Thieves in the mailbox: District Restitution

So my wife got a letter claiming to be from a collection agency (see PDF):

• mailing address is Ontario Canada
• return address is a bulk-mailing company
• "We respectfully demand you not contact our client for any reason . . ."

So I called them up to find out about this "Holly Wilson" only to learn her SSN does not match my wife's nor does her birth year come even close to my wife's true birthday (after +35 years, you eventually learn that critical date, second only to the anniversary.)

So I wrote a reply letter (see PDF) and asked for more details about this incident. We also asked 'what court' so we could contact the court clerk and provide my wife's identification. We also asked for their lawyer and address so we could check his bar status and business license. These are all public records . . . <crickets> <crickets>

A couple of days later, I call back and learn,"9011 Randall address taken off file." I had to call them, they never returned my call. But I didn't really like what happened and starting looking into it.

It turns out the Canadian address is a hotel that has a UPS store with a "drop box." I spoke with the clerk and asked who is the client? She said,"Oh that has been closed." I am thinking about sending an insured, certified letter with signature required just to test it.

I called the Canadian authorities and they said,'You must first file a local police report.' So I went downtown and the desk clerk asked,'Did you send any money?' I said 'no' and he told me 'no crime has been committed so we won't take your report.' So I visited the Better Business Bureau.

The BBB contacted their Canadian office and got a report on "District Restitution" ... "F" with multiple complaints of failure to respond to customers. The lady at the BBB cited the "do not contact our client" as a red-flag.

So apparently if a crook doesn't get 'your money,' no one really cares. It will take the pain of others to get law enforcement to do anything about these crooks. Why do I care?

• I'm Southern.
• They tried it on my wife.

Bob Wilson