Snail mail scam?

Good grief, people will try anything.

I received a letter stating it is from Northland Group, Inc.. In big bold letters it says "You past due account balance: $917.46
Then it says: Your settlement offer: $412.86

It states the current creditor is some place called LVNV Funding LLV but the previous creditor original bill is a credit card company.

I don't have credit cards.

The last time I had any credit cards was around 6 years ago, paid them off and haven't had any since.

I checked out the company online and while it seems they're really a company, they apparently have a very bad rep and people are saying they are receiving bills for credit they never had and I found it interesting to see that a lot of them listed the past due claim as $918.00 or very close. People are also saying they are getting bills for credit cards they defaulted on, paid a settlement, and now this company is going after them for it anyhow.

So, guess I'll wait and see what happens, but I don't plan on responding unless they try to sue for it, at which point I'll be more than happy to respond to the courts. However, the majority of people who said they received bogus bills from them totally ignored them and nothing happened, so I highly doubt they'd out themselves on bogus claims by bringing it to the court's attention.

I'm wondering though...who do you call to report stuff like this? I'm guessing that they do it because it's profitable, so there's probably people who see the big bill, panic, see that the one-time settlement offer is so much lower, and immediately write a check.

Oh, and the kicker. I turned the paper over and in small print on the back, it says that once they receive your check, you are automatically granting them permission to use the information on your check to withdraw from your bank account. It goes on to say that once they receive the check, the bill may be higher than it was at the time they sent the bill to you, so they may withdraw a higher amount. It also says they may do this the same day they receive the check and that you will not get your check back from your bank.

HMMMMM.

 

That's the kicker with the credit bureau. Yes, my id was stolen a few years ago, but now they don't believe I'm me and I gave up on the stupidity since it wasn't worth the stress and my credit was already shot by then, so let 'em have at it. I would love to turn it around and start having them pay my rent or something though. HA!

I seriously doubt this has anything to do with that though. Who would bother with all the hassle they would have to go through just to get a few hundred bucks on a credit card, then not pay it? If they seriously wanted to keep my identification, they'd build up the credit until it was good and then get a much higher limit and go have fun. At least that's what I would think of doing if I were a criminal! Then again, I guess criminals aren't known for being logical or they'd just get a job and not risk prison.