Exposing the Bottom Feeders in Debt-Collection Industry

[Joanne98]

Cross Posted at Legal Schnauzer
We have written extensively here at Legal Schnauzer about our experiences with third-party debt collectors, the folks who have done so much to earn the nickname "bottom feeders."

Now Chris Hansen and Dateline NBC have joined the fray, with an investigative report on Sunday night that showed the shocking depths to which some debt collectors will sink in order to get consumers to cough up money.

In the case of third-party debt collectors, who buy old "junk" debt from original creditors for pennies on the dollar, they often cannot prove that a consumer owes the debt. With no legal leg to stand on, the "bottom feeders" resort to tactics that New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo compares to terrorism. These tactics are at the heart of the Dateline NBC report, and I've seen such tactics in a very personal way.


Hansen is best known for his "To Catch a Predator" series on would-be pedophiles. He takes on a different sort of predator--one interested in money, not sex--with his latest piece, which originally aired back in March. Like the sexual predators Hansen has become famous for confronting, these financial predators do not feel constrained by the law.

In some splendid investigative reporting, Hansen shows just how brazen third-party debt collectors can be. In one case, a collector threw a string of insults at a consumer. In another, a collector indicated that an alleged debtor was going to be thrown in jail.

These conversations were tape recorded, and you can check them out here. They are gross violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), which governs debt-collection activities. But Cuomo says junk-debt collectors resort to unlawful tactics because they tend to work--and pay off handsomely.

I've seen those tactics firsthand, and I know the pressure and stress an unethical debt-collector can apply to an alleged debtor. I've reported on our experiences in the following posts:

* Welcome to My Nightmare

* Financial Terrorists Ride Again

* Financial Terrorism Revisited

Like Chris Hansen, I have tape recordings of several conversations with debt collectors, and I will be sharing them with Legal Schnauzer readers. In our case, the original creditor allegedly was American Express, the debt collector or buyer (I'm not sure which) was NCO Financial Services, and the phone calls came mostly from Ingram & Associates, a Birmingham law firm.

NCO apparently is notorious for flagrant violations of the FDCPA. Public records indicate that Ingram & Associates' principal Angie Ingram is part of something called the "NCO Attorney Network"--even though her surrogates repeatedly told us Ms. Ingram "worked for American Express," "had been hired by American Express to sue you," "had a fiduciary relationship with American Express, etc."

The Ingram & Associates folks threw all kinds of insults, threats, and falsehoods at us. Here is just one example:

First of all, neither NCO nor Ingram ever sent us anything in writing, informing us of our rights to dispute the debt or have it validated, as required by the FDCPA. They simply started calling us and alleging that we owed a debt. Did they ever offer any written proof that we owed the debt? Nope.

But they were happy to say they could sue us and that we could wind up having the deed to our house auctioned off "on the courthouse steps."


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http://www.opednews.com/articles/Exposing-the-Bottom-Feeder-by-Roger-Shuler-090911-650.html

[democracy1st]

1. good read

[Hugin]

2. Yep, NCO needs to go.

I personally know several people who've been fiscally terrorized by them...

Take note "Gottapasssomething-ites": Many of the so-called collections were based on fraudulent medical charges.

[Raster]

3. But..but..but, good people, responsible people, always pay their debts.

If the debt collectors said the debt was owed, then it must be true.:sarcasm:

[Captain Hilts]

4. When my mother died, QVC sold her $400 debt to a collector that was all over us...

when we did not yet have access to her money to pay for it.

That's what being a member of the "QVC family" did for my mother.

[DRoseDARs]

5. A few years ago I had illegitimate problems with debt collectors...

Somehow, they got my cellphone number which I'd only ever given to people I know personally. Three or four collection agencies (it's been a few years since the last call) traded off calling my cellphone trying to reach some woman who I'd never heard of and apparently they'd never heard of either. Each call had the name pronounced differently, some times dramatically different. Dozens of calls a day, several threatening. I was able to track down the addresses where the calls were coming from and if I were so inclined (and didn't live on the opposite side of the country) I'd pay them a unfriendly visit.

I do not have debt of any sort, never have. When I buy things on credit, I make sure I can pay for it in cash first. If I can't pay for it in cash, I don't buy it on credit. These scum-sucking trolls somehow had my personal cellphone number associated with some person I never heard of and I gave up after many calls in the first year to get them to correct their records. The calls eventually did stop, but that doesn't mean they won't start back up.

[Leftist Agitator]

6. If they start again, do the following:

Get a rape whistle, and when they call, blow it as loud as you can into the phone.

[Joanne98]

7. Good idea.

[Cobalt-60]

8. It's good against humans

But of limited use against computers.
Every day for the last three years since I got this land line, my answering machione has been choked with robo collection calls for people who don't live here.
I don't owe them call center time. It's certain to be many hours on the phone.
They did send a couple of people in person once.
They accused me of hiding the missing parties inside my palatial single width trailer
and demanded entry.
I asked for their paperwork and they had none.
It finally took an offer of 20 AK47 rounds each to get rid of them.
To tell the absolute truth I was so angry by the time they left I was disappointed not to deliver those rounds.
None had returned in person.