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Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 7:41 am Subject: Suspicious....what do you think?

I had a notice in the mail yesterday that I had a certified letter waiting for me at the post office. Under sender, it simply said "SALT LAKE CITY, UT". I pulled up my info and none of the recent DV letters I have sent are in that part of the country. I have no friends or family in Utah, and my company only has offices in California, Texas, and Europe.

So, I go to the post office this morning, to see what it is about. The lady comes back with the "letter" and says she is not sure what I want to do about it....it's empty! I'm like, "What?" She held it to the light, and sure enough you could see plain as day that there was nothing in it. The envelope was one of those small letter envelopes (you know, the size you would use with personal stationary to send a letter to a friend....not for 8.5 x 11 paper). My name and address were hand written on the front, and there was no return address. The lady said the only indication they have as to it's source was a postal stamp for Salt Lake City. It had the certified sticker, and the $3.06 for postage was paid. There were no signs that the envelope had been tampered with, and it was sealed!

The lady at the post office said that I did not have to accept the "letter". If I chose not to accept it, they would send a second notice, note in the system that the letter was never picked up (not refused, just not claimed), and the letter would go to the dead letter office. She said I had a couple of days to consider what I wanted to do before the letter would be sent there.

Have any of you had this type of strange thing happen to you soon after contact with a CA? I just find it rather strange that this occurs just a couple of weeks after I sent off my DV letters! I am hesitant to accept this empty envelope, as I am wondering if it could be an underhanded tactic by the CA to:

1) Validate my residence.

2) Get my signature for it so they can claim they sent validation, and I signed for it, when in fact they did not.

3) Get my signature for it so they can claim I was served a summons, and I signed for it, when in fact I was not.

I mean, if I do sign for it, how could I prove in court that the envelope was empty, and how could they prove that it was not empty. I feel I could be questioned with, "If the envelope was obviously empty, why would you/she even accept it?" I know if I were a judge, I would ask that question, and it would blow my case out of the water...because who signs for an empty envelope with no return address in this day and age?

What do ya'll think?

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 7:56 am Subject:

you are correct subigirl, they probably just want to get your signature so they can have some kind of signature proof later on. If I was you I will not accept the letter (I mean the empty envelope). Good Luck

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 8:05 am Subject:

I think that it was from a credit card co, since so many are based out of SLC.
Probably what happened is that it was opened in error , the contents lost and someone tried to be nice and resend it so you would know they are trying to contact you I reallky do not think it is a tctic to get your signature. Do you owe any cc's. I woukd just send it back marked recieved empty

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 8:10 am Subject:

If it is honestly a CA underhanded dirty trick, why not turn the tables on them? Sign for it but do not open it. Keep it. This is proof that something fishy is up.

They could also turn on you a different way, suppose they send this KNOWING you won't pick it up....now they have proof that they 'sent' the validation or whatever but you never picked it up!

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 8:14 am Subject:

Good point Golden

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 8:30 am Subject:

I was kinda thinking the same thing, Golden, but wasn't sure. Kind of a rock and a hard place. Of course, maybe I should accept it, as there is a note on it from the post office indicting that it is empty. I didn't think about that, but this could be my proof that I received it empty! It's one of those weird sticky kind of notes that ONLY the post office uses to flag suspicious mail!

I do have current open accounts, but NONE of them are in any kind of late status or anything like that. And like I said, the envelope is not your standard business envelope, my name and address are hand-written on the front, and the envelope is perfectly sealed with no signs of tampering. And someone being helpful would have at least included a return address. It's like who ever sent it doesn't want this thing traced back to them at all!

I'm going to think about it a bit more. Golden made a good point, and there is that note from the post office as my proof that it was empty upon receipt by them. Hmmmmmm......

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 8:43 am Subject:

Subi, do you have any defaulted internet pay day loans? I don't remember which one, but there is one that is located in Utah.

I would not accept the letter myself, but I never know what to do in those kinds of situations! I get scared to death when I get certified letters! I think it is a collector as well, trying to get a signature, or address verification, etc on you. Let us know what happens.

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 8:58 am Subject:

Nope, no payday loans. Have never had one of those in my life...internet or otherwise. I also looked through my credit report, and none of my open accounts, or anyone listed as inquiring of my credit, has an address out of Utah. Very strange, and very puzzling....

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 9:06 am Subject:

I was gonna suggest get something in writing from the post office that this was indeed empty and keep it as is....
Just a suggestion, let us know waht u decide,
Ang

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 10:59 am Subject:

I may go by there again, and see if they would be willing to do that. It's a small town post office, so it is possible that they would be willing to help.

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 12:25 pm Subject:

I would try to get something in writing from the post office that it is empty like Ang said. I would accept the letter and keep the note that the post office wrote and the empty envelope unopened. I would send a certified letter to the return address that you received an empty letter and keep copies of that as well

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 12:34 pm Subject:

Hi. I am just reading this post. It is very strange. But it was smart of you to think of an underhanded CA trick. You can't put anything past them.

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 12:59 pm Subject:

DOLLARandSINCE...only problem is that there is no return address...just some postal stamp on it that indicates it was received at some time by a post office in Salt Lake City. That is the only indication of the source of this mysterious envelope. If it were empty with a return address, I wouldn't think much of it...would look up the address. If it had something in it with no return address, I would hope the contents would explain. The fact that it is BOTH empty AND without return address has me concerned.

I think I'm going to go by the post office, and see if they are willing to give me some note stating that they got the envelope empty with no signs of tampering. If they do that, I will go ahead and accept it, and keep it in a nice safe place...just in case I later get a "we sent you that" or a strange judgment showing up on my credit report or something. They will have me on them like white on rice if they try to get an underhanded judgment for a debt that is more than 2 years outside of the SOL!!!

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 1:42 pm Subject:

Okay...ya'll are going to laugh at this one!

I purchased a DVD on ebay some weeks ago, and never received the item I paid for. I started a dispute with PayPal, after several attempts to contact the seller to find out where my DVD was, when the seller had already been paid via PayPal. Well, about 5 minutes ago, I thought..."Let's see if there has been any progress with PayPal contacting the seller." I log in to find that the seller is claiming the DVD was sent, and provided a tracking number to PayPal. The tracking number looked awful familiar, so I went to my car to get the post office notice for the certified letter I was telling you about. IT WAS THE SAME TRACKING NUMBER!!! Naturally, I notified PayPal of my findings this morning, and that as of this afternoon, the empty envelope remains at the post office. I'm calling PayPal to see what they want me to do about the envelope, as they indicate the status as that they are waiting for tracking status...if they want me to sign for it and send it to them or not.

At least I can breath a sigh of relief! It seems something underhanded is going on, but it is not by a CA...but rather the ebay seller that wants to keep my money and not give me my product! Funny, the seller had good ratings, and I have never had problems buying things on ebay before...and I have been doing it for years. Oh well...just glad to know it isn't a CA trick, though I wouldn't put it past a junk debt buyer like Genesee, LVNV, Asset Acceptance, etc. to use such a tactic to get signature information or something!

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 2:22 pm Subject:

The poor guy I talked to at PayPal was stumped! He had never heard of anyone pulling this kind of junk before! He sat quiet for about a minute, then was like, "I'm sorry...I just don't know what to do with this one! Can I put you on hold while I ask my supervisor?" He came back on the line indicating that all is noted in my dispute, and that I should refuse the empty envelope. His supervisor further indicated that I should file a complaint with USPS for mail fraud (as it was even obvious to them that the purpose of the certified empty envelope was a tactic to get me to sign for something, so the seller could then come back and say I got my DVD so they didn't have to refund my money). I contacted USPS with the information that I do have (the tracking number, and the information that is available to me through PayPal). I guess it will be up to USPS to contact PayPal to get the address and phone number information on file for the seller. May not do anything, but I did my part.

Again, I'm just relieved that it is not an underhanded tactic of some CA...but rather, a person who is simply upset because they did not send me my DVD, and can't imagine why I want my money back!

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 2:22 pm Subject:

Glad to hear it wasn't an evil CA, up to no good tricks. Maybe the Ebay Seller was having a bad day and simply forgot to put the DVD in the envelope, if they didn't plan on sending the DVD, I can't see why they would take the time to send an envelope. Especially if they have good ratings, I have bought and sold on Ebay, everyone wants good feedback.

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