NCO Financial, NCO Financial Systems, Inc Wont send a detailed report of what they are trying to collect from, and keep calling. Horsham, Pennsylvania

You DO want to send a Cease and Desist and make sure you send it certified. I also sent an email to Lisa Signore, their chief legal counsel record. Even if you have a return receipt evidencing the email was read by the recipient, there is not a standard precedent in all states, so your taking a shot that this will serve as legal proof. Check with your county clerk who handles Special Civil Part court to see if your municipality weights email return receipts the same as USPS return receipts.

If you go to Justia, you will find a plethora of lawsuits filed against NCO for abusive and illegal business practices.

Based on my own experiences with NCO fabricating an alleged debt, I smell a rat and have been all over the net sniffing it out.

I just sent paperwork and authorization to initiate suit against NCO for fabricating a derogatory trade line on my credit reports, in addition to unauthorized access to my credit reports.

In my case, I never received a call from these clowns. I know other people in my family have been harassed by the phone calls, but I dodged the bullet. What I would do is keep a record of phone calls both before and after you send a Cease. I would also encourage the lawmakers to change the FCC/FDCPA laws pertaining to auto-dialers to include collection agencies and collection technology.

Under telemarketing laws, companies using an auto-dialer must identify themselves, the purpose of their call, provide a call back number, and provide a way to automatically opt out of calls by pressing a specified button on the phone. There are a whole separate set of rules under War Dialing which essentially is your hang up calls from auto-dialers and hi-jacking of your telephone line where the call does not disconnect. You also have rules about wireless numbers that incur inordinate charges. Some folks argue that when the laws were written phone service was not a pay one price deal like we have today. Although this is a true statement, we also had a fewer predators looking for loopholes in the laws. For the most part collections were handled internally by the company you did business and not through these mega call centers. NOT NCO as far as I know, but larger nationwide collection firms are farming their calls and providing our personal information to call centers outside the US. There is a whole lot of information with Homeland and National Security out there but I digress.

Under FDCPA laws, a bill collector can give their name, a call back number but they are not to disclose any information about the debt or the nature of the call.

What NCO is doing is disclosing they are a collection firm, making the collection disclaimer This is an attempt to collect a debt. Sometimes they will say this is an important message for Name if you are not Name hang up now. If you hang up, you are still getting harassing calls because they think you are the person they are looking for. If it's a voice mail and you get the full message (like what happened to my friends 14 year old niece) they disclose all information about the alleged debt on her voice mail. NCO's response what that the child certified she was the person they were looking for by not hanging up. The problem is a live person never answered the call, this was all on voice mail and there are no specific laws dealing with children, cell phones, voice mail, etc.

The point is that this is consumer abuse and NCO is actually using pieces of both laws to their benefit for purposes of extorting funds from debt that is not necessarily valid for them to collect. They are playing a numbers game and hoping to find people who are not well informed, too embarrassed to argue, or those who will cave. The other danger with NCO specifically is reports that they don't want just a single payment, but they demand electronic payment immediately tricking folks into releasing credit card information, debit card information, etc. and wipe out bank accounts. There are a number of reports where folks have made a one time payment in good faith to clear up what they felt was a legitimate debt, only to have automatic payments deducted from the account (or the account wiped out entirely).

If you authorize one charge, it is near impossible to get the others under this automated process credited. This happened on an unauthorized insurance premium. I had the policy for years. I paid a single premium payment on a card, then the insured passed away a few days later so the policy was canceled. I was billed random amounts sometimes multiple amounts in error but the bank refused to credit back the charges although the authorization was for a one-time fee.

Another guy I know had a saga with Providian. He purchased an item through a TV commercial authorizing a one time charge for the item. The company started billing him recurring charges for an ongoing order of a product replenishment he never ordered and never received. The credit card company had refused to remove the fraudulent charges based on the fact he ordered that one item which he paid and did not contest.

This is the predatory activity that folks like NCO count on to extort funds they are not entitled to. NCO also has a history of claiming to be representing major banks and credit lenders. I have documentation from one Bank confirming that NCO does not represent them and the alleged debt reported on my credit reports is fabricated. In fact the bank in question provided me a positive letter of credit confirming all accounts held with them, dates the accounts were established, and that they have never been overdrawn, past due, or late.

You need to report on sites like this because people are looking. You need to write in the complaints to all the agencies and your lawmakers. Don't expect your personal issue to be handled one on one, you will still need to fight these folks but what it will do is create enough of awareness so the laws will change, the government will prosecute the disreputable companies, etc. It's a small step in being part of the solution.

You DO want to send a Cease and Desist and make sure you send it certified. I also sent an email to Lisa Signore, their chief legal counsel record. Even if you have a return receipt evidencing the email was read by the recipient, there is not a standard precedent in all states, so your taking a shot that this will serve as legal proof. Check with your county clerk who handles Special Civil Part court to see if your municipality weights email return receipts the same as USPS return receipts.

If you go to Justia, you will find a plethora of lawsuits filed against NCO for abusive and illegal business practices.

Based on my own experiences with NCO fabricating an alleged debt, I smell a rat and have been all over the net sniffing it out.

I just sent paperwork and authorization to initiate suit against NCO for fabricating a derogatory trade line on my credit reports, in addition to unauthorized access to my credit reports.

In my case, I never received a call from these clowns. I know other people in my family have been harassed by the phone calls, but I dodged the bullet. What I would do is keep a record of phone calls both before and after you send a Cease. I would also encourage the lawmakers to change the FCC/FDCPA laws pertaining to auto-dialers to include collection agencies and collection technology.

Under telemarketing laws, companies using an auto-dialer must identify themselves, the purpose of their call, provide a call back number, and provide a way to automatically opt out of calls by pressing a specified button on the phone. There are a whole separate set of rules under War Dialing which essentially is your hang up calls from auto-dialers and hi-jacking of your telephone line where the call does not disconnect. You also have rules about wireless numbers that incur inordinate charges. Some folks argue that when the laws were written phone service was not a pay one price deal like we have today. Although this is a true statement, we also had a fewer predators looking for loopholes in the laws. For the most part collections were handled internally by the company you did business and not through these mega call centers. NOT NCO as far as I know, but larger nationwide collection firms are farming their calls and providing our personal information to call centers outside the US. There is a whole lot of information with Homeland and National Security out there but I digress.

Under FDCPA laws, a bill collector can give their name, a call back number but they are not to disclose any information about the debt or the nature of the call.

What NCO is doing is disclosing they are a collection firm, making the collection disclaimer This is an attempt to collect a debt. Sometimes they will say this is an important message for Name if you are not Name hang up now. If you hang up, you are still getting harassing calls because they think you are the person they are looking for. If it's a voice mail and you get the full message (like what happened to my friends 14 year old niece) they disclose all information about the alleged debt on her voice mail. NCO's response what that the child certified she was the person they were looking for by not hanging up. The problem is a live person never answered the call, this was all on voice mail and there are no specific laws dealing with children, cell phones, voice mail, etc.

The point is that this is consumer abuse and NCO is actually using pieces of both laws to their benefit for purposes of extorting funds from debt that is not necessarily valid for them to collect. They are playing a numbers game and hoping to find people who are not well informed, too embarrassed to argue, or those who will cave. The other danger with NCO specifically is reports that they don't want just a single payment, but they demand electronic payment immediately tricking folks into releasing credit card information, debit card information, etc. and wipe out bank accounts. There are a number of reports where folks have made a one time payment in good faith to clear up what they felt was a legitimate debt, only to have automatic payments deducted from the account (or the account wiped out entirely).

If you authorize one charge, it is near impossible to get the others under this automated process credited. This happened on an unauthorized insurance premium. I had the policy for years. I paid a single premium payment on a card, then the insured passed away a few days later so the policy was canceled. I was billed random amounts sometimes multiple amounts in error but the bank refused to credit back the charges although the authorization was for a one-time fee.

Another guy I know had a saga with Providian. He purchased an item through a TV commercial authorizing a one time charge for the item. The company started billing him recurring charges for an ongoing order of a product replenishment he never ordered and never received. The credit card company had refused to remove the fraudulent charges based on the fact he ordered that one item which he paid and did not contest.

This is the predatory activity that folks like NCO count on to extort funds they are not entitled to. NCO also has a history of claiming to be representing major banks and credit lenders. I have documentation from one Bank confirming that NCO does not represent them and the alleged debt reported on my credit reports is fabricated. In fact the bank in question provided me a positive letter of credit confirming all accounts held with them, dates the accounts were established, and that they have never been overdrawn, past due, or late.

You need to report on sites like this because people are looking. You need to write in the complaints to all the agencies and your lawmakers. Don't expect your personal issue to be handled one on one, you will still need to fight these folks but what it will do is create enough of awareness so the laws will change, the government will prosecute the disreputable companies, etc. It's a small step in being part of the solution.

I too was recently contacted by NCO and had no idea why they were calling me. I contacted them and asked for debt validation and apparently didn't have it. I was contacted then by Capitol One and they even asked for more info so they could try to validate the debt.

How can either one of them try to collect on a debt when they apparently don't have any info on?
I had a Capitol One card years ago and it is about to come off of my credit report because the 7 years is up.

I can only assume that NCO is trying to see if they can get anything on it before it is gone.

instead of emailing them or harasssing your congressman, just mail them a cease and desist letter. Then they can't call you anymore.

Lisa.Signore@ncogroup.com

This is my latest piece of information.

Innundate Lisa's in-box.

Also contact your senator to support some of the Fair Debt Collection practices Act Modernization Reform. This will include higher fines against abusive practices, prohibiting calls on wireless phones, tighter restrictions on calls at the place of employment (once a month maximum and ONLY if they have no other number to reach you). Lots of good ideas - visit the FTC website for the details.

Lisa.Signore@ncogroup.com

This is my latest piece of information.

Innundate Lisa's in-box.

Also contact your senator to support some of the Fair Debt Collection practices Act Modernization Reform. This will include higher fines against abusive practices, prohibiting calls on wireless phones, tighter restrictions on calls at the place of employment (once a month maximum and ONLY if they have no other number to reach you). Lots of good ideas - visit the FTC website for the details.

Lisa.Signore@ncogroup.com

This is my latest piece of information.

Innundate Lisa's in-box.

Also contact your senator to support some of the Fair Debt Collection practices Act Modernization Reform. This will include higher fines against abusive practices, prohibiting calls on wireless phones, tighter restrictions on calls at the place of employment (once a month maximum and ONLY if they have no other number to reach you). Lots of good ideas - visit the FTC website for the details.

It doesnt matter that your number is unlisted or that you are on the do not call list. Bill collectors can still call you. The do not call list protects you from phone solicitation.

Have you requested, in writing, a validation of the debt from this company?

Unless you send a letter, return reciept, to NCO they do not have to send you a detailed list explaining the debt. You only have 30 days to send this request also. If you don't then the debt is legally valid and the can sue you for it.

I have had to deal with this company on numerous time for false information put on my credit bureau. I called repeatedly and also requested proof of the debt. They are a bottom feeder in the collection world and do not normally keep records. They have bought your debt for pennies on the dollar if its even a true debt.

What I would suggest is to check your credit bureau and then send a dispute letter to the 3 major bureaus (equifax, transunion, and experian). NCO has 30 days to produce records or the debt will be wiped clean from your bureau. They are so far down the line they cannot normally find the records and I believe most likely its a false debt. You can find the dispute letters online as templates to send.