Camco Ripoff and Harassment: don't Argue, send Cease & Desist 303 North Main StreetRockford Illinois

One more suggestion on how to handle those pesky debt collectors that when you pick up the phone there is a recording saying "Please hold on line, all of our representatives are busy at this time"... Wait until a representative comes on line and when they do say "Can you please hold, I'm busy at this time" and put the phone down and let them get tired of waiting. That will teach them a lesson.

i think sending camco a cease & desist letter is probably a waste of time. they probably ignore such letters anyway, kinda like they ignore the ftc's latest rulng about calling us at work or making up stuff about out debts, as they seem to continue doing.


as for those pesky camco phone calls, one writer here offers the best suggestion - just hang up! or, put them on hold so they'll just talk to themselves.

in short, don't even bother with them...

I would like to post some information about my personal experience with CAMCO:

First and foremost, I did owe a debt of around $5800 in 1987 to one creditor. I attempted to make deals with all my creditors for resolution and payout of all my financial liabilities when times got tough and I was able to do so with all my creditors EXCEPT the one I owed $5800. All others were eventually paid after accounts were closed and payment schedules were set up.

The creditors that worked WITH me, I was able to pay and clear my name. The creditor that didn't want to work with me sent me a letter saying that the debt had been charged off and they would be handing it over to a collection agency. I never heard anything again until June - OF THIS YEAR when I received a call from someone from CAMCO saying that it was "Very important" that I call back and talk to them regarding a personal matter.

I want to make two things clear here....One I OWED someone $5800 at one time in my life.....Two my credit now is pristine and my credit score is very high and I pay my bills on time and am never late.

The reason I am saying this is because when I was contacted by CAMCO about the $5800 debt, I did not deny that I once owed it. I said, "Look, this debt is too old....it is uncollectable....it is past the statute of limitations for financial relief under the Credit Card Agreement contract.
There is no LEGAL basis for financial relief AFTER the statute of limitations has expired."

The CAMCO representative told me, and I quote:
"I don't care if this debt is from the roaring twenties, you still owe it and you must pay it...I tell you what I'll do..With interest, this debt is now a little over $12,000...I'll settle for $3,000."

I argued with this representative for over an hour (wasting my time) about the fact that I was not going to pay on something that wasn't affecting my credit score or credit history. Guess what he said next? You got it, his words were, "We are going to report this to all the credit reporting agencies" Just that statement alone is a violation of Fair Debt Collection and Reporting Act because it CANNOT be LEGALLY done.

I said, "Feel free to do that, by all means, however I would like to warn you that such action is a clear violation of Federal Law and can result in severe civil liability in a court of law."

I was hung up on and treated rather curtly by these bozos, so I decided to do a web search and found this website.

Once I read about CAMCO here at the Rip-off report, I decided that due to CAMCO's questionable practices, I hired a lawyer and he told me to send them a Cease and Desist Letter.

I can say that CAMCO has not contacted me since I have sent them that letter. However, their practice of threating to take actions that are not legal under the FDCRA quidelines continue.

These illegal actions can only result in civil and criminal penatites against CAMCO if all of us continue to report these violations to the appropriate authorities that are in a position to take action on our part as consumers.

I will post a sample Cease and Desist Letter tomorrow for anyone that may have a need to send one to CAMCO in order to get some relief from these people that want to rip others off in the name of debt collection.

CAMCO gives debt collection a really bad name. There ARE honest debt collectors out there that really want to help others. Unfortunately, CAMCO is not one of them. They only wish to harass, harm and swindle people out of money that they know that they cannot legally collect. That makes them no more honest and worthy of the respect that they claim we as debtors are lacking.