• jordanlund@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Asking for proof of debt is actually a valid tactic.

    When I killed my land line and went cellular, oh, 30 years ago, I paid my last phone bill and cancelled.

    5 years later I got a call from collections saying I owed for the final bill.

    I apologized to them for Qwest wasting their time, told them what was up and asked for proof of debt for which I knew there was none.

    Never heard from them again.

    • BlueSquid0741@lemmy.sdf.org
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      3 months ago

      I was owed 30 cents or something by a TelCo about 20 years ago. So they sent me an invoice stating the debt every month. I asked them if they can just cut me a cheque or something and they said they wouldn’t for such a small amount.

      So I received a -30c payable invoice monthly for years until the company went out of business.

      • satanmat@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        This kind of shit cracks me up.

        They spent far more than that in postage.

        I’ve had similar with owing small amounts… where the letter they sent cost more in postage than was owed.

        You’d think someone in accounting would say something…. Hey let’s just ignore this one. ??

    • Zikeji@programming.dev
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      3 months ago

      When our “final balance” from the landlord (late fee + “repairs”) went to collections I asked for it, got all the documents, and forwarded it to my attorney along with everything else.

      Long story short they settled out of court, then didn’t fulfill the settlement contract (namely the bit about removing the erroneous reports against my credit), then wound up getting fined 50 grand by my local government.

        • Zikeji@programming.dev
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          3 months ago

          Fortunately my boss at the time was a lawyer, so he gave me alot of great advice throughout the entire ordeal.

          Unfortunately he didn’t do landlord/tenant disputes, his area is class action and credit related.

          So we waited until the landlord sent it off to the agencies, and he took the case on contingency.

          Unfortunately that fine was a fine and not an award / damages. I would have liked that cash influx lol.

    • ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca
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      3 months ago

      It’s actually what you’re supposed to do if the company calling you to collect isn’t the same company that you originally owed money to.

    • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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      3 months ago

      It doesn’t work as well with cars.

      Typically, the car title will show if there was a loan used to buy it, so it is already documented with the state as part of showing ownership. At that point, the owner of the car loan doesn’t have to talk to the owner of the car to repossess the car, they just need to talk to the state to transfer ownership.

  • deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz
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    3 months ago

    Is it selection bias in posts here or are all these sovcit stories just someone trying to wiggle out of a debt?

    • orcrist@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      Avoiding debt is common and easy to understand. The complicated stuff – claiming to be natives, or claiming that the case of the name is not the person, or claiming stuff about no contracts existing, etc. – you gotta study some to understand any of it, and of course there’s no point in learning those details.

      • deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz
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        3 months ago

        I’m reasonably sure all that manoeuvring is also to avoid some debt/creditors (or debtors, I can never remember which way around it goes).

    • BradleyUffner@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      That’s like 80% of what being a sovereign citizen is. The other 20% is arguing about the difference between driving and traveling.

      Ohh, and years of study and practice with protractors to get the exact right 45.0467 degree angle when writing random words that invalidates contracts.

    • BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.worldOPM
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      3 months ago

      Sovcits believe that when you are born the government sets up a secret trust worth 2 million dollars and you can use that trust to pay money if you send all sorts of stupid correspondence to your creditors that magically allows them to bill the mysterious trust.

    • deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz
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      3 months ago

      They don’t know what any of those words mean.

      To them it’s a magic spell in an arcane tongue.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        To be a little fair, have you looked at legal documents by lawyers, for lawyers? We get a faint taste with stuff like employment contracts or leases. The stuff lawyers send to each other and courts can get downright arcane.

    • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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      3 months ago

      Half probably do and are riding the scam train, the other half…I’m not sure what they think anymore. Imagine all that brain power used to create these logic circles that could be used constructively instead. I’m betting some of the first half are probably selling some how-to materials to the other half…

  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Proved they were their own creditor?

    That’s uhhhh, not how that works unless you have enough money that you’re not worried about a car repo.