EASTERN ASSET MANAGEMENT AKA ETHICAL ASSET MANAGEMENT

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I was contacted by Eastern Asset management Company. They left a message with me regarding a bad debt that my son owed. They stated that if he did not contact them within the next few days that this debt would go into litigation. My son and I called them on three way via the toll free number they provided. We asked a few questuions and they provided fairly accurate information regarding this unpaid debt. I thought they were legitimate. I'm still not sure if they are or not. They offered to reduce the amount owed by $1400.00. I went on the BBB site and they were listed with a bad rating. I called them back with this information and they were not registered with BBB. then I looked them up on line and there was a lot of negative comment so I called them again. there response to this was of course no body has any thing good to say about debt collectors, which was probably a resonable response. I talked to sevetral people in the office. They provided me with an address which was valid and I checked the phone numberf with the Ny telephone operator which was also valid. My son had been in jail and was trying to re establish himself and these people threathened to have him prosecuted and have his driver's liscense suspended. But they offered me a good deal to pay off this debt and get his bad debt status corrected. Bad credit affects so much these days. So trying to help him I agreed to pay this reduced amnout. They emailed and sent a letter to my post office with their proposal. I paid the first installment and told them that I would not be able to pay the remaining balance in 30 days but They said call back and we will work with you. The first group of people were fairly pleasant and helpful. But when I called back to make other arrangements I spoke with a Joseph Cicero who was absolutely rude, all be called me a liar and threathened to cancel the offer if I did not pay the amount by the end of the month. Furthermore he threatened to require full payment of the original amt. Not knowing what to do, since I had already invested considerable amt of money already, I agreed to pay the remaining amount.
Long story short(I know too Late), is there anyone out there that has dealt with these people and are they legitamate and can they remove this bad debt from his credit report or was I scammed. It is so hard to know who to trust when it comes to these sort of things.
I don 't mind paying off the amount if it is a legitimate company
I reported them to the FTC online complaint.

They called me and left a message stating my name and last four digits of my social security number. Told me that if I did not resolve this situation by 10/5/2009, they were going to my county and seize my property, bank account and any other asset that I may have. And left a phone number and claim to to refer too. These people have never contacted me by mail.

I called the number and wanted to know who they were and who they represent. Advised them they had never contacted me by mail and I do not handle business by phone. I needed something in writing. They refused to agree to send anything to me stating that if I had not paid by 10/5/2009 they were taking legal actions. That they had already contacted the county and they were calling me to stop any further actions.

they never contacted your county.that is a typical bottomfeeder threat.instead,you contact your county and file a police report for the harrassment.

I received a call from a James Prescott stating the same story. Old debt, retained by attorney, John Nicolia, etc. I've done research on calls such as this before, and it's good to know that nothing regarding the validity of this has changed. The so-called debt I am supposedly being sued for was charged off in bankruptcy years ago. From what I've learned, this company has purchased the charged-off debt and is attempting to make some money off of it. Too bad ... I didn't fall off of the turnip truck yesterday. I paid over $2,000.00 to clear all of my debt through legal bankruptcy court. They can kiss my ass!

then you can ruin this bottomfeeder,and the creditor that sold the debt.don't just let these cretins do this.you had to file BK.now this bunch of garbage is threatening.that is just wrong.contact your BK attorney and the trustee.

the lawyer john nicolia is NOT the collection agency! He is on retainer by them to represent EAM, they are the debt buyers and collectors, they are one of his clients

well then he should be disbarred for making threats he can't legally back up or carry out.

Those collectors are NOT affiliated with John Nicolia. He represents many and Eastern and Ethical are two of his clients..John P. Nicolia is NOT a collection agency because he took care of my auto accident case i should know!!

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I got a call this morning from NY to verify my address for my county process server. She rattled off my old address and asked if it was correct. I answered "Nope" and she then continued to rattle on for me to keep my Drivers License on me for the next 72 hours and hung up. She never even asked me for my current address so guessing she is just a moron. A little concerned at this point seing how I now thought I would be penalized for not getting the sumons. I called back the NY number (same one in all these posts) and got the usual EAM message. Well now I knew the whole call was full of $#it and googled it to find this post. What a joke this company is.

-- Astonished in Arizona --

I have a credit card that I owe approx. $3000 on. I was served and was told to call to make payments. EAM called a couple months later and said that they would settle for $1000. So I did it. A couple weeks after that, I get another call from another attorney saying that they would like to set up payment for the credit card that I owe. So I disputed the payment that I made to EAM. Now i'm getting calls from both law offices about the same debt. I'm thinking about just letting them both take me to court and see who is real and who isn't.

did both serve you?if not get a DV letter to whoever didn't serve you.send it certified mail return receipt.in the meantime.check with your court clerk to see if the summons is real.if so answer it.if not.get a DV letter to them as well,but check to see if the summons is real first.

Only 1 served me and that's the one that called saying that they want to set up payment. Because I disputed the charges to EAM, they're saying that I need to call them and explain to them why or they're going to use the tape of me authorizing the funds to get the money back.

did they say they were recording the call when you authorized the 1,000.00?if so what else was said?if anywhere on the supposed tape they said that the 1,000.00 would settle the debt.then they won't use it as you have proof of them selling the debt after you paid.i would still get a DV letter to the place that tried to debit the 1,000.00.

not that i recall. that was last month.

okay.then get the DV letter out to them.chances are there is verbage stating that the 1,000.00 would settle the debt.in that case they won't use the supposed tape as it may have proof that they lied to get money.as long as nothing was in writing i wouldn't worry about them.check with your court clerk to make sure the summons is real.if so answer it.

Ok. Its been about a month and they said that they were going to send a letter saying that they received the funds and that the debt would be settled but I haven't received anything from them at all. Never even heard about them until after I got served. I don't have anything in writing from them either.

so you got nothing in writing from either party is that right?

i got nothing from EAM and all i got from Brock and Scott are the papers I was served with from the police. I just called EAM (the people who took the $1000 that I disputed) and I asked them why I haven't received anything saying that the debt has been settled. He said he mailed it on the 15th of Oct (4 days before they received the funds) to my old address. I told him that I haven't lived there in years and my mom, currently lives there hasn't received anything either, plus my mail gets forwarded from all of my old addresses and my current address is on my credit report. He said that he'll send me another letter, but they need the money first. I told him that I wanted something saying what the funds were being applied to before I authorized them to debit the money first and he said no. So I told him that they weren't getting any money from me.

is brock and scott the place trying to collect now?

brock and scott is the law firm that i was served by. EAM just called my cell phone and my job 3 times harassing me and spreading rumors to whoever answers the phone. I'm jsut going to file a lawsuit cause this is ridiculous. All I did was ask for a letter to verify what the funds were for and this is what happens.

njn--

first things first--you need to contact the court clerks office where this suit was supposedly filed and verify that an actual lawsuit has been filed against you. If there really was one filed, we'll get to that in a second. If there wasnt one filed, you NEED to file a lawsuit against both the attorney and the debt collector EAM right away. If there was no suit filed, they provided phony court papers to try to scare you into paying. Also, was the lawsuit filed in the county you live in? Here's the problem--they are trying to get a default judgment if this is a real suit. This means they claimed to settle with you, but then they get the default because you didnt answer the summons to the court. And then they get the legal right to come after you for the full balance.

If there is a real suit filed, ask the court clerk how you can review the full docket for this case. It is possible that they already tried to motion for summary judgment, and that they are trying to get around the law with trickery that simply is not allowed. Check on this with court clerks office ASAP and get back to me, we will go from there. At this point, if that is their plan, then they dont actually care about getting that $1000 from you because all they need is a little time to solidify the default judgment against you. Also, what state are you in? If youre in a one-party state, I very highly recommend that you go to radio shack and buy a telephone tape recorder, and then call the guy at EAM back and discuss why you still have not gotten the settlement letter from them. Get the guy on tape discussing the fact that they offered you this settlement to close this matter and now youre just trying to see it through, but you need documentation in writing to show that they are for real. If you have that on tape, you have a great chance of sending this whole lawsuit packing.

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Relax, y'all. They can't take your drivers license.

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i called them because they kept calling my house for my cousin. They would call really early in the morning. so i called to have my number taken off their list and they cussed me out and hung up. Some kinda business

They may be a legit company but they need to learn how to deal with people that aren't even customers.

i just called to have my name removed from their calling list. They commenced to say i was harrassing them and the office manager called me a dumb ass and hung up the phone. Now if this is how the management runs there business then i am afraid to see how the employees are trained to handle a serious situation.

I also just got a call from EAM. My wife and I bought our first house in Nov '09. Upon examining my credit report, there was a collection for $3916 that I honeslty had no idea what it could possibly be from. When I called the phone number to the collection agency I never could get through, it always rang twice and then gave me a busy tone. I explined this to my mortgage person and she tried calling also with no luck. She was going to file whatever needs to be done to have it ammended from my credit report.

The person left me a voicemail and said he was from John Nicolia Law firm in New York and paperwork was about to be filed in my county circuit court. He then called my mothers home phone and told her almost everything he had left on my voicemail but then explained that he called her because he had no contact number for me(lie).

When I called the number back it took me directly to Eastern Asset Management. After he went through his spiel again to me he said he could probably get some knocked off the total. Heres the suspicious part, he said he had to get the attorney AND someone from Eastern Asset management on the line to try to negotiate! The number I had called in the first place WAS Eastern Asset Management! I am confused and done know what to do. Today is December 28 and he told me it needs to be paid in full by the end of the year or it will be taken to court.

They tried to pull that on me too. I sent them a DV letter and never heard from them again.

who can help me find out some info on double billing.I was paid up on a bill from Phillips and burns law offices and have the settlement letter saying the matter was settled.2 years later eastern asset management came after me again.my fault for not digging all the acct info to see what was happening but it was the same acct and I repaid.Isnt their a law against this.
One day I call and they cant help me their is no info and the next day I call they can pull it right up and say sorry bit you cant get your money back.Who can I call,thank you.

FYI, what you all need to do if you have been victimized by this company is send them a Cease all phone communication letter, ask for account number orignial company owed with address & phone numbers as well as orginal balance and what they sa balance is now, included all this in the letter and send it certified return receipt. Then file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission

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they are junk debt collectors and they rip people off....they buy bad paper....this is probably an account you already paid off in the past
do not trust them
they will try to threaten you dont let them
go to budhibbs.com and look them up they are scum

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they violate the law when they threaten you with court, threaten to seize your property, or tell you that they are going to serve you or that you committed a crime. they are operating in violation of every fdcpa law written. report them to the nys attorney general at 716-854-8404

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I am here to report that eastern asset management has been dissolved and no longer in existence. so anyone that has a case or had a case with them need to research their known associates. i found my case with north asset management their number is 716-646-3671.

BREAKING NEWS

Suit claims attorney sold use of his name to debt collectors so they could threaten and intimidate consumers

Video on Front Page of [URL="http://www.consumerjustice.com/"]www.consumerjustice.com[/URL]

BUFFALO, NY (May 6, 2010) - Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo today announced his office has sued a Western New York lawyer who sold debt collectors the use of his name, which the debt collectors then used to intimidate consumers by threatening bogus legal action. The action is the latest in Attorney General Cuomo???s ongoing probe into unlawful debt collection practices.

Cuomo???s office sued Williamsville-based attorney John P. Nicolia after an investigation determined that he collected $141,000 in fees in return for allowing debt collectors to threaten consumers across the country by using his name and his law firm???s name. In reality, Nicolia never provided any actual legal services for the debt collection company, Eastern Asset Management.

???The lawsuit alleges that this attorney knowingly allowed a debt collection firm to use his name to threaten, intimidate, and harass consumers, while he sat back and profited without having to do any actual work,??? said Attorney General Cuomo. ???Our investigation into illegal debt collection practices has uncovered layer upon layer of abusive acts, and we will continue to root out the bad players in this industry.???

An investigation by Attorney General Cuomo???s Office determined that Nicolia, despite being paid $69,000 in 2008 and $72,000 in 2009, has no records to show that he provided any legal services to the debt collection companies. However, the collectors employed his name repeatedly - with Nicolia???s knowledge - in attempts to collect debts:

* Collectors who called the consumers to collect on the debts claimed that they were calling from, or working with, ???the Law Office of John Nicolia.???
* Collectors sent standardized ???settlement??? letters citing non-existent judgments to consumers believed to owe debts, claiming ??????our legal counsel, John Nicolia, Esq. may review the status of your particular case at anytime.???

The debt collection company, after invoking Nicolia???s name, often falsely stated that the consumers:

* Had lawsuits filed against them
* Would have their driver???s licenses suspended
* Would be charged with a crime
* Would be imprisoned or lose their property if they didn???t pay

Attorney General Cuomo???s lawsuit seeks a court order barring Nicolia from allowing debt collection companies to use his name, as well as imposing significant civil penalties against Nicolia for the violations.

The federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the New York State debt collection and consumer protection laws prohibit the following conduct: posing as an attorney, threatening lawsuits or other legal action which cannot be taken, saying a consumer committed a crime or will be arrested, and talking with third parties except to get location information. The law further requires collection agencies to send a written notice within five days of initial communication with the consumer explaining how he or she can dispute the debt. If properly disputed, the collection agency must stop all collection attempts and send verification.

Since commencing the statewide initiative in May 2009, Cuomo has shut down 14 debt collection and affiliated process serving companies and required others to reform their deceptive practices. His office has also garnered criminal convictions against 10 collectors who engaged in especially egregious and threatening actions against consumers. The investigation is ongoing and lawsuits against several other collection companies are pending.

Cuomo urges consumers to visit [URL="http://www.nydebthelp.com/"]www.NYDebtHelp.com[/URL] to learn their rights. The site allows victims of debt collection and debt settlement companies quick access to the Attorney General???s office to file complaints, and outlines the stages of the Attorney General???s investigation.

The matters are being handled by Assistant Attorney General James Morrissey under the supervision of Deputy Attorney General for Regional Affairs J. David Sampson and Special Deputy Chief of Staff Mitra Hormozi.

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They are in deep shit legally. Don't give them a dime.