Interesting article about NCO Financial Services

CBS Boston ran this story about a collection agency - NCO Financial Services, Inc. - which was allegedly attempting to pressure consumers into paying debts they didn't owe. The story implies that some collection agenices knowingly go after the wrong person to see if they'll pay just to get rid of the debt collector. To put it colloquiallly, that's a crock.

I find this story to be disingenuous in the manner in which it's presented, and the implications are nothing less than inflammatory. collection agencies and debt buyers are under no obligation to verify that a debt is valid prior to beginning collection activity. The original creditor provides the debt buyer or collection agency with the information about the debt, the amount owed, and the identifying information of the person who incurred the debt. Sometimes the information received is outdated, and a skip-trace is performed, resulting in the wrong person being contacted by the collection agency, but collection agencies don't just pick a name out of a phone book and start harassing that individual for payment of a debt that doesn't exist.

Consumers - even those who don't owe the alleged debt - have specified rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (fdcpa) which allow them to dispute that they owe a debt, and to require that the collection agency provide verification, or proof, that the debt is owed by them. Every consumer should exercise these rights if they believe they are being contacted about a debt they didn't incur, or may have already paid.

Do collection agents sometimes not listen when a consumer says they don't owe the debt? Absolutely - they've heard it all before; Does that mean they're intentionally trying to harass you into paying a debt you don't owe? Of course not, there's no benefit in it for them as the fines associated with violating the FDCPA aren't worth the couple of hundred dollars they may collect from you.