You are being contacted by NCO Financial concerning a delinquent debt. NCO Financial is commonly referred to as NCO group, NCO collections or a similar variation. NCO is third party collection agency with a checkered history.
NCO is often hired to come in and collect a debt for a lender they also will purchase debts and collect for themselves. They have a reputation for ruthless collection methods that often run afoul of the law.
In 2004 NCO violated the FCRA or Fair Credit Reporting Act. The FTC imposed a strict penalty and forced NCO to pay 1.5 million dollars. They were in violation because according to the Fair Credit Reporting Act a delinquent debt can only remain on your credit history for a maximum of 7 years. NCO was reporting late dates, in an attempt to manipulate the system and have a debt be listed for more than 7 years.
Collection agencies are known to have called a borrowers family member, neighbors, places of employment in order to collect payment. To stop a collection agency from contacting you in the future you need to mail a letter where you say you do not want further contact from them.
Send this letter through certified mail and save your documentation. Further save all communication you have with the collection agency. This can be used as proof in case you want to file a complaint or lawsuit.
When this letter is received the collection agency will be able to contact you once more in regards to how they will move forward with collecting the debt. This is the law according to the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act of 1996 which was made in response to overwhelming complaints of unethical collection methods by collection agencies.
The Fair Debt Collections Practices Act says debt collectors can not misrepresent themselves or tell anyone else about your debt other than you and your attorney. Typically this piece of legislation is completely ignored and collection agencies frequently go unchecked.
The FDCPA was an attempt by congress to protect debtors from being abused by debt collectors. Collection agencies are frequently brought to court because they do not comply with the FDCPA. However agencies have become very skillful at hiding assets and changing their operation name to avoid a lawsuit or paying on a successful one.
