sent request for validation and got verification. now what?

[marissart]

I sent the following letter to Afni:

Afni

PO BOX 3097

Bloomington, IL 61702

December 5, 2008

Re: Acct # yadda, yadda

To whom it may concern:

This letter is being sent to you in response to the information obtained from my credit report that I pulled on December 1, 2008. Be advised that this is not a refusal to pay, but a notice sent pursuant to the Fair Debt Collection Act and that your claim is disputed and validation is requested.

This is NOT a request for “verification” or proof of my mailing address, but a request for VALIDATION made pursuant to the above named Debt Collection Practices Act. I respectfully request that your offices provide me with competent evidence that I have any legal obligation to pay you.

Please provide me with the following:

What the money you say I owe you is for;

Explain and show me how you calculated what you say I owe;

Provide me with copies of any papers that show I agreed to pay what you say I owe;

Provide a verification or copy of any judgment if applicable;

Identify the original creditor;

Prove the statute of limitations has not expired on this account;

Show me that you are licensed to collect in my state;

Provide me with you license numbers and Registered agent.

At this time I will also inform you that if your offices have reported invalidated information to any of the 3 major Credit Bureau’s (Equifax, Experian, or Transunion) this action might constitute fraud under both Federal and State Laws. Due to this fact, if any negative mark is found on any of my credit reports by your company or the company that you represent, I will not hesitate to bring legal action against you for the following:

Violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act

Violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act

Defamation of character

If your offices are able to provide the proper documentation as requested in the following Declaration, I will require at least 30 days to investigate this information and during such time collection activity must cease and desist.

Also during this validation period, if any action is taken which could be considered detrimental to any of my credit reports, I will consult my legal counsel for suit. This includes any listing or any information to a credit reporting repository that could be inaccurate or invalidated or verifying an account as accurate when in fact there is no provided proof that it is.

If your offices fail to respond to this validation within 30 days from the date of your receipt, all references to this account must be deleted and completely removed from my credit and a copy of such deletion request shall be sent to me immediately.

This is an attempt to correct your records, and information obtained shall be used for that purpose.

Now, I got a letter in return stating that they verified the debt and just listed the account number with sprint. Wasn't I asking for Validation not verfication? What do I do now? I really don't think that we owe sprint any money. Please help!

[henry1018]

My guess would be that they will now sell the debt off to somebody else and you won't hear from these people again. Unless you have them on FDCPA violations that you want to pursue. If nothing else, if you do hear from them again, you can now tell them that you have a claim(s) against them.

[nascar]

I got a letter in return stating that they verified the debt and just listed the account number with sprint. Wasn't I asking for Validation not verfication? What do I do now? I really don't think that we owe sprint any money. Please help!

There is no difference between validation and verification, despite internet letters indicating otherwise.

Afni is now responding to validation requests by sending letters essentially stating that they have contacted the original creditor and verified that the information they have is the same information reflected in the creditors record.

Don't get me wrong, I don't like Afni. But, their current debt validation response is as close to bullet-proof as any CA I have seen. If you do not owe the money to Sprint, you're going to have to go back to Sprint to fix it. Use the FCRA dispute if they are reporting on your credit report.

If they are not, you might look into the unfair trade practice laws in your state. That's one way to get at an original creditor despite the FDCPA exemptions.

[valorman]

There is no difference between validation and verification, despite internet letters indicating otherwise.

Afni is now responding to validation requests by sending letters essentially stating that they have contacted the original creditor and verified that the information they have is the same information reflected in the creditors record.

I think there is difference between an assigner of account and a debt collector.As a debt collector they have to send a proof of sale ,agreement,or some other document that prove that they have authority to collect this debt.On the other side an assigner is collecting for the the OC.there might be some contract that make them to collect on OCs behalf.Either way they have to show the proof and validate the debt other wise any ABC company can come and say you owe me money and i reported to CRA and the reporting is correct as the OC say but where is the proof?.Verification and validation cant be same.

just my understanding can be wrong