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Need some information on 1st Credit of America

Date: Fri, 01/20/2006 - 11:03

Submitted by anonymous
on Fri, 01/20/2006 - 11:03

Posts: 202330 Credits: [Donate]

Total Replies: 44


I just got a call today from 1st Credit of America. Anyone know who they are or dealt with them before?


They are a crooked collection agency out of Chicago, Illinois. Contact the Attorney generals office in Illinois and file a complaint against them. They have been in legal trouble before under the name Avylon Technologies. That information came straight from the Attoreny General office. The Illinois attorney General name is Lisa Madagan (check spelling on the last name). Their is presvious posts about them and its not pretty. They violate every meaning of the fdcpa. I have contated the AG in Il and sent filled out a complaint, forwarded the tape recorded conversation and police report I filed against them for their threats.


lrhall41

Submitted by Not so Lucky on Fri, 01/20/2006 - 11:35

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What should I do if I get another call from the number as I haven't talked to them yet?


lrhall41

Submitted by on Mon, 01/23/2006 - 13:49

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When they get you on the phone, they will threaten to have you arrested, that they have issued a warrant for you, they will take everything you own, etc. I have a complaint filed with the Illinois Attorney General about this company and a police report, with a tape recorded conversation. The guy who called me was John Smith. Not his real name. He had to hesitate before he said his name.


lrhall41

Submitted by Not so Lucky on Mon, 01/23/2006 - 13:54

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What happens if I can't record the call? I had a bunch of these pay day loans and have worked out arrangements with 2 different collection agencies, One was united legal and the others name escapes me but I had the confirmation letters from them confirming payments made. I know I owe this money and want to try to pay them back. I just don't know what is legitimate after the education from this site that I have received. I am not trying to dodge these companies who loaned money to me when my bank went whacko on their fees with me, I am just scared as all get out when people like Taylor James called me and threatened to have me arrested and have my checking account blocked.


lrhall41

Submitted by on Mon, 01/23/2006 - 14:52

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Watch out for United Legal, they are just as crooked as First Credit of America. They are famous for taking the money and not paying the creditor. A collection agency can not legally threaten you. It is against the fdcpa laws. If you can't record the phone call, be sure to get the person's name and ask for debt validation. If they refuse the validation, more than likely they don't legally have the account. Not all collection agencies are this way, some of them hae no problem validating the debt. Just be sure to document, document, document. I can't stress that point enough.


lrhall41

Submitted by Not so Lucky on Mon, 01/23/2006 - 14:58

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Eric, some states allow recording of the debt collection phone calls secretly whereas some states require permission to be taken before recording it. But you have the legal rights to record in any case.

If the laws in your state do not allow recording the phone call secretly, attach a recording device during the call and inform the other party that the call is being recorded for legal purpose. If the person agrees to speak ahead, it acknowledges his permission and you can use the various points stated in the FDCPA law.


lrhall41

Submitted by david on Mon, 01/23/2006 - 15:25

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I also recieced call from 1st credit of amreica, gal tried to tell me I owed Charge me later 148.74, that my husband used on their **** site. I have contacted this Charge me later asking for invoice & have not received as of yet. I'm not paying for something I know nothing about, or having some foul mouth gal tell me to pay or else. would like to hear from others about this

[color=Red]****Adult term removed - Jason[/color]


lrhall41

Submitted by on Tue, 02/21/2006 - 08:47

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I sincerely hope these**** are just jerking your chain about your husband owing a debt to a **** site. I consider that cheating and if I got a call about something like that, if it turned out to be true I'd start talking to a divorce attorney. I don't put up with that bs and you shouldn't either. If it is a fabrication on thair part, rip em' a new one and DO NOT PAY THEM because they are crooked and not to be trusted with your account numbers!

[color=Red]****Adult term removed - Jason[/color]


lrhall41

Submitted by Jedi Mistress Ari on Tue, 02/21/2006 - 16:13

( Posts: 2192 | Credits: )


Just a thought to share with you, mrevelle82. If some foul mouthed little witch called me to tell me that my husband owed $150 for cheating on me with some skeezy nasty **** site for losers, holy shiz would I EVER hit the roof! Complete transition to the Dark Side of the Force! I would be hitting some VERY high notes and I would say things so ugly that the bill collector would break down and cry. I would be firing off the kinds of four letter words that no lady should ever speak, I would destroy everything of value belonging to the cheater, then brandish my lightsaber and go bust some heads!

That particular industry has gotten completely out of control. It's disgusting, offensive, and always leads to the next level. As far as the people in it go, it doesn't take much intelligence, strength, or character to drop your drawers and lie on your back. Just takes a complete lack of dignity and self respect. Do you see some a sloppy, unattractive excuse for a woman to the left of this post? NO! Do I not communicate with an air of intelligence and authority? NO! Therefore, I will not share the man in my life with something so rediculous and juvenile. No self respecting woman should. I once got into it with a man I used to work with, he said something like, it doesn't matter where you get your appetite, just as long as you eat at home. WHAT?!? That line translates as, what you have at home is just an adequate substitute for what you really want. Is that not a glaring insult?

Come on girls, wake up! We'll never be equal until we stand up and demand equality AND respect from the men.

Fellas, don't give me that "looking, not touching" crap because I don't want to hear it. If you're getting your kicks with another woman, you're cheating. Plain and simple.

[color=Red]****Adult term removed - Jason[/color]


lrhall41

Submitted by Jedi Mistress Ari on Tue, 02/21/2006 - 17:16

( Posts: 2192 | Credits: )


Oh my. There would be hell to pay.

For a debt collector to actually have the huevos to call and try to ruin something sacred like that. If that was true, of course dude would be out on his ear, but if not, I would make it my mission to ruin that collector. :evil: I can't even say any more, that pisses me off so much.

~Mary


lrhall41

Submitted by Mary on Tue, 02/21/2006 - 18:37

( Posts: 1344 | Credits: )


Quote:

There are two kinds of people; you can either be made to pee your pants, or you can make others pee in their pants.


Do all you folks see where I'm coming from? Now switch gears! Rather than reach for a fresh pair of undies when the phone rings, blast them with wrath! Put that shoe on the other foot! Make them cry for their mommies! And reach for clean undies!


lrhall41

Submitted by Jedi Mistress Ari on Tue, 02/21/2006 - 19:24

( Posts: 2192 | Credits: )


When I dealt with this agency, I was called every name in the book, told to get off my ass and get a job, etc. While John Smith (not actual name) was doing his deed I took my cell phone and called the sheriffs department to have an officer respond for harassment by phone. I informed John that I had called the police and he stated that I was lying and that I was just another dead beat. Well when Officer Mears and officer Smith arrived, I still had the jerk on the line and John asked if I wanted to go to jail and become a friend of the prisoners and then I handed the phone over to the officer and he listened why John continued his threats and then Officer Mears stated that he was a police officer with the sheriffs department and that charges would be filed immediately for threats and harassment and the guy had the nerve to tell the officer that he was lying and that they weren't police officers and keep in mind that this conversation was being recorded the whole time, and Officer Mears stated that he could call the sheriffs deaprtment and verify his badge number and Mr. Smith became speechless and hung up. I filed a complaint with the Illinois Attorney General Office and sent a copy of the tape and the police report from the responding officers. This is how low First Credit of America can get. Come to find out, the loan they were trying to collect on, they didn't legally have it. It was with ART.


lrhall41

Submitted by Not so Lucky on Wed, 02/22/2006 - 05:44

( Posts: 3041 | Credits: )


Just you wait until the ball finally drops and they are shut down for good, then these losers who spend what they make on tacky status symbols will be left completely empty handed and then it will be their turn to recieve calls. Let's not forget that if they are slapped with a fine by the AG and they don't pay it, they'll be going to jail where their bottoms will hurt daily and they'll be called all sorts of female names.


lrhall41

Submitted by Jedi Mistress Ari on Wed, 02/22/2006 - 09:21

( Posts: 2192 | Credits: )


thanks for the input, no my husband didnot go on any****site.they said it was done on a thursday of june of last year, from my computer, my husband is over the road driver and wasn't home at the time. i have requested a itemized statement from these stupid people 3 days ago, not to receive anything yet. i also made a complaint to bbb, and attorney general of illinois office. these people are going down if last thing i do.
[color=Red]****Adult term removed - Jason[/color]


lrhall41

Submitted by on Wed, 02/22/2006 - 12:33

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Quote:

these people are going down if last thing i do.


That's my girl! These people are monsters and it looks like they will turn couples and families against each other just to make a buck. That's cruel, monstrous, and evil.
Mary, you already have proof that this is not a valid debt just by the dates of the alleged debt and your husband being on the road! You owe them nothing, and next time they call, have a police whistle or blowhorn ready!


lrhall41

Submitted by Jedi Mistress Ari on Wed, 02/22/2006 - 19:05

( Posts: 2192 | Credits: )


Don't give them any money they already got me for 700 dollars. They threatened me and they said someone was going to arrest me if I didn't pay but they got too greedy and they debted money twice out of my husband's account under the name First credit of America and 1st credit of america and the bank said they are not allowed to do that and they are so stupid they called me and told them that they didn't recieve any money so they got caught and now my husband's bank is investigating them for fraud. I should have known something was wrong because most of their names start with J and most of the guys names are John something or the other. They are not to be trusted.


lrhall41

Submitted by on Wed, 05/03/2006 - 13:04

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That's what they do! They are a bunch of lying charlatans! They collected from my husband on something he canceled without cost in the correct time frame. It was a bogus debt! I drafted a letter to Lisa Madigan and she got him a refund and an apology from First Credit of America. Give that a try my friend, Lisa Madigan is the Attorney general of Illinois where First Credit of America is based, just in case you didn't know already.


lrhall41

Submitted by Jedi Mistress Ari on Wed, 05/03/2006 - 18:29

( Posts: 2192 | Credits: )


I want to let everyone here know that you CAN hold collection agencies accountable if they violate the fdcpa! I just successfully sued them for multiple violations in the 9th District Court in San Francisco.

Like many others, I was the victim of harassing phone calls and voicemails during the summer of 2005. 1st Credit of America said I owed money from an account I had at MyPrefectCredit.com. I checked my account, and it was still current, so I refused to pay up since 1st Credit of America could not explain why I owed the amount they said I owed. They also refused to send me a statement in writing.

I told them I didn????????t owe anybody anything and not to call me, but that didn????????t stop them from calling. I told them only to communicate with me via the postal service, but that didn????????t stop them from calling. I told them that the calls were waking me up and that it was inconvenient to contact me during the day (I worked nights at the time), but that didn????????t stop them from calling. I even demanded that they not contact me AT ALL, and still they called me 28 times in 28 days.

The calls finally stopped when I hired a lawyer and filed a lawsuit against them for several FDCPA violations.

It turns out that MyPerfectCredit had experienced an issue with their computer systems, resulting in many current accounts (including mine) being sent to another company called Vindicia, who gave them to 1st Credit of America for collection. 1st Credit then added $50 to my account and tried to collect from me. No wonder the number never made sense when I tried to reconcile it against my own numbers!

I filed a Better Business Bureau complaint against 1st Credit of America in 2005, but they never responded.

I should also mention that a lot of their collectors in other countries (specifically India) are paid only $3 per hour and the size of their paycheck depends on the commissions that they earn by getting people to pay up. This explains why so many of the calls that I received were so aggressive in nature.

On February 12th, 2007, I finally got my day in court. I sued them for violating 4 sections of the Fair debt collectors Practices Act, and a jury ruled in my favor after a two-day trial and a few hours of jury deliberation. I feel vindicated that there are, in fact, consequences and repercussions for these companies that try to strong-arm people into paying a random amount of money just because they say you owe it.

My lawyer, Eric Fagan, leveraged his extensive trial experience to put together an open-and-shut case. Being new to the court process (my first lawsuit), he kept me calm even when 1st Credit was telling outright lies on the witness stand. For anyone out there who went through the same thing as I did with 1st Credit of America, I suggest you contact him if you want to stand up for yourself. You can Google him, his office is in Chula Vista (the San Diego area), and his website is www (dot) efaganlaw (dot) com. He handles cases all over the country by teaming up with other attorneys.

The process wasn????????t easy, but I feel it was well worth the stress and time to stand up for myself. I went through a lot of pain and stress at the hands of these people and it feels good to have this thing resolved.

I????????ll be happy to discuss my case with anyone who wants the specifics; you can get me at civitellochris (at) hotmail (dot) com.

Good luck in dealing with this unscrupulous company, and remember, the TRUTH comes out in court!

During the course of my lawsuit, I decided to look up 1st Credit of America on Google. Here????????s what I found, along with my sources cited:

1. Someone by the name of Elie Mellul, who shares the same name as the CEO/Owner of 1st Credit of America, was fined by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD). See below, taken from the NASD website:

Elie Mellul (CRD #2126020, Registered Principal, Great Neck, New York) submitted a Letter of Acceptance, Waiver, and Consent pursuant to which he was censured, fined $50,000, barred from association with any NASD member in any capacity, and ordered to pay $39,192 in restitution to public customers. Without admitting or denying the allegations, Mellul consented to the described sanctions and to the entry of findings that he effected transactions in the accounts of public customers without their knowledge, consent, or authorization. The findings also stated that Mellul refused to cooperate with the NASD's request for information and/or documentation. (NASD Case #C10990143)

Source: nasd.complinet.com/nasd/display/display.html?rbid=1189&element_id=1159002030

2. 1st Credit of America uses IP-telephony to connect their call centers, located in India and other countries. They use a predictive dialer, which is an automated device that dials your phone number, and when you answer the phone you are connected to a collector in one of their call centers. So if any of you ever received a call from them and no one was on the other end of the line, it means that they simply didn????????t have someone in their call center available to talk to you. They don????????t feel too bad about the crank call, though.

Source: nasd.complinet.com/nasd/display/display.html?rbid=1189&element_id=1159002030

3. A significant portion of 1st Credit????????s account portfolio is comprised of Adult-oriented (****membership sites. I found an article on AVN (Adult Video News) Online, a trade magazine for the
**** industry in the United States, which mentions this industry as an important part of 1st Credit????????s business.

Source: avnonline.com/index.php?Primary_Navigation=Editorial&Action=View_Article&Content_ID=238254

[color=Red]****Adult term removed - Jason[/color]


lrhall41

Submitted by civitellochris on Mon, 02/19/2007 - 07:39

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I'd like to confirm many of the allegations here, not from the perspective of a "target" but from the perspective of an "ex-employee."

I honestly don't know what kind of trouble I can get into for saying anything -- I was never a legal employee, no contract was signed, it was basically volunteer work with pay.

At 5 in the morning...

Which spells out "very dodgy" to me so that's why I'm not there anymore. I'll say what I assume is safe to say.

This was mid-to-late last year (2006) when I was an "employee." For one thing, driving to Chicago every morning is NOT fun. The area where the building is located is somewhat sketchy (maybe not for Chicago but it definitely wasn't the Loop). The building they're in was used to accommodate a company that went out with the dot-com bubble burst and a lot of inventory was left behind by them.

I was an IT guy there, was not there very long; after discovering what kind of business they were running, I got myself out of there quickly.

Instead of paying me as an employee they paid me as an independent contractor.

Elie Mellul himself, whom I've worked with, and who was technically my "boss," is a nice guy at times, but at others he can be god-awful demanding and rude. He had a completely different "face" on when talking to me when compared to talking to his other older employees (I was young and new perhaps).

A coworker who's name I will not disclose was starting another legit company, a partnership with Elie. When the business started well, Elie tried to take the business from this coworker by having family members buy nearly 100% of the shares (shares which were not even supposed to exist), and then threatening; so it's not just Elie -- his family is involved with this. I won't say much more than that on this subject. The takeover did not succeed.

Their call system is indeed IP based and they do have an India branch. I witnessed a few hirings and firings of callers...

Some of the other employees are nice, but a good portion of them are aware of the legality (at least the ones that are on the phones).

By all means, do not give this company ANYTHING! I was in the rooms while they were yelling at targets and threatening them -- NOT LEGIT! They don't repay much if any of the money they collect to the companies that sign with them -- and, last I heard, the FBI was getting involved... The end may be near for them...

I'd be willing to say more on a private basis if there are interested people. I've got phone numbers of many people who are involved.

Legoguy


lrhall41

Submitted by legoguy on Mon, 02/19/2007 - 20:18

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I'd like to discuss more about this company for i have received legal threats today at my place of business as well as the attempt to inform my place of business what was going on with my personal finances.


lrhall41

Submitted by Spektakularr on Wed, 04/04/2007 - 12:55

( Posts: 13 | Credits: )


can you please contact me in regards to this individual. I have an interview tomorrow with someone of similar name, and I want to make sure it's not the same person you are referring to.
Thanks,
Jkevinb1


lrhall41

Submitted by on Thu, 08/06/2009 - 07:25

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