help! NCO trying to pull something over on me??

They don't need anything more than the last four of your social and your mailing address.

So what should i do? should i call the lady and provide my last four SSN and mailing address? it just seems a little fishy to me that they wouldn't already have the information, if in fact they did have actual real evidence that i owed them money. Im just wondering what i should do, im so confused and worried about this whole deal, Thanks for your reply JCEMT! any ideas of the nxt steps i should take?>

Send a copy of your letter to NCO and their reponse to the three reporting agencies and dispute the entry. If NCO verifies the debt with them then you have a solid case against NCO

ok, so send a copy of the above letter they sent me to all 3 credit bureaus, and then send NCO back a copy of the letter they sent me?
oh yeah btw i forgot to mention, but ive read this seems to be important. At the end of the paper it says "This is an attempt to collect a debt. Any information obtained will be used for that purpose. This is a communication fro a debt collector" and thats it. doesn't say i have 30 days to dispute...

So for so many questions, like i said im just worried, and wanna get this settled, so it doesn't hurt my credit score any more than it has.

hi guest--

what he meant was to take the validation request you sent NCO, and the letter NCO sent you in reply, make a copy of each of them, and send those copies of the two letters to any credit bureau which NCO reported this debt to. Whichever credit report of yours it shows up on, send the copies of these two letters to that credit bureau, with a letter disputing the entry.

here's what happens--NCO just told you that they have no idea what that entry is when you asked for validation. But--when you dispute it with the credit bureau, they will notify NCO of the dispute. NCO will then have 30 days to reply to verify the account as being yours. If NCO verifies that this debt is yours to the credit bureau, then you have NCO in a corner.

If NCO does verify the debt as being yours to any credit bureau, then you can turn around and sue NCO on the spot for violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act. That will be a $1000 check in your pocket for statutory damages due to their screwup. You see, NCO will have just told the credit bureau that this debt is truly yours, while at the same time telling you that they dont have any knowledge of the account. It is against federal law to report any information on someone's credit report without knowing and being able to prove its accuracy.

Hopefully, when you send this documentation to the credit bureau(s), the entry will just be removed. Also, if you really want to push back at NCO, you have them on other violations as well. You mentioned the fact that their notice said nothing about your 30 days to dispute--that is the disclosure that they are required to send to you within five days of initial communication. Well, placing a debt on your credit file, according to federal law, is a communication. So, within five days of the date they first put this on your credit file, that notice should have arrived at your door. Obviously it didnt or you would have known of this debt already. That is a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, also a federal law, and also a $1000 check in your pocket.

Ok, thank you very much for the help and information Skydive, and the rest of you as-well. I will make copies, and send them all out first thing tomorrow morning. As for suing, I'd be just fine if they took it off my report and it didn't harm it at all. However, if it does, what you mentioned, would be a very powerful Quid Pro quo, one might say :D Thanks again, y'all have been very helpful, and brought much needed peace of mind to me :)

They are horrible people. Someone Mr Higgins from NCO called my aunt who is in her 60's and harassed her saying that my cuz Robs owed them money and if Robbie does not pay back then NCO will sue him and he has to spend his whole life behind the bars. That Mr Higgins claimed to be an attorney and literally threatened my old aunt so much so that she took ill and she had to be taken to the hospital. They are extremely STUPID people and remember do not do not and do not provide your SSN to them.

Take care and fight them back

Keep us posted
Nelly

update!
I just sent in my 3 copies to each credit bureaus and am awaiting their response. I also Sent "Plaza Associates" a Validation letter the same day, I sent NCO one, and have yet to hear back from them. Their 30 day period is drawing to an end, so I am preparing a letter for them aswell to the bureaus. Funny thing is! this morning, bright and early at 8am I get a call from "Private number" from NCO stating that I owe money. After informing him that he was Not to contact me thru this method, he began to threaten me with possible jail time. After re-affirming that i had sent his company a proof of Verification letter, he stated that "validation letters were nothing more than a health and confort for criminals" I think this is illegal because I said in the letter I sent them; that they are not to contact me by phone, computer generated phone, or any such means, except for US Mail. I generally try to refrain from suing anyone over anything, but I Guess I better start preparing a letter for my lawyer.. :(

I'll keep ya'll posted, there really needs to be a Class-action suit on these people, their methods are so unprofessional, and unorthidox, it makes me sick.

hey guest--

if memory serves me right, NCO just did get slapped with a massive lawsuit....back in 2004, they were ordered to pay $1.5 MILLION in a lawsuit over FCRA violations. It was the largest FCRA penalty ever handed to a collection agency in history!

But hey, they dont learn.