CBCS SCAM - Know anyone?

First, let me assure you that I would NOT use a title like that just to get you to click on a sales letter. In fact, this email has nothing to do with online marketing at all -

Tonight I am writing you about a matter that is very upsetting to me. In fact, it angers me to my core - That might be too strong, but this is a situation with MASSIVE evidence of fraud, yet nobody actually DOES anything about it.

This story starts with a fake collection letter I received. The problem is that I received the exact same type of letter about a year ago - I thoroughly investigated my options and sought legal retribution. To my amazement, nothing could be done.

Here is the story:

A company called CBCS Collections sent me a letter offering me a "settlement" on a AT&T Broadband bill. I called and they told me the bill was from 1997. They claim the original bill was $153, but they are willing to settle for half.

I had this same experience about a year ago and investigated. I found out that HUNDREDS of complaints had been filed with the BBB. All the stories were the same - Fake collection bills for phone bills from 10-12 years prior.

Now, at the time they CLAIM I incurred this debt, I had just moved to seattle in 1997. At the time I lived on a friends couch - Nothing in the house was in my name, at all. I just gave my buddy some rent money every month.

That is when the alarm bells began ringing in my head. So I began to investigate a bit. I found all kinds of complaints filed against the SAME company for the SAME thing. Fake phone bills that they were sending to people everywhere in the US.

I talked to my fantasy buddies (yes, I'm a fantasy geek :) - Out of the 10 friends in my league, 1 of them was just about to pay his fake bill - $330! Another 2 people had friends who had paid the same thing. 1 of them told me his mom got one of those bills for $1,200 and the collection agency threatened to GARNISH her wages!

I filed complaints with the BBB - I filed a complaint with the Attorney General of Washington State. I called several attorneys - Nobody would touch it

Want to know why? Because if you go through all the hassle of actually suing a collection agency, you can win no more than $1,000 - That's IT!

What does this basically mean? It means that even if a collection agency breaks every rule in the book, you can't get more than $1,000 in settlement damages. And by having that cap, a collection agency really has NOTHING TO LOSE by sending out all of these fake charges.

Even now, as I went to search out CBCS on Google, I found Numerous complaints on message boards everywhere - The same exact story - Fake phone bills, threatening collection calls, etc.

Here are a few links to stuff I found regarding this company:

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/cbcs-c80613.html#c288056

http://www.universalhub.com/node/12807

http://www.thenoiseboard.com/index.php?showtopic=180957

These are only from a couple minutes of searching. The Complaints board is where I entered my own post -

There is a reason I am sending you this email. See, I have exhausted everything I could in order to do ANYTHING about this company and these malicious and fraudulent collection letters.

As 1 person, there is simply nothing I can do - I don't have enough power and I don't know enough people.

So I'm sending this out to you today, to see if you might know someone who can actually DO something about this.

And I'm not talking about me erasing my fake debt - As you can see, we have TONS of postings on all kinds of message boards about the same thing. Obviously that doesn't make any difference. I happen to know for a fact that my credit is nearly perfect - I've refinanced 2 homes 5 different times over the past 5 years - The last one coming just a few months back - Each and every time my credit had to be SPOTLESS. So yes, the bills are absolutely fake and fraudulent.

I'm not going to post another complaint though - That doesn't do ANYTHING.

I'm hoping that someone in my list might know someone with some power. Someone who can take some initiative and actually put up a real FIGHT against this kind of scam.

Maybe you know someone in politics who wants to make a name for themselves? Maybe you are part of a college newspaper. Maybe you are in Criminal Justice or studying Law. Whatever it is, posting another message on another website isn't getting it done - We need to take real action -

How about some real VIRAL action?

Pass this story on - In just a small sample size of my personal friends, I found several people who had these same fake bills.

Whatever you think might help, let me know - I will HAPPILY do whatever I can to put this to an end.

Just email me back - paulsteam08@gmail.com

I'll get back to online marketing soon, I promise - But this bothers me way too much to just sit on it and not try to do anything.

I'm not looking for money - I'm not looking for 15min's of fame - I just want this company and these practices to be shut down, for GOOD.