To Whom It May Concern Please Close My Account - Number: Fill & Download for Free

I moved out of my home state 18 years ago when I got married. I had ran a small consulting business as a sole proprietorship and had an account with the state department of revenue so that if I ever sold anything taxable in the course of my business I could remit taxes. I had the account for about 5 years and never sold anything taxable. It wasn’t a big burden. Every quarter I had to file a return, which consisted of sending in a small form with all zeroes on it.When I moved out of state, I sent in my last form along with a note that said simply “I’m moving out of state, please close my account. Thank you.” I thought nothing more of it.Five years later we started the process of buying another house, and during our financing I got a copy of our credit report. I was surprised to find two negative entries regarding judgements against me. After digging, I found that I had been sued in my hometown by the state department of revenue and they had two default judgements against me, each for a different amount of around $550.That was odd.So I called the department of revenue and asked who their lead counsel was. I got him on the phone. I have the ability to remain calm even when pissed, thankfully.I gave him the case #s and he looked them up and found the problem. I hadn’t turned in my statements for the first two quarters of the year after I moved, so they had billed me those amounts (around $550) and then sued me when I didn’t respond to the bills. Since I didn’t show up in court, they got default judgements on each.I first let him know that I had moved out of state and had included a note making this clear when I moved. I then asked where the amounts that I supposed owed even came from, and said “it looks like a computer just made those numbers up.”He assured me that, no, it wasn’t a computer making them up. Instead, it was calculated based on my prior remittances.Me: You do know that all of my prior reports were for $0 and I had no remittances?Him: Oh.Me: I program computers for a living. If the computer was actually basing it on my prior remittances it would have come up with $0.Him: Yeah….Me: So the number that it says I owed was made up by a computer program.Him: (sheepishly) Yeah, I suppose so.Me: And it’s odd to me that I was charged random amounts for two quarters and then it stopped. Why is that? Why isn’t it still making up numbers that I supposedly owe?Him: Well, after two quarters of not receiving reports the computer closed your account.Me: That’s nice, but it’s two quarters too late. I now have fraudulent charges on my sales tax account that have led to false information on a credit report.Him: Now, wait a minute, there’s no fraud involved. That word has a special meaning in a legal sense.Me: Yes. Let’s think about this. What do I actually owe the state?Him: Apparently nothing.Me: You are correct. And yet someone in your organization has - and mark my words carefully - falsely claimed in court that I did owe something.Him: Well, we thought you did.Me: Why? Because your computer made up a number and you believed it without doing any research of any kind? You had my phone number. Did anyone call to see if I was still there? Did you send a letter?Him: Well, no, we just file the lawsuit and depend on service.Me: And, the result of service? Look, we both know the answer here, don’t we?Him: (sigh)Me: Are you familiar with the federal legal structure around credit reports, specifically the penalties for providing false information that ends up in a report?Him: Somewhat.Me: Good, then this will be easy. You will first go back to the court in my hometown and do whatever it takes to get the judgement reversed, whatever. I don’t know much about that, but when someone asks them about the cases we’re talking about the answer from the court is going to be “we don’t have information about that”.Him: I don’t know if we can do that.Me: Do what you can, then. Find out. Second, you will write a letter to each of the big three credit reporting agencies referencing these items, and I will be cc’d on this letter. You will mention your position as lead counsel for the _____ state department of revenue, reference the case #s, note that they were made in error and that nothing is owed and nothing ever was owed.Him: Okay.Me: Finally, you will send a letter to me. The letter will state that your computer made an error which resulted in these charges, tell me what steps you took to resolve this problem and will state that I owe nothing to the state of _____ and never have.Him: Okay, that sounds fair.I received the letter two weeks later, along with copies of his very nice letters to the credit reporting agencies and an extra “to whom it may concern” that I could use any other place. I called a buddy who works for the court back in my hometown and found that the attorney had indeed called and said that case had been filed in error, but I don’t know what came of that. I didn’t care since nobody was trying to collect from me.

I can definitely say now a day ICICI bank is the worst bank in India. In my last 12 years of experience as a customer with this bank, I can say its services are deteriorating day by day in the Chanda Kochhar way. They have vowed to follow the foot step of Ms. Kochhar to exploit the public money by hook or crook. Do you know if you are a customer of a bank, then you are treated as a God. And Gods are not supposed to do any mistake ! If you are doing fund transfer through internet and you have done a mistake and lost your money, do you know there is less chance that your money is recovered ? Moreover do you know your bank is incapable enough to recover your money ? Then read on…I had a wrong transaction of Rs 5000, 4 months ago from my ICICI Bank account to an Andhra bank account. After 10 days, I filed a complaint in my bank and a service request (SR) was opened. I patiently waited for 35 days but with no solution the SR was closed. In between whenever I asked the customer care, they told me every time like a puppet that the beneficiary account has been lean marked after your complaint and the account has not sufficient balance so you have to wait, when the customer deposits money, you will get it back. But I had inquired from Andhra bank that the account had sufficient balance so that I can get my money back. But what is required is the customer consent. After some days, with no help from bank’s end, I approached the customer. After 2 months of hide and seek, the customer agreed to co-operate but as their account was in the name of a school I had to personally write a letter to their management telling it was a wrong transaction and please return my money back and got the application deposited at their office. After that when they went to Andhra bank, the clerk there took a cheque of that amount and removed the lean mark from the beneficiary account. Now I had a ray of hope and I thought now I will be able to get my money back.But my nightmare began when after 25 days elapsed and I did not get my money back. When I approached the ICICI Bank they told me to contact Andhra bank and vice-versa. (Their answer was like “kis bank main wrong transfer ho gaya hai ? to us bank ko mail kardo na, hum kuchh nahin kar sakte”, “Aap ka account kis bank main hai ? to aapka bank ko bolo hamara bank head office ko mail karne ke liye”) When I went to ICICI bank nearest branch they told me to contact their customer care and vice-versa. They did not want to do any work but act as guinea pigs only. They did me left and right in last 4 months. Earlier I had also put a complaint in RBI and they had given me a reference number but no action was taken. I was in a dilemma now where to go ? whom to approach ? So again I thought where the money is trapped ? It is Andhra bank. So again I wrote a brutal letter using abusive language to their customer care. On the same day they transferred the money to the ICICI H.O. and I was directed to contact my bank. They took excuse that as the service request had been closed after 35 days without any response from the customer so no action had been taken till date. But I ask, when the clerk took the cheque and removed the lean mark he had also informed their H.O. If there is not a little bit of morale left with the concerned officer at the head office of Andhra bank, he inform ICICI bank that they have received the amount against which particular closed service request ? Or was he waiting for when the customer losses hope and the money remains unclaimed and they will pocket the amount ? Thereafter I wrote letter 2 times to the ICICI customer care also talked to them 2 times. Again they played the same game by diverting me to the nearest branch and vice-versa. With no result again I filed a complaint with RBI Ombudsman(Read RBI lundsman) and they informed it to the ICICI regional head. Then again without any result, I wrote a letter to the Head service quality of ICICI bank and he replied that you had complained to RBI Ombudsman and the investigation is going on so wait. I thought is it a mysterious murder case that investigation is going on for so many days ?Without any help from ICICI bank, I recovered the money from Andhra bank and also shared their mail to ICICI Bank and even after that 15 days elapsed I have not got my money back. Many people do not know as per RBI guidelines “In internet transaction, the A/c no and IFSC code of the beneficiary is only taken into account” and not the name of the beneficiary. Being an Engineer I had also no knowledge about this guidelines. Because RBI or any bank has never created any awareness about these guidelines. If name of the beneficiary is not matter of any interest, then why do all the banks provide a slot for the name of the beneficiary ? But their answer was very prompt. They tell they work as per RBI guidelines. But RBI do not need beneficiary name. Also told me “You had done the mistake and the bank is not responsible for that”, “If the beneficiary bank is not co-operating we can not do anything”. Banks treat their customers as gods. And as we are gods, it is not expected that gods should do mistake of any kind ! But I want to remind them, they have probably forgotten even their outgoing CEO had done a mistake of crores in the recent past ! If a CEO could do a mistake after so many years of banking service, then what am I ? An innocent customer. I do not even know the nitty-gritties of the banking system. Nor had I any knowledge of the bizarre guidelines of the RBI. And I am suffering for the mistake done unknowingly. ICICI Bank’s customer redressal unit has become very poor. RBI is also equally responsible. RBI formulates such bizarre guidelines which no customer is aware about. Also who knows, if he has lost in the transaction, RBI’s reversal mechanism is so poor that he hardly gets his money back. Their operational guidelines is so poor that even after the customer has deposited money and,the lean mark has been removed and 40 days elapsed but I have not got my money back. Afterall there is banking boom but no reform is there in the banking sector. RBI is there only to make the repo rate up n down. I also do not understand 35 days policy of RBI. If a SR is not solved how could it be closed unsolved within 35 days ? It means they do not want to do any work but eagerly wait for 35 days. Taking grievances is a formality only. If it is inspired by the idea of 35 weeks required within making a woman pregnant and deliver a baby ?Banking sector is the most unregulated and poorly managed sector for years. I warn people not to keep your money with the ICICI bank and also in any private banks. Because Govt. will bailout govt banks and no private banks in the time of crisis. Couple of years ago my Mumbai based friend had informed me that Rs 8 lakhs had been stolen from his ICICI bank account. And when he approached the bank, he was told, you may have disclosed your ID and password to someone else. I did not believe the incident at that time. But when I faced the same type of treatment, now I believe. When I entered the correct account number of the beneficiary I got error message 2 times. I do not remember whether I had entered the wrong account number after that or it is a hacker’s delight ? Because after the beneficiary is accepted no one checks the account number again. The last 2 digits of the a/c no had been interchanged. Because after half an hour a message comes, the beneficiary is accepted and it is the name which I have entered. But no scrutiny is done from the bank’s end. Also there is no mechanism to check it from a customer’s end, if A/c no and name matches or not ? If no slot for the beneficiary name were there, I would have become more careful. Also I had no knowledge of the bizarre guildelines of the RBI. Often ICICI bank sends promotional messages like use imobile app and earn reward points, answer these questions and earn reward points but never have they sent any awareness message about RBI guidelines. But when a mistake is done by a customer, RBI guidelines come into play.

We Japanese are outraged as well, but with a twist.The news about Youtuber Logan Paul filming on the body of an suicide victim is rocking the Japanese online community, and frequently comes into our discussions.I happen to live in Tokyo, where Aokigahara (where the incident occurred), is only two hours away from me, and I occasionally visit there for relaxing, so it is a very local incident for me.Here are the main things I observed which should be worth mentioning:The difference in responses between Japanese and Western communitiesOther illegal activities Logan was caught doing and his consequencesThe misinformation spread online, and through the media, after the incidentAftermathMy personal viewThe incident had, no doubt, caused a strong response both within Japan and outside Japan. However, there is a stark difference between the two responses.We, Japanese, were very surprised by the extent of the emotional response by western media and individuals. Suicide coverage by Japanese media is quite common. As a teen, I have seen photos of dead people in Aokigahara quite frequently both on TV and online. However, most of the time, the faces were blurred to protect privacy, which is legally required in such circumstances. The Japanese media also covered the Logan Paul incident, but were quite passive and factual. Japanese versions of western-based media outlets, such as BBC Japan and Huffpost, contained some emotional statements.This indicates that there must be some difference in the interpretation of suicide between the two cultures.I believe there must be a very high social stigma against suicide in western culture, although I am not sure the background of such values. We do also stigmatize suicides, but other then the Buddhists and other western influenced individuals who seems to view suicide as a way to cheat “the chain of life” to avoid suffering, we often condemn such action for the actual harm caused by such action.Suicide is an expensive action, of which the entire cost would be charged on others. For instance, residents of Aokigahara must face the immense cost of locating, cleaning up, and holding one’s funeral for the dead. The local police have to use their already scarce resources, which should be spent on the contribution to the communities, instead on patrolling, identification, cold storage, autopsy, and contacting families. Most of these costs are being burdened on the local communities, in the form of national tax (Not to mention the emotional distress caused by dealing with corpses and the psychological damage done to relatives).Logan’s action itself in Aokigahara was no different from the dirty TV programs that aired at midnight on commercial TV channels. Most of us don’t care about his suicide footage as much as westerners do. One guy even said, “That’s why I told you you shouldn't commit suicide on a tourist destination. You could be filmed!”For example, here is how Japanese Users responded on a particular site (You can google translate it)1500万人ってどういうことだよ“What do you mean 15 Million subs?ヒカキンの3倍“Three times of that of Hikakin (Note: Top Youtuber in Japan)なんかちょっと墓場を外人に荒らされた感覚になった“I felt like a Gaijin vandalized our gravesあっさり見つけたんかいHow the hell did you find it so easily嫌なら死ぬ時に撮影禁止の看板立ててから死んでIf you hate it, please put a “No photographing” sign before you dieああ、こいつか。昨日香港の知り合いが面白いって言ってたがやかましいだけだったわOh, him. A guy from HK I know said its a funny guy but it turned out that he is noisy.CNNやBBCまでこの件をテレビ報道してるのがなぁ本人は謝罪動画を投稿したけど炎上は終わりそうにないCNN and the BBC are also reporting this issue. He posted an apology video but it seems that there are no signs of the flaming stopping any time soon死体を全世界に公開するってどういうことか全く考えてないなHe mustn’t have realized that the dead body would be published all over the world.外人がキレてるのかSo the Gaijins are lamenting over it?運がええな、そんなにエンカウント高くないよな・・・昔ボランティアで４回捜索したことあるけど、ひもブランコとか衣類や靴とか動物の骨しか見つからんかったわ(´・ω・｀)What fortune, the encounter probability ain’t that high… I used to volunteer there in the past, about four times, I only found rope swings, clothing, shews and animal bones (´・ω・｀)絶望し病んだ末に自殺して、お金持ちなﾕｰﾁｭｰﾊﾞｰさんの広告料稼ぎに晒し者になるわけか頑張って呪ってほしいわSo dying in despair results in being used as an ad money for rich Youtubers. I hope he curses him well.死体を映しただけユーチューバーと死者に人権なしと名前から何から報道するマスコミ何が違うんだろうSo what is the difference between a Youtuber who just filmed a dead body and the mass press who regularly broadcast dead body claiming “no human rights in dead figure”?死体をアップすることより歩けば死体に当たる森が存在する↑こっちがクレイジーだろ日本はクレイジーだよI feel like a forest where dead people spawn is much more crazy then dead people being uploaded. Japan is crazy!俺もそう思うわ土地勘もない外国人がわざわざ日本に来て自殺体が簡単に見つかる状況ってどんなんだよとI agree. What kind of situation is a foreigner without any knowledge of our geography finding suicide corpses so easily?首括ったほうもまさか世界中にアップされるとは思っていなかったろうなwThe guy who hanged himself must not have been thinking he would be uploaded for the world’s viewing lolやって良い事と悪い事があるわなまぁ樹海で死ぬ奴もどうかと思うがThere are stuff you can do and that which you are not supposed to do. Although this also applies to the dude who killed himself in Jukai (Aokigahara) as well.樹海はいっそ死体を目玉にした観光地化すべきだろJukai (Aokigahara) should then touristize featuring dead bodies.(editors note: “WTF!?”)コイツ完全に抹殺されてるよなハリウッド俳優からクズ野郎って書き込みされてガンガン上げられて拡散されたんだからなHe is completely finished. He has been called an asshole by Hollywood superstars and being spread all over the place.As you can see, the responses are not as antagonizing as that from westerners.What the Japanese were pissed off about were his dangerous, and often illegal, actions he filmed in Tokyo.Most of us were concerned about his behavior in Tokyo, rather then at Aokigahara.(Image credit: Logan Paul via “Kotaku”)The image above says it all. He could be violating three laws in once just in the moment depicted in the figure above. 1. Penal Code 130 (unlawful entrance, max 3 years in Jail ) 2. Showa 35. 105 Section 11 (Prohibition of unlawful riding of a truck cargo without permission, may result in fine or ticket) 3. Showa 23–39th (Misdemeanor prohibition law, Max, 1–2 years in Jail)In other scenes, he has being caught doing all sorts of sketchy stuff, which there is too much to cover here in full context, including several potentially illegal activities.If this was a Japanese Youtuber, he would have been arrested almost immediately. In fact, many of us are wondering why he has not been arrested doing things that stand up to this extent, despite accounting to the fact that the crimes are not that serious. There have been many cases aired on TV where Youtubers are being arrested by the police, many of which had crimes of a similar severity to what is apparently being filmed.Example above.It may be due to the fact that the police and the local communities were hesitant to prosecute foreigners. The footage above is a Japanese Youtuber who danced inside a police box without any authorization, who ended up being arrested.This guy even harassed a police officer. I personally know one of my friend who was arrested for harassing an officer just because he refused volunteer interrogation. At his guy went several steps further and managed to get away with it. Amazing!Most of the rants in Japan have been related to the foolishness of his actions in Tokyo, and the leniency of the local authorities against foreigners who come to visit in short terms.Another issue I personally caught in my mind was the misinformation that has being spreading as the result of the incident.For example, there have been so many posts and articles online which combine “Japan” with “Suicide” to a point which made me feel concerned. Japan has a relatively higher suicide rate compared to the global average. According to the WHO, the suicide rate in Japan is 15.4 (per 100k individuals), only 1.22 times of that of the United States (at 14.6), 0.639 times of our close neighbor Rep. Korea (24.1) and 0.445 times of Sri Lanka (at 34.6). Although it is higher then the global average (10.7), clearly Japan is not the suicide nation which some westerners, including professional reporters, are repeatingly attempting to portray.I am also personally concerned how professional, multinational based media is citing Japanese opinion regarding this incident.I’m starting to notice that many of the so called, “Twitter and Facebook samples” foreign media cites claiming as “Japanese opinions” are either circumstantial or completely fake. For example the BBC stated[1]Others, like Twitter user Gaijin who hosts YouTube shows about Japanese cultural inspirations in video games and anime, said it "reverberate harder against foreigners in Japan than most people know"."The uphill battle just got a whole lot harder," he said in a tweet that drew support from close to 3,000 Twitter users.His tweets have stirred a Twitter debate among many Japanese users, who wrote: "Logan Paul should know I had friends that died in Aokigahara, in that forest. He is mocking me, my country, and my culture!"The tweets the article cited did not contain a single Japanese individual, as far as I read. Most of them were written in fluent English, with American online slur frequently used (Something an average Japanese user would certainly not use). Some posts with Japanese usernames/handles had a very questionable Japanese grammatical error, which average Japanese people would never make. At the very least, they are not the “average Japanese” the media is trying to portray, rather, foreigners with Japanese residence, or Japanese diaspora who returned to Japan (whom do not count as an “Average Japanese” or represent the opinion of Japanese nationals in any way due to the small proportion of their population (Japanese diaspora only consists of 1.3 million individuals out of the total 127M population pool according to the government, or just over 1 percent)).However, the phenomenon is quite interesting, because it perfectly depicts how isolated the Japanese community has become, compared to other countries. To be fair, many Japanese media outlets often misuse social media citations to fool Japanese people, because nobody would bear to fact check, let alone have the language capability to do so. This is one incident which would further the distance between Japan and foreign communities ever so then before (other then the international communities within Japan).Also, I have frequently seen posts stating that filming dead people is illegal, but there are no such laws existing in Japan that I know of. One possibility where such action could be convicted, is the violation of privacy, if the face is not blurred and there are public insults against a specific person, it is a crime. However, a civil lawsuit is possible from the victims relatives for “emotional damage”.As for the consequences of this tragedy, based on my understanding on the moment, I predict that the following may occur:Japanese Nationalists now have another supportive reasons to close the borders from foreigners.Domestic Youtubers would be hit the hardest, as already worsening reputations of Youtubers would plummet even more. Discrimination and public harassment towards them would increase.Aokigahara communities now get a defacto free Suicide prevention advertisement aired all over the world. However, their effects would be minimal due to lack of interests within the domestic environment. (It may even attract more suicides temporary if those news became in the hands of a suicidal individual). Although they may receive some support from the international community.Aokigahara would be further branded as a suicide forest internationally.Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, and other police organizations, may reduce their tolerance against misbehaving foreigners, if the backlash continues (although due to its sensitive nature, it is yet to be determined). This may come as a result of pressures from inside the nation, or as a popular request from foreign nations.My personal opinion:Aokigahara is a forest which lures the dead. Famous author Jyunji Inagawa once said, “The beauty of the forest attracts people who are searching the place for its eternal sleep”. The forest is sacred, and no one should vilify it (Although such statement is not even been followed by the Japanese themselves).I think the problem with this guy [Logan Paul] is that he was laughing in front of the dead body. Although it is not uncommon for Japanese media to feature dead bodies, laughing at it, while wearing a funny hat, is completely out of taste, even for our standards. However, what is more alarming to me, personally, is how foreign media and non-profit organizations are depicting the entire incident. The misinterpretation of the suicide status of Japan and the public opinion done by the press is quite concerning.Another thing which came to my mind, was the gap of perspective between Japanese and foreigners, as I have stated several times. Most Japanese are pissed off about his actions in Tokyo but the foreign responses are almost exclusively about the Aokigahara Incident. From our perspective, we wish they would focus more on the issue in Tokyo because unlike the Suicide case which would physically harm no one (he’s already dead), his action in Tokyo could have ended in physical accident which could have resulted in injuries or even deaths.There have been increasing numbers of Youtubers, both domestic and foreign, potentially putting public spaces in danger. The incident should have gone viral at the point of his behavior in Tokyo rather than the filming of suicide victims.Footnotes[1] YouTuber 'ashamed' by his dead man video