Posted on 06/29/2006 6:38:36 AM PDT by loyless
A few days ago, I received a telephone call at my office wanting to verify the employment of someone. I am not the human resources person, but am in another capacity completely. The name they gave was my middle name and my last name. All the woman on the phone would say is, “This is Kelly from NCO Financial. I need to verify employment for ______ ______.” At that point, I asked what the call was about. Kelly just repeated that she was verifying employment for ______ ______. My middle name is a family sir name, so it could be mistaken for a man’s first name. Kelly referred to _______ ______ as a male. I repeated that I needed to know why she was calling and she repeated that she was verifying employment. With that, I told her that I would not give her any information and she hung up the phone is a rather rude manner. The only outstanding bill I have is to Hospital Corp. Of America and I am making monthly payments on that. I feel that she was phishing for information. Someone had left a voice mail at my office and a voice mail at my house the day before. Since I refused to give Kelly any information, the calls have stopped for the time being.
NCO Financial is a collection agency, and "Kelly" was verifying that you work there ... that hospital bill has been sold to NCO for collections. This is just my $.02.
They admitted on the phone that they buy debts (paid and unpaid) and send out threatening letters even to the paid debts because sometimes people will pay again!
"... They admitted on the phone that they buy debts (paid and unpaid) and send out threatening letters even to the paid debts because sometimes people will pay again!..."
These people should be shipped in a container to the middle of the Pacific and tossed overboard for trying to collect from people who have settled their bills!
They just had to pay a huge settlement with the state of PA for illegal business practices. Be very carefull when dealing with them. You should also check your credit report to make sure that they didn't redate the debt.
The only plastic we have is a debit card and one specialty store... and old fashioned cash!
She was attempting to use subterfuge to verify you were there IF THAT IS EVEN A LEGIT BILL. A significant portion of credit and collection information is wrong or someone else's data.
Some companies now buy uncollectable debt (outside statute of limitations or id theft) in an effort to try and get SOMETHING. They buy the "paper" by the pound. Some of these companies have NOTHING to back up the claim other than a few electrons in a computer.
$1,000 statutory damages for attempting to collect on a paid debt. This is paid FROM the agency to the target individual.
Two attempts, $2,000.00.
These type people are scum off the bottom of sewage tanks....I have had some experience with them in the past (NCO in particular) and there is NOTHING these people wont do....I had another group, I think they were called Boudreaux and Associates or something like that, actually call me and tell my roommate that they were calling in regards to a job I had applied for...they tried to get everything they could out of him about me, my cell phone number, everything....and this was a debt that was paid YEARS ago......scum pure and simple SCUM
It's worse than that. If they can get you to acknowledge the debt, then the debt window re-opens and you become legally responsible for it again (despite the statute of limitations).
I was getting two or three calls a week from them on my answering machine. I finally called the number they gave me (a Canadian call center) and told them to stop calling.
The guy on the other end asked me if was Mr. So and So (I wasn't - they had the wrong number). I then informed him that under US and California law he was guilty of disclosing the personal financial information of Mr. So and So to an unauthorized third party (me) and that I was calling the California AGs office to file a complaint.
The guy hung up in a hurry!
Here is the absolute worst part.
ID Theft victims are victimized a SECOND time by these people. Some of these debts are sold off to holding corporations which are in fact owned by collection lawyers who then file form lawsuits against these debts.
The lawyer files a motion for summary judgement based on the dunning letters and the failure to deny DESPITE THE ID THEFT and generally the judges just rubber stamp the motion.
So not only is the person victimized by the theif, the civil court system does it to them again!
Capitol One .. how can they afford to stay in business?
Yes AMEX is fine...of course, you credit has to be next to perfect to receive a card from them...I have never had a problem with them either....as far as Capitol One goes, same ole same ole with companies like this....high interest and low credit allowances to millions of people can make them plenty of money I am sure.... a friend of mine has a CO card and the interest is loan shark rate, like 27% or something.....another problem with credit card companies, not really collection agencies because they are a horse of another color, is that they offer these incredibly HUGE amounts of credit to college students and even some high schoolers, and advertise it like FREE MONEY....it gets many of these kids in trouble....not taking away the responsibility of it BUT there are very few if any kids 17 and 18 years old that have any business with a Discover Card with a $5000 credit limit....JMO
send them a registered letter telling them to cease all contact = add that you have spoken to your state attorney generals office and if you have any further contact from them, they will be hearing from the attorney general.
You will hear no more
Yes. This is the latest tactic. If they can make it look like the debt hasn't gone beyond the statute of limitations, they look legitimate. One way they do this is state, "Your last payment was made on --------" and give a more recent and false date. (Never be intimidated into making even a token payment as that WILL update the account.)
(I used to work in fraud for one of the largest CC firms)
Tell them to cease phone calls and send them a registered letter demanding they cease all contact. Add that you are in contact with your states attorney generals office - and any further contact will be handled by them.
This will end contact from this shyster outfit.
Hold onto any and all records of past settlements - This seems to be a brand new layer of industry on these collection outfits. I would think that trying to collect on an account that has been either previously settled or written off by the company owed the original debt (whereby the company has signed off and collected insurance and tax credits for bad debts, would be illegal?
After working with what was, at the time, the biggest Master Card company in the world - I cut all my CC's - and use only two debit cards. One on my account I use only for fixed bills and one on my account for 'all else'
Mostly, I use good old fashioned cash.
I look at my debit card account as my private, self-owned credit card company with a zero % rate. I keep the balance low - so that should it get used by someone unauthorized, they amount they could get is limited - and I still have the bank protection to refund my account.
And additional, I have an "'open no new accounts' demand without direct correspondence with me" order with the three credit check outfits.
This eliminates another avenue of fraud whereby the thief will use the information from one of your CC accounts to open separate accounts.,,with a separate address. This way, you will be unaware for months, maybe a couple years, that your identity has been stolen and debt being accrued in your name. And when the company with whom the fraudulent debt has been added to tracks YOU down for payment, even when they are informed it was NOT you, they will hound you for payment, as you are the only one they can get their hands on.
It can take years to resolve. In the meantime, you name and credit are ruined for years
We are pretty much homebodies (or boring, you pick lol). When we do have occasion to rent a car, we've never had a problem because we rent from a local car dealership that has always accepted our debit card. I have access to a credit card of my moms "just in case" cause it made her nervous for us to vacation without one. lol
Over the years debit cards have become more and more accepted. It was a good day when "pay at the pumps" started accepting debit cards! It works for our lifestyle, yet I can certainly see why it wouldn't work for everyone.
That is the only card we've discussed getting so I'm glad to hear you've been pleased with them.
Thank yous to you and others who have given some good info! I hesitated to repond to the thread in fear that my good conservative friends would thank me terrible for getting in a bad way with credit in the past!
http://www.budhibbs.com/am_worst_collection.htm
It's number 3 on this list. This guy, Bud Hibbs, is a lawyer/consumer advocate. He is a little on the liberal side and has some rather radical ideas about dealing with collection agencies (basically, he says you should never pay). However, I've found his site to be the most comprehensive in getting information about most of the collection firms in the country.
I had an acct that got sent to Asset Acceptance LLC for paymt. I recd letters from them. Couple months ago, I recd a letter from NCO Financial Systems stating that they bought out the bill from Asset Acceptance LLC, and they would accept $1,055.63 for the debt.I mailed a check for $1,055.63 check #6136 on 6/26/07 to NCO Financial System and now Asset Acceptance LLC wants that money. We know this by the bill we recd in the mail today. My husband called Asset Acceptance LLC and they stated they never sold our account to anyone. They still expect payment. HELP!!
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