I wonder if I can create a mass tort claim against the people responsible for episodes like this. Behold:
1. On March 28, I received a threatening letter from First Source, LLC, a debt collector. It alleged that I had an account with something called AfterPay U.S., which I have never heard of, for $750, that I never spent, for something that I still have no idea what it was. The letter also said that I now only owed $590.64, since I had paid $187.50, which I have not. My bank doesn’t thinks so either.
2. I called First Source, which …Hallelujah!…has an automated system that got me to a human being almost immediately. That human being was Rhea. She was cordial and professional, and did not constantly read from a script. She heard me out, and said that she would initiate a fraud investigation. I didn’t have to do anything more.
3. Yesterday I received two cheerful emails from AfterPay. Both involved alerting me that I had changed my email associated with my imaginary account. I hadn’t done anything regarding AfterPay, because I still don’t know what the hell it does other than charge people for stuff they never bought, and my email has been the same for 20 years. “Please log into your AfterPay account to view these changes. If this information is incorrect, please update so we have the most up to date information for you,” “Shiara” of Customer Support informed me. “Have a great day.”
Bite me, Shaira.
4. This morning I called FirstSource back to ask what’s going on. But instead of Rhea, I reached Michael, who appeared to be an idiot. As I tried to explain what had happened, he kept reading disclaimers and asking me for the same information I had already given to Rhea and that was already in my file, since it was repeated in the letter FirstSource had sent me. I told him, “I have a simple question you need to answer,” and he replied, “I can’t answer it because you keep interrupting me!” “No,” I said, “I keep asking you to stop reading a script that I have heard already, and to talk to me like a human being, and listen to what I am trying to tell you.” He hung up.
5. I called back and got Michael again. He acted as if we hadn’t just spoken second earlier. He read the same script, an asked me for the same information: my full name, my date of birth, my mailing address, and my “reference number.” It was literally de ja vu: a near exact replay of our previous conversation. This time, he said, “We have closed your account, so you will have to contact AfterPay.” Progress! He then gave me a phone number.
6. I called it. It didn’t work.
Ethics Alarms 
Jack,
Kind warning, but I wouldn’t engage any further with either Afterpay or the debt collector. If you didn’t spend the money, and you don’t know the company, and your bank knows nothing about it, leave it alone. The collector might be in on it with Afterpay or Afterpay is conning them also to legitimate their scam somehow. Either way, it does you no harm to leave it alone to rot on it’s own. If it shows up on your credit report (which it likely won’t, if it really is fraudulent) you can always contest it then.
My mother, now in her 70s, receives letters, phone calls, and emails like this on a near-daily basis. Changing her number has helped, but once someine begins to engage with scammers, they spread the information far and wide as a “easy mark.” BEWARE!
I don’t think ignoring it would be wise. First Source, LLC exists, AfterPay U.S. exists, they are both legitimate companies. I recommend sending the debt validation letter at a minimum. I’m concerned that ignoring this now may result in even more “red tape” to clean up later.
I only replied to your comment because I would be uncomfortable ignoring something like this where I got an actual letter in the mail rather than an email. If it were an email, I’d also say ignore it. Jack can still accept your advice.
Well, you probably know this but I’ll put it here just in case.
Send a debt validation letter to First Source, LLC by certified mail, return receipt requested. The FDCPA (Fair Debt Collection Practices Act) gives you 30 days from the first letter to request validation. Even though you called, the written request is legally binding. First Source then has to stop collection activity until they prove the debt is real.
Of course, this is spending even more time that you probably don’t have.
I’m sure other commenters will have some input.
It looks like First Source LLC is located in Mumbai, India, although they may have centers in the U.S.
I also thought this might be some sort of scam, even if the only purpose is to collect your personal information. I typically ignore any notices of “payments” for things that I haven’t any knowledge of, unless I hear about it from my bank.
It is also possible that this is the result of someone who has already obtained some of your personal information and was using the Afterpay app to purchase something and leaving you stuck with the bill.
Afterpay seems to be a real ” buy now, pay later” company, but probably mostly used by people who are less than savvy on finances & credit use. It’s also open to fraudsters setting up fake accounts using someone else’s stolen info, leaving the victims to fight collection attempts.
It’s a pain, but probably best to do as others have suggest and generate confirmable written disputes to all parties to protect your credit.
Unlike the other commenters, I am not a good source of advice. Instead, I am sharing in your pain. My second child is medically and educationally complex. She has medical supplies delivered here once a month. She has a 27 standing appointments each month for a combination of her doctors and her varied medical and educational therapies. Then there are the appointments that occur randomly (pulls out her specialized feeding tube requiring a 250 mile one way drive to get it put back in, for example), bimonthly, quarterly, etc. I also have four other children, all of whom need some degree of medical care, through the year, even if it is only the preventative type. What this means is that we get bills for medical/therapy/supplies all the time. It is not uncommon for us to also get bills where they typed in the insurance number wrong, or misspelled a name. Paperwork errors between insurance and doctors occur very often and I spend at least three hours figuring out the cause of the latest and greatest mistake made in medical and billing paperwork each month.
You have my sympathy! If you ever come up with a way to make poorly paid idiots learn how to actually help instead of read from a script written by a demented AI and to actually document (and furthermore, read previous documentation) your problems, I would love to hear it. Until then, I’ll waste a day and a half every year simply fighting on the phone with these issues.