A Much More Important Question

[savage1]

Ok-I made an ass of myself earlier with the mouse question.
Coincidentally something else happened today, and I need some good sound opininion or legal advice:
Anyways, I just checked my mail late today and received an unexpected surprise in the way of a $25 processing fee for from the Budget Rental Company for an alleged red light violation as well as going on line as directed and finding that I owe the city of Arlington Texas an additional $75 for the alleged red light violation.
Details:
My wife and I and son were in Texas during late August on vacation to see some Sox games and to visit a friend of my wife who lives is that area.
For the last five days of the trip we rented a car from Budget Rental Car which I returned in the condition in which I received it.
To my knowledge I didn't run any red lights.
I checked on line and found out that the violation was issued by some kind of automatic device(we don't have them in Mass.) which says I went through a red light.
They have a video on line showing my car a few feet from the light and showing the light as being red.
The next photo show my car past the red light which I guess "proves" that I actually went through the light.
I have never received a red light ticket in Mass. and for that matter any kind of ticket in years(one warning for going a little over the speed limit but thats it).
My wife stated she recalls that at one time I went through a red light in Texas because it didn't change after several minutes-she couldn't remember exactly where though, and I don't recall the incident.
Now I was also told in the letter that I can play them directly or if I don't, the credit card I used to rent the car in will be charged the $25 if I don't pay by Oct. 6.
I was also told that the $75 charge from the city of Arlington will be sent to me if I don't pay it on line.
There is an appeal process in either case.
A few other things to consider-the notice I received from the processing agency was sent regular mail and was simply left in my mailbox meaning that I didnt sign anything to say I had received it.
The processing agency said if I don't pay it and/or I refuse the charge on my credit, they will use a collection agency, and some other threatening language.
I haven't received the official $75 tocket from the city of Arlington yet and/or what they will do if I don't pay it.
Anyways, the obvious question is what would YOU do under the circumstances?
For now I am not going to make any appeal because that would acknowledge I received the notice nor am I going to call the processing center.
I think the whole thing is totally fucking outrageous for this agency to come back to me almost a month later and tell me that I have a red violation which was not even isssued by a real person.
If I did appeal to the City of Arlington, then what-am I supposed to fly back to Texas to show up in court? lol
I wonder how the State of Mass. would regard this if I refuse to pay-would they take away my license, etc.?
Anyways, I think the whole thing is outrageous, and is just a way to try to extort money and/or try to scare people who live out of state.
For that matter I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't some kind of kickback to car rental agencies if folks pay the $75.
I would love to hear any and all opinions on this matter and thanks for at least taking the time to read my complaint.

[tech fan]

Its a scam savage heard about this scam a while back.it used to go like this.someone would call and say you were did not show up for jury duty and you were going to be put in jail if you did not pay the charge.people will end up giving this guy all of thier information to this caller just because they dont want to go to jail.now they are using it again with the red light camera's.what they do is call u tell u that if you dont pay that u will be charged alot more $$$$$ in late fee's.then they call you back the next day and say that they made a mistake and that lets u let your guard down and they never take the charges off.i left off alot of the details but this is a scam

[BettorsChat]

First off do you have the pictures of you running the red light? If so share them.

Second if it's legit I still say kiss my ass. They can't do jack shit to you except turn it in on your credit history.

[savage1]

Tech-I am not quite sure I understand everything you are saying.
The violation and citation numbers are all in the letter and they have actual pictures of the car I rented at the site-it is the car I rented.
If I am going to do anything, at the very least I am going to wait until I receive my official notice from the city of Arlington.
If/when they try to charge my $25, I will of course contest it.
I am going to patient at this point and do nothing.
Speaking of scams, I have received at least hal a dozen phone calls during the last few weeks including today from people with accents telling me that I have won anywhere from $950000 to 2.5 million and to cut to the chase and bull shit, that for a mere "processing fee" of $275 to as much as $450 with some kind of loaded credit or is debit card I can purchase at CVS I will receive my money.
I played around with the first person who called me before telling him to go fuck himself and hanging up the phone, but then when I got more of these calls(the first was from Washington State and others with an area code of Jamaica on my caller id and some listed as private), I called the local branch of the FBI and left a message and contacted the Attorney General's Office in Mass.
To make a long story short, the FBI NEVER even called me abck the Mass. Attorney General's Office sent me a form which I filled out and returned.
Are some of you folks out there getting phone calls like this or are they just trying to prey on other folks like me?

[BettorsChat]

Texas red light camera scam yet to reach Hampton Roads - Daily Press

red light camera's scam - Bing

[BettorsChat]

Tech-I am not quite sure I understand everything you are saying.
The violation and citation numbers are all in the letter and they have actual pictures of the car I rented at the site-it is the car I rented.
If I am going to do anything, at the very least I am going to wait until I receive my official notice from the city of Arlington.
If/when they try to charge my $25, I will of course contest it.
I am going to patient at this point and do nothing.
Speaking of scams, I have received at least hal a dozen phone calls during the last few weeks including today from people with accents telling me that I have won anywhere from $950000 to 2.5 million and to cut to the chase and bull shit, that for a mere "processing fee" of $275 to as much as $450 with some kind of loaded credit or is debit card I can purchase at CVS I will receive my money.
I played around with the first person who called me before telling him to go fuck himself and hanging up the phone, but then when I got more of these calls(the first was from Washington State and others with an area code of Jamaica on my caller id and some listed as private), I called the local branch of the FBI and left a message and contacted the Attorney General's Office in Mass.
To make a long story short, the FBI NEVER even called me abck the Mass. Attorney General's Office sent me a form which I filled out and returned.
Are some of you folks out there getting phone calls like this or are they just trying to prey on other folks like me?

You seem to get a lot of shit. Never heard of the phone crap as I get it in my e-mail enough. On the phone I just block people who try to call all the time.

[savage1]

First off do you have the pictures of you running the red light? If so share them.

Second if it's legit I still say kiss my ass. They can't do jack shit to you except turn it in on your credit history.

I have pictures and will try to share the link if permitted to to so-it is kind of a complicated process to get to the photos and renter numbers as well as password and violation and citation numbers must be given before photos are relased.
It is late and I will try to do this later on today.
Right now all I am going to is wait until/if they try to charge my credit card $25 and then contest the charge.
Re: the $75 charge, if they send it return receipt requested, I will tell them that I am not going to pay it and tell them that the light was broken and/or that there was no interval between the time the light turned yellow and red.
ps I remember about 10 years ago or so my first wife and I were in Ft. Lauderdale, and I had my own car as we drove there.
Well, we parked our car one day to go shopping and I put enough money in the meter to cover around $1.00.
We returned anout one hour and 10 minutes later and sur enough there was a parking violation for around $15 on the windshield with all kinds of threats on it if I didn't pay it-it was obviously an attempt to extort money from an out of state driver.
I still remember ripping it up on the spot.
Several weeks later I received a letter from them after I returned to Mass. with not only the original charge but a late fee.
Instead of simply ripping it up again, I took the notice and attached a letter saying that their meter was broken and that I had put in sufficient money and sent it back.
I never heard from them again.

[savage1]

Texas red light camera scam yet to reach Hampton Roads - Daily Press

red light camera's scam - Bing

Wow-thanks so much for that!
I am not convinced that this is actually the same thing as no one has called me yet and he rental number they have is accurate.
That said, one thing my wife pointed out is that the car shown at red light doesn't appear to have anyone sitting in the back seat-my wife and child were with me at the time of this alleged violation.
Anyways, I will try to figure out a way to post the photos and I may call the regular Budget Office to see if the plate numbers match the ones shown in photo as i am not sure I still have the original rental agreemen which might show the plate number-this could prove to be interesting!

[tech fan]

texas red light camera scam yet to reach hampton roads - daily press

red light camera's scam - bing

savage if you have not looked yet go to the second link that is listed here saying bing and look at the yahoo option it is near the top i think its the top on on the main list and this will tell you basicly what i told you even brings up the jury duty thing i was telling you about,like i said i did not go to far into detail.

[tech fan]

Also savage dont be fooled by your caller id.alot of apps are available on smartphones where you can change what the person receiving the call shows.for instance i could type in new york state patrol phone number then call you and your caller id will show that i am calling from that number.if they dont use that the person will say something to the fact that they have a new extension and its not set up in the caller id system yet.like i said they will call you back 2 days after you give them the info and when you hear that they had the wrong car and they tell you that your card wont be charged,you are so glad and think its legit you never go back and check with the credit card company until its to late and they already cash it,

[kbsooner21]

It's $25. It's legit. Pay it and move on.

[Spark]

Savage, I was lucky enough to have received 2 camera citations. My area around here has camera's on mostly every intersection. On both citations they have sent me a link to a video of the violation with my license plate blown up.


$100 fine's

[vols fan]

Savage, I was lucky enough to have received 2 camera citations. My area around here has camera's on mostly every intersection. On both citations they have sent me a link to a video of the violation with my license plate blown up that read 1OLDFART


$100 fine's

Guess you couldn't deny that one could you

[savage1]

Savage, I was lucky enough to have received 2 camera citations. My area around here has camera's on mostly every intersection. On both citations they have sent me a link to a video of the violation with my license plate blown up.


$100 fine's

Spark-did you pay them?
I am not going to pay them and am going to contact Mass. Motor Registry for advice about this.
I don't care what the cameras show-as far as I am concerned, the light was either broken or the yellow switched to red so suddenly there was no time to stop.
At this moment I am simply going to ignore the $25 Administration fee and the $75 actual fine if and when I get it.
ps Thanks to all who have contributed to this so far and I haven't forgotten about trying to post the actual photos later-have some errands to do at the moment.
ps I still have to make it clear if I read things right, that this incident appears to be different that those from those of the phone call variety as I was sent actual notices with legitimate links, etc. and there have been no phone calls yet.

[Spark]

Spark-did you pay them?
I am not going to pay them and am going to contact Mass. Motor Registry for advice about this.
I don't care what the cameras show-as far as I am concerned, the light was either broken or the yellow switched to red so suddenly there was no time to stop.
At this moment I am simply going to ignore the $25 Administration fee and the $75 actual fine if and when I get it.
ps Thanks to all who have contributed to this so far and I haven't forgotten about trying to post the actual photos later-have some errands to do at the moment.
ps I still have to make it clear if I read things right, that this incident appears to be different that those from those of the phone call variety as I was sent actual notices with legitimate links, etc. and there have been no phone calls yet.

yeah I paid them. Video clearly showed me turning right on red without coming to a complete stop!!! I was dead in the water