My mother fell victim to fraud regarding her mobile account. The amount of charges went up close to $30,000. She had the phone company open up an investigation on the issue and they ended up siding with my mother and got rid of all the charges. However, they ended up contacting my mother about a month later and said there was an “issue” with the investigation and went back on it.
The person who contacted us from the mobile phone company ended up saying they will only send about $12,000 to collections. We ended up filing a police report for investigation. They concluded that my mom was indeed a victim, but was not able to do much outside of that since the fraud came from overseas. This is on record with the police department.
She ended up getting a letter from the billing department regarding the debt. But it was for the full amount. Not the $12,000 that was supposed to be sent. We initially thought this was some sort of scam letter at the time since the billing calls were coming from India.
She just got a debt collection notice from a legitimate collection agency for the full amount. I am in the process of helping her wright back to dispute all or at least part of the debt.
I am wondering what should she do about this. What details should/shouldn’t she give to the debt collectors for the response? Should I try to talk to the debt collectors first, or should I lawyer up first to fight this? What kind of lawyers should I look into if so? And how much would be a rough estimate for a lawyer for this case?
I am open to any other advice as well.