Convergent Outsourcing / LVNV / Resurgent ignoring my cease-desist letter
Date: Fri, 08/24/2012 - 16:59
I have been hounded by 3 different CA, who are trying to collect on the SAME debt that I do NOT recognize. I have sent them Debt Validation (DV) Letter and eventually Cease-and-Desist and they still claim I owe them money and still sending me letter. If I don't respond, they said the debt is valid.
Here's the timeline:
1). Early July 2012
Letter from Convergent Outsourcing, claiming I owe debt from LVNV Funding, who represent Capital One. I don't recognize the account, so I send DV letter to Convergent Outsourcing.
2). Mid July 2012
Letter from Resurgent Capital, claiming the SAME EXACT debt as stated above (Convergent Outsourcing, LVNV, Capital One). I never received response from Convergent Outsourcing.
Resurgent sent me the "Debt Validation" evidence, which is just a letter printed by Resurgent stating I owe them money...that's it. No original signed agreement, no statements, no nothing.
I write a letter to them that their DV evidence is invalid and not a legal one and send them a Cease and Desist unless they can provide the proof that the debt is mine.
3). Current and forward
They keep sending me letter saying I owe them debt and if I don't response, the debt is valid.
What do I do next?
Write up a generic copy of a DV request letter asking for a copy
Write up a generic copy of a DV request letter asking for a copy of the original card holder's agreement. Also include in the letter that they should cease and desist in case they cannot come up with the requested document.
Just copy, print and send the letter via CMRRR every time you receive a mail from these collectors regarding the Cap One account.
File a complaint with the AG and the FTC.
[COLOR=#000000] Write up a generic copy of a DV request letter a
[COLOR=#000000] Write up a generic copy of a DV request letter asking for a copy of the original card holder's agreement. Also include in the letter that they should cease and desist in case they cannot come up with the requested document.[/QUOTE]
This is bad advice. For one thing, there is no law that says that they have to provide a copy of the original agreement as validation. You can ask for it all you want--they are not required to provide it at this point in the game. Second, you are shooting yourself in the foot if you attach a cease and desist statement to your DV letter, because, according to the law, the moment you notify them in writing not to contact you, they cannot legally even answer with validation. Not that it matters in this case, because LVNV doesnt follow the laws anyways.
Quote:
Just copy, print and send the letter via CMRRR every time you receive a mail from these collectors regarding the Cap One account. |
Yeah, um, dont do that. You will end up spending a fortune for all those CMRRR letters. Not to mention, you are in the middle of the world famous LVNV shell game, so this will not stop with one letter to any of those satellite debt collection agencies.
Quote:
File a complaint with the AG and the FTC. |
This is pointless as well. LVNV is the entity you have to go after on this one, and based on the strict letter of the law, there is nothing to report yet. OP, you went about this one wrong. Here is how you fix it.
1--Stop communicating with these satellite debt collectors like Resurgent. They are owned by LVNV. You need to address the debt collector that OWNS THE DEBT. That would appear to be LVNV. You need to send THEM a certified DV letter. Here's how it works--when you send a timely DV letter, they are required by law to stop all collection effort until they can validate. But you are dealing with more than one debt collection firm--so what would there be to report?
you sent a DV to Convergent, and that DV ONLY applies to Convergent. So they stopped sending you letters....and Resurgent Capital started. There is no law broken there. Resurgent is not bound by your DV to Convergent.
Now, in the case of REsurgent, they are doing something wrong. But you need to go after the big fish, which is LVNV. you send THEM a DV letter. And do not include a cease communication statement in it. Do, however, inform them that, in accordance with federal law, if you keep getting calls or letters from these other debt collectors that LVNV obviously hired, then it would violate the FDCPA. Inform them that if any further collection effort is taken by either them or these other companies that they have hired to collect on their behalf, without proper legal validation being provided, then they will be in violation of section 809(b) of the FDCPA and will be held responsible.
LVNV is the entity that is taking the collection effort against you by "hiring" a different one of their satellite collection agencies. here's how their nonsense works. You get a notice from one CA, so you send a DV letter. LVNV gets told about your DV letter, so they simply pull the account from that CA and send it to one of their other CAs, who then sends you another letter. You then send ANOTHER DV, and the game repeats. LVNV has several different agencies set up like this, so you could end up sending DV's forever and still not get to the end of the shell game. Technically, it is legal, but if you DV LVNV, you cut the head off from further action without proper validation.
Of course, LVNV is known for breaking these laws, so be prepared for them to send you the same generic letter in response. When it comes, you need to respond with a CMRRR letter informing them that their response does not meet the legal requirements for proper debt validation and again ask them one more time to provide proper legal validation of this debt. Do not say anything else, keep it at that for now. Let us know what they respond with, and we will go from there.
The only violation you have so far is from Resurgent, continuing to try to collect without properly validating the debt. I would send them a single CMRRR that basically says "this letter is to inform you that you are to cease any and all communication with me, with regard to account #________, currently owned by LVNV." Thats it, nothing more is needed in that letter.
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skydivr7673, Thank you for the detailed information. I respon
skydivr7673,
Thank you for the detailed information.
I responded to EACH of the letters sent by Convergent and Resurgent because I thought if I don't reply with the DV letter, by default the debt is valid and the CA can sue me. Or my understanding is incorrect?
In each letter, I wrote that the debt was indeed owned by LVNV and Capital One, so Convergent and Resurgent are at least aware of this.
UPDATE: Resurgent responded to my letter saying they are investigating my claim...and that's it. Not sure what they meant by this but we'll see!
First, Resurgent and the others will not be filing suit against
First, Resurgent and the others will not be filing suit against you because they are not the owners of the debt--LVNV is. LVNV would file the suit if there was to be one.
Second, while there is nothing wrong with sending a DV to the others, you still need to send one to LVNV as your next step. That way, they will be legally barred from simply picking out a different debt collector from the ones they own and having yet another CA contact you over this same debt. If they get your DV letter, and do not validate, but continue to send it to other debt collectors on their behalf, then they will have broken the law.
Did you ever have an HSBC credit card? That could be why you don
Did you ever have an HSBC credit card? That could be why you don't recognize the capital one account.
same thing happening to me!
this very scenario is occurring with me right now!. the only difference i see is that my debt has fallen off the credit reports (obviously over seven years) and is outside the SOL. i dv'd convergent...have received nothing, but today got a call (did not answer) from resurgent. i read so many conflicting things. if i receive letter from resurgent, i will dv them and also parent company. my real question is: don't they know this is beyond SOL? if it is not on my credit report, it was charged off 7.5 years ago....meaning late 2004, early 2005. i paid with money orders, not checking account, and no longer have records. last company that tried to collect was in 2007 (hilco). dv'd them and never heard back. sol in state i lived in at the time is 5 years; current state is 6 years.
should i just do dv or should i do a "refuse to pay" letter?