One of the problems is that in the US, banks are required under the Patriot’s Act to “Know Your Customer” requiring them to collect personal identifiable information in an effort to detect as a matter of standard security practices. Banks are required to bond all employees (running fingerprints and criminal background checks) to protect that information and maintain the integrity of the banking institution.

Where the laws fall short is that there are NO LAWS requiring the bank to KNOW THEIR VENDOR or other third party agent that they do business with.

Collection agencies are not required to do criminal background checks nor employee bonding, leaving your identity up for grabs. There was a case in Buffalo a few years back where the collector gathered debit card information and pin numbers, and eventually arrested for credit card fraud.

Agencies that violate FDCPA, in my opinion, have no desire to follow consumer protection laws. People get collection letters that reference bills not belonging to them, beyond the statute of limitations, and even in my case where NCO claimed to represent a bank that put in writing they have never done business with NCO and they had no record of the alleged account.

If the original creditors were held financially accountable for these illegal practices by third party agents, how fast do you think these disreputable agencies would shape up or go out of business?

Think about that agency in Buffalo a few years back where people used a debit card to pay by phone and the collector used that card information and information gathered to collect the debt to commit acts of credit card fraud and identity theft.

And it goes beyond collections and includes call centers. One US based company was using an overseas call center to reduce costs and increase business. It was one those catalog order companies where people called in and placed a credit card order. Consumer names, addresses, and credit information was sold by that overseas company. It was not illegal to do that in the company. All the consumers had a number of erroneous charges on their credit card going to some web based company in Cypress, a known money laundering country in the banking world. The question came up why wasn’t the US based company held liable. The issue went dead real quick and dropped off the newfront as quick as it popped up.

Moral of the story is, know who you do business with. Verify Verify and Verify again that the company is legit and the debt is legit.

Many banks and bank cards are answering the call to stop this kind of fraud by allowing you to go on line to issue a temporary credit card number and pin. When you make your purchase or pay your bill it will go through. If anyone tries to use that number/pin again… it will decline.

This is just starting to come out and not all banks have it in place.. but it’s worth checking out.

It wasn’t easy. Don’t mistake few words as a walk in the park. I went to the original creditor requesting info/debt validation because the account number didn’t look valid. I got a letter in writing from the bank supporting that they did not know NCO and had no record of any such debt. In fact they also provided a good credit reference letter as I had accounts with the bank paid in full with no incident as well as a revolving charge that I have had for over 10 years never late. I had them fax me the documents so I had them right away.

I sent copies of that letter simultaneously to the AG in my state and theirs, the BBB, the FTC, and all three credit reporting agencies.

To fight the injustice you have to have a papertrail. I even subscribed to have my voice mails on my home phone “emailed” to me. I then have a handy MP3 file to save electronically with an official date/time stamp from the phone company.

This is why I NEVER conduct business over the phone. If a problem occurs, I give one courtesy call and memorialize the outcome of the call in writing. I also make sure my first communication is sent certfied and scan/save those return green cards to prove they got the initial dispute. Use your head on whether follow up letters need the certified.

Good for you about getting an attorney! It’s ususally the best move.

Even if you think you recognize the bill, don’t assume.

In my NCO situation, they bank they claimed I owed money to said they had no record of the account. NCO went away real quick deleteing the derogatory trade line and claiming their collection efforts was due to a “clerical mistake”. Highly unlikely, but they folded real quick because they knew I meant business and had a clue what I was talking about.

There should be laws to bar ficticious corporate names. My ex-husband would open a business in a ficticious name, then be served for child support, close up the ficticious named company and then open another using a ficticious name, and this would take the legal courts a year to re-try a back child-support agreement. By then, he just repeated the process again and again. The oldest child is not 30, he only paid 200 a month, yet still owes $87,000. Do you think I will see this despite his living in a very posh gated community. I’m not making any bets on it. Whether it is NCO Financial or my ex, they are equally scams, which are meant to deceive.

L.TOD SCHLOSSER

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