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CAMCO - what to do?
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Posted by Peter Rosa (167.68.0.65) on June 04, 2002 at 15:57:21:
I've been having some big troubles lately with a collection agency called CAMCO. As far as I can tell, they acquired a very old charged-off Citibank Visa debt and are now trying to collect it for their own account. The debt was charged off in 1991 or 1992, in any event way past the SOL, and hasn't been on my credit report for years.
I started hearing from "Ann Lewis" (a fake name, surely) a few months ago. She first started saying that it was my legal obligation to pay. When I brought up the SOL issue, she started playing the "moral obligation" card. I thereupon told her that the debt was from a different phase of my life, Citibank had long since forgotten about it, and CAMCO probably paid less than a penny on the dollar to acquire it, she became pretty nasty. Lewis told me that they might just sue anyhow, and there was no guarantee that my SOL defense would work. When I told her it was an as-of-right defense, she told me they'd keep putting inquiries on my credit report. When I told her that the type of inquiries they would make aren't the sort that are disclosed to would-be lenders, she told me she'd just keep calling until I was worn down.
I estimate that I got at least 15 calls from Lewis over a period of about six weeks. After a couple of weeks of quiet, I began getting calls from "David Mendoza," undoubtedly another fake name. So far he's just left messages. CAMCO did, however, send a collections letter to my mother's address, where I haven't lived for almost 20 years. THAT was embarassing to explain!
I'm just not certain how to handle these schmucks. Their extreme persistence - over what must be a tiny investment on their part - is a bit worrisome. Does it sound as if they'd follow through on their threats to file suit, hoping that somehow I wouldn't raise the SOL defense? Would it make sense to send a C&D letter, or would they just ignore it and keep calling?
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