Who Called Us

I got a new phone # from a a different service and I'll be damned.These vultures left a message within ten minutes of the service being on stating they were debt collectors. Didn't say who they were calling for but I know it wasn't me. Thank GOD for phonetray. They'll be blocked!

They've been calling here 5-6 times a day; I have not answered and they do not leave messages on the voice mail. From the sound of things, they are "Zombie Debt" collectors. I have no debts since a bankruptcy in 1997(!) so they must be REALLY digging deep...

I get calls from this number every week, sometimes several times a day. I have a Panasonic phone that has the feature to block numbers. When I get a call from a number I blocked, Caller ID says blocked call and they get a busy signal and the caller is hung up on. I blocked this number because of the volume of calls. Very annoying.

Caller ID is Toll Free Calle. A Landline. Anderson Financial Network also known as AFNI Bloom, Corporate Headquarters, 404 Brock Drive, Bloomington, IL 61702-309. 800-767-2364; PO Box 3427, Bloomington, IL 61702-3427, Telephone: 1-877-403-0670, Fax: 309-828-0931, AFNI, INC, 1310 Martin Luther King Drive, Bloomington, Illinois United States of America Phone: 866-352-0458 This firm has a history of trying to collect from ancient and time-barred accounts, and filing false entries in credit reports. The queen bee CEO has paid out many times over in legal challenges.

They called again and I was able to get the phone. They were looking for another person with the same first initial and same last name but to whom I am not related and do not know!! They said they will remove my number. We'll see!!

I just received a call at 8:58 PM---rang 4 times and by the time I got the phone in my hand, it stopped. If it is in fact a debt collection agency, they have the wrong number because I have no debt!

Bill got it right .... Anderson Financial Network of Bloomington. This firm has a history of trying to collect from ancient and time-barred accounts, and filing false entries in credit reports. The queen bee CEO has paid out many times over in legal challenges.

As to these unhelpful calls you're getting, The FTC makes two demands of third party collectors which are sometimes in conflict. A collector must make "meaningful disclosure" of its identity yet respect the privacy of whoever is named on a debt account. Some collectors fear that leaving a message may expose account discussion to the wrong person, a punishable offense. Many others have turned to the clumsy practice of trying to get a person to self-authenticate in a canned mesage. Hence these absurd commands to stop listening if you're not the intended target.

The same motivation often has a live collector and call recipient dancing in circles trying to get each other to reveal an identity and call purpose. The more devious collectors use this forced ambiguity to their advantage, making incomprehensibly hurried messages calculated to both mask themselves and worry you enough to return the call.

There are ways to carefully satisfy both privacy and disclosure, but do remember the worst collectors don't care a whole lot where the payments come from or about your rights under the FDCPA. Learn them at FTC-dot-gov.

This number left a message on my answering machine and said if I wasn't the person they were asking for, then I should hang up and not listen to their message. They then proceeded to say this was an attempt to collect a debt and that I should call them asap at 1-866-352-0458. I have no debts that are delinquent or late and have no idea what they would be calling about and I do not plan to return the call.

Seems to come from Afni, Inc., a collector located in Bloomington, IL, with additional facilities/call centers or whatever in South Texas, Kentucky, Missouri and who-knows-where. No messages are left on your voice mail or answering machine. I got Afni’s name by calling the toll free number back with my own caller ID blocked to prevent its transmission to them. The call was answered by a recording at Afni, leaving me to wonder just how their name was spelled (Afnee, Aftny?). I got their name by searching the American Collectors Association website members directory with the company search term of “Af” and Afni was the only reasonable name that came up. Afni’s website indicates that they are primarily involved in insurance industry debts, subrogation, etc., but they are still definitely a debt collector.