot of innocent people pay to get the letters and
phone calls to stop. W & A called our house via a computerized
phone system once. We know they got our phone number and
address by a simple search online. We have since gotten an
UNLISTED AND UNPUBLISHED phone number so our phone no. will
never be all over the internet again. There's nothing we can
do about our address short of selling and moving. If you have
concerns about Pandora's Box being wrongly opened on you
someday, I advise you to get an unlisted/unpublished phone no.
If we had done that years ago, our address wouldn't have been
on the internet. If my message and experience helps just one
victim of rogue debt collection practices, it was well worth
the time of typing it up.

On 9/06/06, rrr wrote:
> Bring a lawsuit in your jurisdiction suing MBNA, Wolpoff and
> the National Arbitration Forum asking the judge to make a
> determination of whether you mother in fact entered into a
> contract.
>
> On 9/06/06, Kay wrote:
>> About 5 months ago, Wolpoff & Abramson sent a collection
>> notice to my mother regarding a debt owe to MBNA.
>> Immediately, we knew that the debt does not belong to my
>> mother becasue she does not speak, read, or write English.
>> She could not have applied for any credit card. We quickly
>> contacted Wolpoff & Abramson to send us documentation
>> proofs to verified the debt. All they sent us was a bunch
>> of statements. When we ask for a copy of the application,
>> checks or payment inforamtion, we were ignored. Soon
>> afterward, we receievd a letter from the National
>> Arbitration Forum asking my mother to provide a respond to
>> a claim filed by Wolpoff & Abramson. Within a few days, we
>> filed a respond to the National Arbitration. We told NA
>> that my mother is a victim of identity theft and that we
>> already filed a report with the local police. We even
>> enclosed a copy of the report for their review. NA simply
>> ignored the whole situation, violated the law, and granted
>> an AWARD to Wolpoff & Abramson.
>>
>> What should we do next?