Jeff's Blog

NCO Financial Systems paid PA consumers over $300,000

If a debt collector contacts you about a debt that you are not sure you owe, please be very cautious – here is why:

Either a legitimate debt collection company is making a mistake by collecting the debt from the wrong consumer; OR
A schemer is simply looking for ways to access your credit card or bank accounts.

A debt collection company was just fined 5 MILLION dollars by the Federal Trade Commission for reporting inaccurate information to the credit agencies (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion). 

Therefore, this Company – NCO Financial Systems was calling victims asking for repayment of a debt they didn’t owe!!!!  So, if the consumers didn’t owe this debt and NCO was pretty aware of this situation, did they have collectors collecting money from consumers that didn’t owe thus making a pure profit from this….…….????????  Nah, that could never happen, right?

NCO Financial Systems also ended up paying out $300,000 to victims in Pennsylvania for using deceptive collection practices during these phone calls…..WOW!

Anyway, my point is - if you are getting a phone call from a company collecting a debt that isn’t yours, is it a company truly making a mistake or is a scam artist trying to get into your pockets????

Either way, protect yourself, here’s how:

1.    Don’t ever give out personal information, such as bank account information and/or credit card numbers.  And the obvious, cash; and
2.    Ask Questions!!!!!  This may help you to remember if this is actually your debt.  If the collector cannot answer your questions, then the company cannot obviously verify your alleged debt, and simply ask for their address information to send out a Certified Letter asking for validation.
As always, please contact Jeff if you have any questions!