Cohen and slamowitz

see my PM

No one can levy your account until you are found to owe in a court of law. Innocent until proven guilty is what this country was built upon. Stop worrying about some collector's bullshit scare tactic. Even the FBI must jump through hoops just to freeze an account, so stop giving these crooks so much credit. Only a judge can issue a writ of an account take over, and by then, the account should have been empty by you already. Anyway, not just "anyone" can touch an account, unless you give full, written authorization or a judge deems it within the creditors rights. An account isn't just accessible to anyone.

If collectors could just take your money, everyone here would have no money.

Thanks Anthony.I guess you never did get my Pm. Anyways, I am so crazy over this. Its every thing that I read on Googke, plus their stupid main menu with the press 3 if we froze your accounts. I spend so much time calming other people down, but when it comes to me I fall apart. I am still at the risk of sounding stupid, confused as to how they get away with it. The stuf I read nevr mentioned ant judgements or court orders.
Help
Kash

Anthony, They are not just collectors. They are a Law Firm

They must follow every law, through a judge, not on there own. They can not take action without a judge's permission, and besides, what debt are they seeking payment for.

Kash, sometimes these "law firms" are just collectors in disguise. And please, stay off the phone with them, always do everything in writing, certified mail!

Thanks guys.
Anthony they bought an old Credit acrd bedt from 2003
Jen , I replied to your other post. The friend that had her account levied, did she have a court order against her , or was it just done

Only a judge can sign off on a levy. Everything must be through a court of law. Could you imagine if no one needed to go through a court? Anyone with debt would have no bank accounts.

Oh Anthony will you marry me!!!! If this does happen, i am told about it? Why tell a person you are going to take their money? that gives them time to get their money out. Sorry that I am so messed up about this, but I cant help thinking about what I read about people who went to the bank one day and This law office froze their money. Am I being a complete idiot?

dont want to put fear into anyone i have my own debts too, but I know for a fact that somehow collections agencies can put a hold on an account. this was done to someone I know and when checked with a lawyer the CA should not have done it. the lawyer said that some CA's do it and the person does not fight it because they can not afford to. so the CA is basically being a bully and taking what they can.

I can only see one way an account could be placed on hold without a judges say-so, and that is if the consumer agreed to the action when applying for whatever loan or credit card it is. If its in a contract perhaps, but not just some joe blow walking in off of the street, saying that He would like to freeze an account, without any legal backing. What bank would fall for that? ACME Banking and Friends?

Read about freezing an account here: askmehelpdesk.com/credit/bank-account-frozen-will-they-take-income-tax-54838.html

I knew a judgement in court had to be sought before an account could be seized.

You always pop up at the right moment with some sage advice
Thanks, Cohen and Slamowitz thing has ne in a real panic

Only if you agreed to allow them to seize the account to repay an outstanding debt, can they access the account without a judgement, so read the fine lines when applying everyone.

I think the term freezing is not being understood. It is correct as Anthony and others have posted that nobody can go into a bank and legally ???????freeze??????? your assets without a court order. What can happen though without a court order is you give them your account info or send them a check for x amount of money and they change the amount when they cash it. That portion of your money is locked until the check clears then it is gone even if you did not agree to it. Then you are stuck fighting with them and the bank trying to get it back. That is why it is very important to never ever give a CA your account info. I suspect that those people that think their accounts were frozen probably really were not frozen by court order but compromised instead.

Thanks again Dollars. This is a frightening situation. I will never give my accountinfo to anyone.
How in the world can they change an amount on a check. It is written in numbers, and then the amount is spelled out. Wouldn't it be tyoo hard to change

Ask that question to all those people that gave their account info to Cash Today Limited. Those guys keep auto debiting their victims checking accounts with no recourse. Another thing they can do is run an electronic check. Once they have an account number, routing number and any check number it can be run electronically for any amount they want to try. None of the above has anything to do with ???????freezing??????? your assets or your account. That has to be done with a court order. If any of the above happens dispute it with your bank and start filing complaints.

If you've read all about Cohen and Slamowitz on Google, you know that if they've frozen a bank account, the matter HAS already been to court. You just never showed up. The most likely reason for that is that Cohen and Slamowitz probably dug up an old address of yours and sent the summons to that address, or they may have picked an address out of a hat. Who knows?
The sad fact is they went to court, told the judge they tried to contact you, and won a judgement against you by default.
I just got my letter from them yesterday, so I have proof they have my current address.
Any help would be appreciated.

Have they frozen your account?

Not yet.
The letter they sent me said
(the entire letter was in caps, which I have removed for readability)

"Please be advised that the above-referenced creditor has referred this account to our Law Office for collection. Please contact us to discuss same.
At this time, no attorney with this firm has personally reviewed the particular circumstances of your account. However, if you fail to contact this office, our client may consider additional remedies to recover the balance due."

that is the same letter that I got. These people have me very scared

they put a summons to respond into my local county court house. I responded receipt but dont do like i did i, did not know that you also have to respond to the local court tell them you responded to the summons. plan to follow up with a letter next week to offer a payment plan.

I got no summons,How did you know you got a summons to respond to the court house

I am confused. Did you get a summons. Please clarify.
all I got was a letter telling me I had 30 days to dispute

You may want to check out this article. Some of the comments about it appear to be helpful, especially #15.
brokeass-student.com/being-sued-for-credit-card-debt/

I'm going to fax this to my lawyer later today. I'll let you know what my lawyer says about when I hear back.

BTW, Just so you don't get the wrong impression, the lawyer is one that my debt settlement Agency hired to handle all their clients. Just for reference http://www.nfs1.org

No, I didn't get a summons yet. I was referencing other people's experiences I found on Google.

I'm guessing they'll send you & me another letter in 30 days saying an attorney has looked at it, and then give us a little time to reply, and then go for the actual court proceedings. (This is just my guess tho) To save them court costs and keep us scared.

Dave, what i want to know about is the summons yiu said you got. I thought you got the same letter that i got

All they claim I owe them is 1400 from 2003. It will cost them more than that to sue me

I'm not sure it will. Especially if you don't show up. I think they only get expensive when both sides hire lawyers, etc. Cohen and Slamowitz ARE the lawyers. Plus they tack their fee onto the amount they're suing for. (In addition to whatever they get from the Original Creditor for collecting the debt)

I wish I only owed 1400 :( I owe Discover $13000, according to them.

Crap. Did you dispute the amount. Is it a valid debt. how old is it. In my case they get nothing from the original creditor, because they bought the debt from them. The original creditor who ever that is , is out of the picture

I haven't done anything with it yet, I just got the letter yesterday. And the debt isn't very old. Some portion of it is valid, I think. I had been paying for a while without going over what was actually on it because I was afraid to see how much was being spent. (Which I know was bad on my part, and I paid for it, and still am)

If you look on Bud Hibbs web site he speaks of these people. They are bottom feeders who prey on people. They are very vicious. There is also a web site regarding Junk debt Buyers which names them as well

Lawyers or not, they must follow all laws. They are actually held at a higher standard by the system, so document everything, and save all letters, and if it is legal in your state, record all phone calls when speaking to them.

I was recommended not to do any talking on the phone to them, do everything in writing. As far as recording conversations go, I believe in NY you only need 1 parties permission (yours) to record a phone call. Most cell phones have the capability to do this. Check with your carrier or user manual, if you talk to them on your cell.

Thanks Davz. These are the lowest of the low from what I have heard

I have the luck of having to deal with them too. I got a summons from my court. I answered it. the debt is valid. at first they refused payment plan, now they will do a plan with 1/3 down and they will make a payment plan for me in order to do this they want my paystubs. I do not want to give them any paystubs they dont seem to be trusting so i dont want to give them any info like that. was planning just sending a monthly payment i can afford and see what happens. I figure I am at least trying to pay the debt down and not ingnoring it. this should help if it does go to court. any comments?

That's a personal decision. One company did that with me. By there calculations I could not afford to send them anything. I still insisted on making payment arrangements. Have you tried telling them an exact number that you can send in every month? Tell them that you are uncomfortable with sending them your paycheck, but can verbally give them the information? Would that be more acceptable to you? I can't promise they will agree but it is worth a try, they may suprise us and work with you.

This company is the worst of the worst. Do not give them any of your banking info, and do not pay them with a personal check. They have the reputation of leving your bank account. They will cause you lots of problems.They will take all your money. You need a court order to levy a bank account, and somehow they manage to get one. They pretend to send you summons and then tell the court you failed to amswer. I am not sure how they do this , but they do. Googke them up, and read the stories. Be very careful how you deal with them. Please keep me posted

Oh they can and will levy accounts although to be fair apparently they wait until they get a judgment against you, force a garnishie on your account and you miss a payment on the judgement before they actually do it, also according to what i am learning (the hard way) they can only access a bank account once per judgement... if thats wrong someone please tell me lol i cant afford to learn that one the hard way.

Kim, Have they levied your account. Please share your experience with them.

Well lets see... my experience:

When I was 23 I had a credit card with Discover bank. While with my exbf, we ran the bill up to 1000 dollars.

I tried making payment arrangements with Discover, they kept losing my payments and charging me extra fees until the bill was doubled... then they sold the account to our friends C&S CA/LO from hell.

The CA contacted me with a paper which looked almost identical to a court order... when I called them they claimed to be representing Discover (discover claims account is sold directly to them) and that the account had been sent to court. Tacked on another 500 to the bill for court costs.

I tried to make payment arrangements, being at the time a collector myself it should have been easy... but they wanted it paid or settled. No compromises.

Finally this spring I was served with a court order which I complied with through the local marshall. I was late with one payment due to moving confusion, which is when the levy and seizure of the funds in my bank account, and the serving of the garnishment on my employer went into effect.

I was sent a notice of garnishment two and a half weeks ago from my employer... the funds were taken out of my account this monday past.. and the marshall deigned to send me a letter notifing me of this fact which was recieved today.

WONDERFUL eh?

So that's my story... even CnS says they can only seize assets once, and from here on out my payments will come directly from my paycheck. Best part is after this i should be down to about the amount I originally owed. *shrugs* The ex? He got off scott-free since the account was in my name, although to give the devil his due he did give me 300 towards the debt. :!:

The only advice I have for anyone dealing with these guys is pretty simple, and it works in all debt situations.

:shock: CnS dont threaten they promise. They will go to court and DONT assume you will be notified!!! My notification was being served with the Judgement by the marshall. (That's how I knew the difference between the real and fake court orders.



:D Verify the debt. I knew mine was legit, so I dont mind paying it.

:wink: Even if they refuse arrangements, they wont refuse payments... and proof of payment will save you in court.

:!: Use POST OFFICE $$ ORDERS!!!! (I cant stress that enough,. They keep your private information private, and are guaranteed funds with built in proof of payment.)

:!: :!: KEEP YOUR PAYMENT RECIEPTS!! If there is ever a question of payment they can save your bee-hind, especially in court or with credit reporting agencies. If someone asks for proof send them photocopies, NEVER originals.

Well, your comment above makes me think that you are employed by this company. You are way too generous in your explanation of them.

Be wary everyone of comments by guests who seem to 'know' about how a company operates. They may be phishing for your private information. They usually do not register with the site, and remain as passing guests, with certain knowledge of a company. Be careful who you become 'buddies' with, regarding a guest. Many collectors visit this site, hoping to get a "debtor" to reveal more than you should. Just a little of my paranoia to share.

Thanks so much for your imput Anthony. This c&S really scares me

Lawyers who collect are still subject to fdcpa and if they report to a credit bureau they will fall under Fcra as a data furnisher. Don't be scared of them.Use the law and make them follow it to the letter.

Thanks so much Cajun. It is always a comfort to hear your advice. This one does scare me, but knowing that I can make them follow the laws gives me strenght

These two guys are thieves and are out to ruin lives of anyone they can. They should only look over their own shoulderand realize they have families also. One day things will turn around on them. I am confident.