LEAD: RACHELLE CAGNER opened her mail last Sept. 26 and found a letter from the Corporate Accounting Office of the Disbursement Center. In exchange for ''confirmation'' of her Social Security number, date of birth, telephone number and address, the letter said the office would forward ''a check'' for ''funds on deposit'' in her name.
RACHELLE CAGNER opened her mail last Sept. 26 and found a letter from the Corporate Accounting Office of the Disbursement Center. In exchange for ''confirmation'' of her Social Security number, date of birth, telephone number and address, the letter said the office would forward ''a check'' for ''funds on deposit'' in her name.
To most people, that might sound like a pretty good offer. Ms. Cagner thought so. If the Disbursement Center wants to disburse some funds, far be it from her to get in the way, she thought. But then she remembered that the New York State Comptroller's office once tracked down a friend to give him some undisbursed funds and no one ever asked him to confirm his Social Security number.
When she took a second look at the letter she saw there was no Social Security number to confirm, let alone anything else to confirm, just empty blanks to fill in.
''That's what tipped me off,'' she said. ''If someone has money for you they will have your Social Security number and ask you if it's the right one. They were trying to take me for a fool.''
The Disbursement Center is a collection agency and what it was trying to do, according to the New York State Attorney General's office, was collect information so that it could collect money. It got in touch with Ms. Cagner, and probably a number of other people with her name, because it was trying to track down a debtor named Cagner, according to Dennis Rosen, an assistant Attorney General in Buffalo.
Mr. Rosen said that the Disbursement Center, which has clients that include the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company, the Chase Manhattan Bank and the Marine Midland Bank, has mailed more than 30,000 such letters since 1983 to people throughout the nation, telling them that if they write back the center will send them a check for untold amounts of unclaimed funds.
If they turn out to be the debtors in question, instead of a check they get dunned, he said, and if they turn out not to be the debtors, they either hear nothing again or receive a check for $1. Mr. Rosen said the company makes $600,000 to $900,000 a year from this business.
Mr. Rosen said the Disbursement Center and two other collection agencies, Locator Associates and Credit Bureau of Chautauqua County, in Dunkirk, N.Y., are owned by Ronald Merwin. Last week Attorney General Robert Abrams sued Mr. Merwin and his three collection agencies to stop them from mailing their letters.
The suit charges that the agencies have violated the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act of 1978 and the provisions of New York State's General Business Law that bar collection agencies from deceiving people to collect from or locate debtors.
Mr. Merwin referred a reporter's inquiry about the mailings to his attorney, J. Joseph Wilder, who did not return the telephone call. A call to the Disbursement Center was answered with a recorded message, which identified the collection agency as a ''marketing and survey organization'' and urged callers to fill out their ''computer form'' and return it. ''A check and survey will soon follow,'' the tape said.
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