I had a similar incident and feel badly for all the other people who fall for this collections scam by ADHW.   They claimed I owned $65 but 3 years of interest and late fees totalling $280 dollars.  Said I never rec'd an invoice.  she said it was in the box with the goods.  They don't send invoices or statements.   When I said I would pay the $65 or some reduced fee, they wouldn't even take a credit card, and she (Anna Bills...probably not her real name of ADHW)  wanted my personal checking routing number and checking account number.    Then I knew for sure this was a scam.   She said I'll see you in court.  Interestly she was calling me under my divorced name of over 14 years ago....so until she gets my name right, I'm not worried.
Glad I looked this up on line to see all the other scams.  thanks for sharing.

Brittany Meyers at 562-867-6110 called today, Jan 14, 2014; this is her second call this year. (After the first call, I had googled the number and found other scams perpetrated re outstanding accounts.)  She informed me I owed for garbage bags and candles ordered from Disadvantaged Workers.  When I informed her that she was running a scam, she told me that my account would now be referred to an outside agency and to expect a letter from the courts within the month.  It seems the names (always female) may change, as well as the last four digits of the phone number, but their attempts to scam remain constant.

I received a message from Britney Meyers, phone number 562-867-6110, saying that I owed $240.99 for a bottle of $79 cleaner and brush that was allegedly delivered to my house on December 15, 2011.  She said that they left messages in 2012, but since I didn't respond, it was turned over to a collection agency.  Neither my husband, nor myself, recall receiving any messages in 2012 from ADHW regarding the goods.  I do remember having a conversation with a man from ADHW about the cleaners, and distinctly remember saying that I preferred natural cleaning agents, but I do not recall agreeing to purchase anything.  I called Ms. Meyers back and said that this sounded like a scam, and it's unfortunate to prey on people who might otherwise extend goodwill in purchasing something from an organization that claims to service the disabled.  I will be filing a complaint with the FTC.

You need to report them to your State Attorney Generals office, LE, and the FTC & FCC..

https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/#&panel1-1
https://esupport.fcc.gov/ccmsforms/form1088.action
http://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/

From reading the back posts, the laws violation mentioned is FDCPA and covers 3rd party collections not hippa, that's medical. So if they turned it over to a collections agency, the agency would have to cough up the proof of aka validation.. Also noted a complaint showing they sent something in the mail to someone unasked for then tried billing.  Anything sent to you that you did not request, order or ask for - you don't have to pay. Just talk to your local Postmaster about it, they will tell you this.  

http://800notes.com/arts/Jb8EW-eDhQA/harassin ... ou-need-to-know
http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fdcpajump.shtm
http://www.consumerfinance.gov/askcfpb/search ...
http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/pdf-0096-fair-credit-reporting-act.pdf

http://800notes.com/forum/ta-86217073a9c8dad/ ... 077595690349410
************
http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0258-fake-debt-collectors
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http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/pubs/pressreleases/extortion_scam.htm

My wife was called this afternoon from ADHW,Inc. by a woman identifing herself as Britney.   She claimed
we has ordered a pair of sissors in Dec. 2011, and owed more than two hundred dollars including the
purchase price and late fees.  She indicated that the late fees would be waived if we immediately
mailed a check to P.O. Box 1427, Bellflower, CA 90707, otherwise the bill would be sent to collections.
Britney's phone number is 562-867-6110.

I've found several nearly identical reports from other prior ADHW customers on line and am relieved that
this is a scam, but a rather distaseful one.  I hope you can deal with this problem as it must be quite
damaging to the real ADHW.

Same scam. Why would someone call around the holidays and tell me I have a late unpaid bill from 2011 for deoderized and I owed 59.00 to 210.00 late fees then to159.00 if I paid right now.  Same phone no. same language. SMH!

I also forget to put in a couple other things as well.  They told us that they don't send out mail anymore notifying of the charges and lateness of payment because "we have 10,000 delinquent accounts.  Most of them saying we didn't receive any notification."  I'm pretty sure she heard me in the background since we had our speakerphone on, say "oh so that's our fault that they can't properly contact the customers?"  My mom gets stressed out a lot due to age since she is 66 and more so this past year because she was diagnosed with breast cancer and she did beat it because luckily they caught it at the very earliest.  So she had that ordeal she went through.  She ended up getting all worked up during this and, I didn't think she yelled at the lady, just raised her voice a bit, and she had the gall to tell my mom "Ma'am (which my mom hates to be called), I need you to calm down and stop yelling."  She then gave my mom a lecture.  My mom looked like she was about to snap and talked to her in a voice where the person seems like they are going to go on a killing spree or rampage.  I then took over and told her "Look, you have no right to speak to my mother that way.  She just got hit with an almost 300 dollar bill due to your incompetence or whoevers and due to these b***s*** late fees.  So yes, she is going to be speaking in a manner that, just because you never had someone raise their voice or yell at you growing up because I'm guessing your parents were flakes and just gave you whatever the hell you wanted growing up, Ms. Daddy's little girl.  You think she is yelling?  Try being raised by her.  I have autism.  I was hell on wheels growing up due to my mental handicap.  So you saying that you employ handicap people, you should be more considerate.  So I say good day to you MA'AM!"  That obviously hurt her and she ended up hanging up after I gave her that rant lol

Yeah I was with my parents earlier today.  I usually go over on my days off and help them out around their house with stuff like mowing the lawn since they are 66 years old.  Sitting in our living room finishing up lunch.  This was around 2:30 in the afternoon.  They told my mom she was past due on a payment for 3" inch candles and some stretch wrap for about 112 dollars and the 18 months of late fees on top of that.  Ended up coming out to 298 bucks since they said it was 9.99 a month they charge.  They said the order was received on December 15th of 2011.  Well my memory is very good when it comes to things like that.  And since it was the day after my birthday, my recollection was very good.  I also ended up leaving for college 3 weeks later and there was nothing like the candles and wrap in that time frame.  Right away I knew something was up.  I ended up coming on here to see what their reputation was like and I saw all these comments and that was enough for me.  We were talking with each other in the background and my mom and dad were chatting with each other and my mom was like "as a CPA, you would know if we had something outstanding like this going on, right dear?"  About an hour later, and after talking to supervisors, one of the supervisors calls back and says "After looking over your account and everything, I am deciding that we are going to wave the charges completely and just so none of this happens again in the future."  And I love what my mom replied with after she told us this.  "Oh you can guarantee there will be no future involving you."  Apparently they do like to hide behind the "Privacy Act."  Where they can't go into detail regarding situations.  All they can say is "You are behind on payment.  Please call us back."  We also have a family therapist that I took initiative in contacting during this event.  We all agreed that they love to use scare tactics.  Obviously from all these comments we could tell.  They also like to say you purchased some item far enough back to where you can't clearly remember if you did purchase it or not, or if you received it or not.  Just thought I would share my story with everyone else on here

I got several calls from a woman named Sandra at 562-867-6119 from the end of August to the end of September,2013. she said that she was with the department of ADHW Inc. which collects past due payments and that she would give me a chance to pay them before it went to outside collections.  Now that I think of it they may have tried to scam me in the past as well. I am always up to date with my bills so when she told me that I owed $59.99 from an order of light bulbs that were sent on Dec 15, 2011 it seemed odd that it would be outstanding for so long.  I called her back on Sept 27 and told her that I had looked at all my records and did not see any record of the payment or order.  She said I could pay with a check by phone. She said that the bill with past interest was over $200 but that she would only charge me $179.87 to get it resolved now. I asked for their address and she said PO Box 1357 City of Bellflower, CA 93747. I asked for the public phone number and she said that I would have to go through her since they hired disabled workers who called from different numbers. I mentioned the Better Business Bureau and then she got angry and said she was sending it to collections and hung up.

Thank you for having these posts so I know what I was up against. Call from 526 area code from Sandra Garcia - said she was from collections and I had purchased trash bags from ADHW and never paid, was $49.99 now with fees $229.81, but if I sent a check today only $149.89.  Wanted check mailed to PO Box 1427 Bellflower CA 90707.  My gut told me it was wrong, but so glad to have this confirmation.  Thank you!

6/13/2013 -- received the same type call --that I owed $69 and trashbags from Dec 2011.  Said they would send to collections and that "I will get the money--have a good day" in a very hateful manner.

I received the very same kind of call this evening from an Al Davis of American Trust, phone number 949-356-1761 (information from my ID caller). I allegedly owe the Disadvantaged Workers of America over $320 on a $79 order I allegedley placed in 2011. I've never received a call or a bill from them, and certainly have received no goods. I want to "publish" this name and number as a warning to other potential scam victims. I have filed a complaint with my state attorney's office.

My mother is 67 years old with perfect credit to say the least. She recieved a similar call but it was from a
diffrent number. The company name showed up on the caller id as DHWA INC, number being 562-804-4796.
The message was left by a Rita Sanchez stating my mother has an outstanding balance with ADHW that is being turned over to collections. She gave a a callback number 562-804-4779. When she attempted to
investigate these allegations, the number given  just rang and rang with no answer from a person or answering service. We are outraged, as we have puchased things from these people in the past, my father was
disabled and we tried to help others just like him. My father passed in 98, and we have not since purchased anything from this"organization", but continue to recieve calls often from them. A year or so ago i recieved a call from a man from the same ADHW, and i kindly told him to remove our name from his calling list. He informed me that he wud not do so and that he was going to put me down for an order for something. I expressed again that i would nt be purchasing anything from them and that he was not to call our house again. With that i terminated the phone call. He immediately called back, thus causing a heated arguement and many profanities being used, not only from my end but his as well!!! I was in shock and since just ignore all phone calls with this name on the caller id. I was shocked and dismayed to see this has been an ongoing problem and otherwise scam from a place we have donated to thinking it was a legitimate charity, we didnt even care about the product. I will follow the advice i have recieved here and thank those that have shrared their experiences to help better educate me.

Hipaa law is about medical privacy, not trash bags.

I'm 59 years old and have never had anything turned over to collections in my life. I pay all my bills on time. That's why it was really shocked to receive a call, similar to those above that I owed a bill from 2010 for trash bags (49.99) with all the late fees amounting to $229. 91. This order was supposedly made by me on the phone. Goodness knows, we receive a lot of stuff in the mail in the hopes that we'll contribute to a certain cause, and I may have received them. I have a dim recollection of receiving some trash bags (very flimsy) and wondering "what tha?"  I'm fairly certain I never ordered them because I screen all calls, and never pick up for solicitations. This is brutal for my friends who have to listen to the message every time they call, but I avoid solicitations like this because I have chosen my own charities and I stick to them. Here's the RUB about this company. Until Sept.2012 (yesterday and today), they never left a message on the machine stating that I owed any money to them. When I asked why she hadn't, she told me it was HIPAA law that they didn't. Well, I'm wondering why she did break the HIPAA law (yesterday and today) to finally let me know I owed something. This has to be an unlawful, scamming way of making money.

I have just recieved the 3rd attempt from the same named scammers in the last year. The FTC will be hearing about this. Just report them and don't respond to them, IT'S A SCAM !

I just received an almost identical call with collections threat.  Light bulbs and don't think I received anything December 15, 2010 as the lady says.  Her name is Kimberly Wash.

On yesterday, June 14, 2012 I received a call from this number requesting that I call them concerning a bill being referred to collections.  I called back and the phone rang about thirteen times before a very inaudible oriental woman came on answering machine.  I decided to do a reverse lookup and found this website.  A Kim Wash called me todayand said I owed a principal balance of $49.95 plus 17 months of late charges at 9.99 per month for some 15 gallon trash bags.  I denied the charges and she let me speak with a Lisa Garret (supervisor),.  She repeated the same junk.  She gave me an "invoice number" and stated that she had proof that I had ordered and received the bags.  I told her that I had looked the number up through reverse lookup and that I knew they were bogus, not registered with BBB, FTC, and that I didn't owe any money.  She said she was closing the account out, and sending to collections, I am reporting to BBB, and FTC, as well as state attorney general.  They are ridiculous.  Noone should be duped by them.

Received a message from 'Kimberly Wash' with DHWA Inc.

I had a message on my machine yesterday when I got home.  It was barely audible, so I couldn't make out the woman's name (I do know that it wasn't the same name as the one the phone number is listed under). She said she was from DHWA and I had something unpaid that was going to be sent to collections.  She left a callback number of 562-866-1361.  I had no idea what this was about but I take my credit seriously, so I called the number this morning.  It didn't ring through.  It didn't sound quite like a busy signal, and something about it made my antenna go up.  I went online to see what I could find out.  This is the information that came up in the reverse directory for this number:  
Agueda L Mercado
(562) 866-1361
15729 Blaine Ave
Bellflower, CA 90706-3613
Age: 35-39
Associated:  Franco Mercado

I did some more searching and came across this website.  I now know this is a scam.  Thanks so much for the heads-up!

i'm a credit specialist and i'v had complaints about this company from my clients in the past, the best you can do is report companys like this to FTC if they heard all these complaints the FTC would be on top of it by now

I just received a call from this number about an hour ago, which is disheartening after seeing these older posts and realizing they've been running this same scam for some time and haven't been stopped. I was told by a 'Lisa' that I'd purchased a Fire Extinguisher in December of 2009, with a recorded order and delivery confirmation. Unlike many of thes comments, she was very polite but said this was my last opportunity to take care of the debt before being turned over to a credit collection agency on Monday. I told them she would have to do that as I wasn't making any payment, she thanked me for my time and wished me good luck with collections. I believe this is the name of the company or close to it that we have ordered from in the past to help, purchasing light bulbs or trash bags. A brother happened to be here and suggested checking the number...here we are. Why have they been able to continue, even using this same phone number?

I also received several messages from Frances Mitchell stating that I owed for candles ordered in 2009.  She stated that I was being turned over to collections on Fri. The number was 562-866-1361.

My wife Kathleen received a phone call today from a lady who stated she is Mercadu Azueda. She mentioned that my wife has a past due bill from December 2009 from ADHW.  My wife informed them that she only purchased through Lifeline Industries. She writes checks only to Lifeline Industries.  She told them that they had the wrong person, and we thanked her and then hung up the phone.   I thought right away that it may be a scam.

Same issue.  Has now called us twice. Telling us we owe for garbage bags from Dec 2010 for $89 PLUS $13 a month late fee!   Told her we had ordered trash bags in past but had stopped several years ago due to extremely poor quality.  We stated it was very hard to imagine that they never sent another bill or contacted us in the one year it supposedly had not been paid.   She also said that she had a post office confirmation note...HA! Each time we asked for a printed copy of bill to be sent... told us they can't do it because it was already on it's way to collections.... Asked for supervisor, told we could only talk to person calling.  Asked for contact information for corporate office, would only give us the 33-802-9319 number.  Finally told her I looked forward to meeting her in court!

same thing happened to us just now. (almost 7:00 Fri nite) only they wanted $100 for trash bags from 2009! Can you say SCAM!?

Help for The Disadvantaged of America
4059 West Washington Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90018

Demand validation. They can't send you to collections without first proving you legitimately owe what they claim you owe.--and they are breaking the law by threatening you over an unvalidated debt, to boot. Send them a letter VIA certified mail with return receipt requested demanding validation. This is your right under the FDCPA. They have five days to respond. If they continue calling or take you to court without furnishing proof you legitimately owe the alleged debt, you can sue them right back.

Go here to obtain a template for the letter and to read more on your consumer protection rights under the FDCPA:

http://www.fair-debt-collection.com/

I received the same message from a Francis Mitchell on my answering machine.  The caller ID had the no. 562-866-1612.  The call back no. she left was 562-866-1728.  She said that I would be turned over to collections for an unpaid bill.  I have not yet returned the call.  When I do, I will tell them that I know they are a scam and that I am reporting them to my state's attorney general and filing a complaint with the police.

THIS BUSINESS IS NOT BBB ACCREDITED
Help for The Disadvantaged of America
(323) 766-1762
4059 West Washington Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90018

F On a scale of A+ to F

Reason for Rating

Factors that lowered this business's rating include:

Failure to respond to 3 complaint(s) filed against business
1 serious complaint(s) filed against business
Overall complaint history with BBB

BBB does not have sufficient background information on this business. BBB made at least two requests for background information from business. BBB has not received a response from business and/or has not been able to verify information received from business.

Complainants allege high pressure sales tactics, receipt of unwanted merchandise, and high priced products. In a few cases, complainants allege that the company solicits senior citizens who are unable to make sound financial decisions. Some customers allege they were sent 5 lightbulbs, and billed $224.00. The company responds to some complaints by informing the complainant that all phone calls are recorded as proof of consent, and that if they return the product, a refund will be issued. One or more complaints are unresolved meaning the company failed to properly address the complaint allegations or their response was inadequate.

BBB file opened: 6/20/2006
Contact Information
Vera Hylton - Manager

Business Category
Merchandise Retail By Telephone

Alternate Business Names
Help for The Disadvantaged of America
Disadvantage Workers

http://www.la.bbb.org/business-reviews/Mercha ... es-CA-100034641

Send them a letter VIA certified mail with return receipt requested demanding validation. This is your right under the FDCPA. They have five days to respond. If they continue calling or take you to court without furnishing proof you legitimately owe the alleged debt, you can sue them right back.

Go here to obtain a template for the letter and to read more on your consumer protection rights under the FDCPA:

http://www.fair-debt-collection.com/

Received a several called from this Joanne Whitworth stating she was from ADHW calling to collect a past due bill that would be turned over to collections by 5:00 Friday afternoon.  I called back and had to leave a message.  She called me back and left another message on my machine.  Then I get a call on Saturday from this Francis Mitchell, but the number was 323-802-9810.  She said I had ordered towels from them a year ago and had recorded confirmation and proof of delivery that I had received them.  I do not remember ordering any towels from them and told her I did not order towels that cost $124.  She was very rude and hateful.  Said that I owed $12 a month in late fees so my total was like $287.  I told her that I would not pay that.  She said I will see you in court.  I thought it sounded like a scam