What is the name of your state? New York
Back in 1995 I had a cell phone that was cloned on an account I thought was closed after the contract ran out. In October 1995 I recieved a bill from Cellone of around $800. When I called the company and told them that my phone had been broken for months and I just thought I let the contract run out, they sent me a list of calls and told me to tell them which calls I didn't make, of course I didn't make any of the calls and sent them back a letter and called them telling them I didn't make any of the calls listed on those phone numbers and they said they would take care of it and that was the end of it...... apparently not.
10 years later......
In september of 2005 I get a collection notice from Merchants Credit Guide Co. saying I owed $865 from South Western Bell. I figured that wehn Cellone got bought out, South Western Bell bought all the debt and my account never got erased from the computer so I called them up and explained the situation. South Western Bell had no record of me so I called Merchants Credit Guide Co and explained the situtation and they told me I should send in a letter explaining the problem and they would fix everything. When I called back months later to confirm everything was ok, they told me the bill was fixed and according to their records my balance was zero. I thought this was now the end of it......apparently not.
almost one year later .....
I get a Collection notice from a company called Resurgent Capital Services stating I now owe over $900!!! When I called the company and explained the situtation, they told me I had to either file a police report on my cloned phone or fill out a Stolen Identity report from the FTC.gov site and have it noterized and fax it to them. I now don't have any records of the phone charges since it was 11 years ago...and neither does the phone company that doesn't exist or the company that bought them out.
Any idea what I should do at this point, my fear is I will do all this work and spend more money only to have them sell it off to another collection company with an even larger balance next year.
I don't feel I should waste police time on a silly report that should have been taken care of by the phone company and I don't feel like I should mess up my own credit problems further by filing a stolen identity report since only my phone number was stolen 11 years ago.
Anyone have an idea on the best way to handle this situation?
Thanks
John
Back in 1995 I had a cell phone that was cloned on an account I thought was closed after the contract ran out. In October 1995 I recieved a bill from Cellone of around $800. When I called the company and told them that my phone had been broken for months and I just thought I let the contract run out, they sent me a list of calls and told me to tell them which calls I didn't make, of course I didn't make any of the calls and sent them back a letter and called them telling them I didn't make any of the calls listed on those phone numbers and they said they would take care of it and that was the end of it...... apparently not.
10 years later......
In september of 2005 I get a collection notice from Merchants Credit Guide Co. saying I owed $865 from South Western Bell. I figured that wehn Cellone got bought out, South Western Bell bought all the debt and my account never got erased from the computer so I called them up and explained the situation. South Western Bell had no record of me so I called Merchants Credit Guide Co and explained the situtation and they told me I should send in a letter explaining the problem and they would fix everything. When I called back months later to confirm everything was ok, they told me the bill was fixed and according to their records my balance was zero. I thought this was now the end of it......apparently not.
almost one year later .....
I get a Collection notice from a company called Resurgent Capital Services stating I now owe over $900!!! When I called the company and explained the situtation, they told me I had to either file a police report on my cloned phone or fill out a Stolen Identity report from the FTC.gov site and have it noterized and fax it to them. I now don't have any records of the phone charges since it was 11 years ago...and neither does the phone company that doesn't exist or the company that bought them out.
Any idea what I should do at this point, my fear is I will do all this work and spend more money only to have them sell it off to another collection company with an even larger balance next year.
I don't feel I should waste police time on a silly report that should have been taken care of by the phone company and I don't feel like I should mess up my own credit problems further by filing a stolen identity report since only my phone number was stolen 11 years ago.
Anyone have an idea on the best way to handle this situation?
Thanks
John