Just received a call from 800-275-5196, don't know who this is.  

I received this call at 11:15 this morning.. They left no message and said nothing. It is not the first time that I have received calls from this number. I am getting tired of it!

company ask for information from you and will not give any info back to you

Friday, Jan. 27, 2006


Attorney General Corbett announces settlement agreement with PA based debt collector NCO Financial Systems

HARRISBURG - Attorney General Tom Corbett today announced that a settlement has been reached with Pennsylvania based NCO Financial Systems Inc., a national debt collection agency, following an investigation into in excess of 800 consumer complaints lodged with the Attorney General's Bureau of Consumer Protection against NCO Financial since November 2003.

Corbett said NCO Financial, headquartered at 507 Prudential Road, Horsham, entered into an agreement, known as an Assurance of Voluntary Compliance, with the Attorney General's Office for alleged violations of the state's Consumer Protection Law and Fair Credit Extension Uniformity Act, and the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

Corbett said that the alleged violations included engaging in or using unfair or deceptive debt collection acts and/or practices, and engaging in or using false, deceptive, or misleading representations or means in connection with the collection of debts.

Corbett said that many consumer complaints involved claims that NCO Financial improperly contacted consumers at their place of employment, or called at unusual times or at times NCO Financial knew, or should have known, were inconvenient to the consumer, such as calling consumers before 8 a.m. and/or after 9 p.m.  

Other consumer complaints alleged that representatives of NCO Financial used obscene or profane language and engaged in conduct to threaten, annoy, abuse, or harass consumers.

Corbett said there were also allegations that NCO Financial continued to communicate with consumers after the consumer had notified them in writing that the debt was in dispute or that the consumer wished the debt collector to stop calling.

"Many consumers were very upset after they had received abusive or threatening calls from NCO Financial, in some instances even after the consumer had unsuccessfully tried to tell them that they did not owe the debt," Corbett said. "In many cases, these calls did not stop until the Attorney General's Bureau of Consumer Protection got involved."

Under the terms of the Assurance, NCO Financial denies the Commonwealth's allegations and agrees to:
- Adopt and implement policies and procedures reasonably necessary to ensure that its representatives are properly trained and are otherwise performing their duties in compliance with all applicable laws.
- Adhere to a policy of disciplining, up to and including the termination of, representatives that have not complied with the requirements of the Assurance and all applicable laws.  
- Sufficiently monitor independent contractors and when it learns that any independent contractor is acting in violation of the requirements of the Assurance, immediately take action to enforce its contractual rights, up to and including termination of any independent contractor.
- Adopt and implement compliance monitoring policies and procedures, under which NCO Financial's supervisors and managers of call centers must spend a portion of their work time monitoring by any lawful means their representatives to ensure compliance with applicable laws and company policy.  
- Pay to the Commonwealth the sum of $300,000 as costs of investigation and/or for future public protection purposes.

The Assurance was filed in Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court in Philadelphia. The Commonwealth's case was negotiated by Senior Deputy Attorney General Thomas J. Blessington of the Attorney General's Bureau of Consumer Protection Office in Philadelphia.

# # #

They are a real debt collecting company, but in big trouble with the Federal Trade Commission for re-dating dates on debts so they can continue to harass people and try to get money from you.

Directly from the FTC website:

NCO Group to Pay Largest FCRA Civil Penalty to Date
One of the nation?s largest debt-collection firms will pay $1.5 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by reporting inaccurate information about consumer accounts to credit bureaus. The civil penalty against Pennsylvania-based NCO Group, Inc. is the largest civil penalty ever obtained in a FCRA case.

According to the FTC?s complaint, defendants NCO Group, Inc.; NCO Financial Systems, Inc.; and NCO Portfolio Management, Inc. violated Section 623(a)(5) of the FCRA, which specifies that any entity that reports information to credit bureaus about a delinquent consumer account that has been placed for collection or written off must report the actual month and year the account first became delinquent. In turn, this date is used by the credit bureaus to measure the maximum seven-year reporting period the FCRA mandates. The provision helps ensure that outdated debts ? debts that are beyond this seven-year reporting period ? do not appear on a consumer?s credit report. Violations of this provision of the FCRA are subject to civil penalties of $2,500 per violation.

The FTC charges that NCO reported accounts using later-than-actual delinquency dates. Reporting later-than-actual dates may cause negative information to remain in a consumer?s credit file beyond the seven-year reporting period permitted by the FCRA for most information. When this occurs, consumers? credit scores may be lowered, possibly resulting in their rejection for credit or their having to pay a higher interest rate.

The proposed consent decree orders the defendants to pay civil penalties of $1.5 million and permanently bars them from reporting later-than-actual delinquency dates to credit bureaus in the future. Additionally, NCO is required to implement a program to monitor all complaints received to ensure that reporting errors are corrected quickly. The consent agreement also contains standard recordkeeping and other requirements to assist the FTC in monitoring the defendants? compliance.

The Commission vote to authorize staff to refer the complaint and consent decree to the Department of Justice was 5-0. The Department of Justice filed this matter at the FTC?s request in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on May 12, 2004.

NOTE: The Commission files a complaint when it has ?reason to believe? that the law has been or is being violated, and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public interest. The complaint is not a finding or ruling that the defendant has actually violated the law.

NOTE: This stipulated final order is for settlement purposes only and does not constitute an admission by the defendant of a law violation. A stipulated final order requires approval by the court and has the force of law when signed by the judge.

Copies of the complaint and consent decree are available from the FTC?s Web site at http://www.ftc.gov and also from the FTC?s Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580. The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint, or to get free information on any of 150 consumer topics, call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1 877-382-4357), or use the complaint form at http://www.ftc.gov. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.
Media Contact:
Jen Schwartzman
Office of Public Affairs
202-326-2674
Staff Contact:
William Haynes
Division of Financial Practices
202-326-3224
(FTC File No. 992-3012)
(Civil Action No. 04-2041)

This bill has been paid by my insurance company, yet I still receive calls.

Yes, NCO fits.  A bill collection agency.  I suggest you read your rights regarding bill collection and get rid of the fools.  They will most likely get blustery about things and break some obscure procedure that will finish their attempts.

Received a call from this no. wanting to know my DOB to verify if they had the right party.  (They had my name.)  She hung up fast when I said I do not give out such info over the phone.  

Very suspicious behavior from a supposed finanacial institution.  The banks always warn they have this info and not to give it out to an unknown party.  I hate they have my cell no.

Received a call from this no. wanting to know my DOB to verify if they had the right party.  (They had my name.)  She hung up fast when I said I do not give out such info over the phone.

yes!~ strange call from robat

We did have a bill with our local hospital that was about 180 days past due (it was really big!).  It was sent to NCO as a collection bill.  We paid the balance directly to the hospital but still received NCO collection calls.   Both the hospital accounts receivable and we sent proof that the bill was paid.  Two years later, we are again receiving paper bills and calls about the same bill.  They keep telling us that the calls will stop if we agree to pay 60% of the bill amount.  Once again, our hospital and we have re-sent proof of payment.  I expect that they will start contacting us again after a year or two...

Didn't answer...Thank goodness!

This number is a collection agency called NCO.

Received three calls in a row from this number with no message and no one there. Very annoying.

How this works:
They say press 3 if you are not the person they are calling - then after a bit tell you to call back so and so @ a number. When you call back EVEN IF YOU USE CALL BLOCKING, they will have your CID data (toll free numbers capture the data as part of the phone bill). So, *poof* your unlisted number ain't unlisted no more and they know your name.

These bastards are ruthless, you had better get rude to them if it's a live person OR they'll hound you to death.
Do not give them any information as the matter of fact say that the person there looking for does not live at your residence and that you have never heard of them.
Then tell then not to call back or you will report them.
These low life's are nothing but conniving scammer's and want your info.
I suggest you treat them like the dirt they are.

I got a call from this number on my cell phone which has a no-call order. I've never heard of this place before and I never want to hear of it again. This is unacceptable.

So, I received a call from these folks today and they wanted to know if I had been in contact with someone I work with on a local festival. I asked her to slow down and tell me what she was calling about. She said she found my number on the festivals website and I told them if it was festival related I would be happy discuss it with them as I am the vice president of the committee. She then told me the conversation was being recorded and asked how to get a hold of the person in question. I asked again if it was festival related and she just asked if I could get ahold of said person. I told here to leve me with a number and a name and I would forward message to the proper party.  She didn't seem happy with my lack of enthusiasm, but bottom like I feel like they lied to me. I called said person afterward and he told me they had allready called him several times without warrant.

These b*****ds are ruthless, you had better get rude to them if it's a live person OR they'll hound you to death.
Do not give them any information as the matter of fact say that the person there looking for does not live at your residence and that you have never heard of them.
Then tell then not to call back or you will report them.
These low life's are nothing but conniving scammer's and want your info.
I suggest you treat them like the dirt they are.

Yep it's NCO Financial Systems. They will lie and give you a bogus address if you ask, but you can find the address easily on the Internet for your lawyer to send to them. One of their low life employees claimed to be Brian Roberts, but I bet he is making the name up. They send out letters with an amount owed with absolutely no information whatsoever about who, what, where it was for and have automated dialers. Don't give them any information because I think most of their claims are just scams to get the elderly and mentally challenged to send them money for nothing.

How this SCAM works:
They say press 3 if you are not the person they are calling - then after a bit tell you to call back so and so @ a number. When you call back EVEN IF YOU USE CALL BLOCKING, they will have your CID data (toll free numbers capture the data as part of the phone bill). So, *poof* your unlisted number ain't unlisted no more and they know your name.

NCO Financial, they collect on medical bills.  They're website is valid and I hate them calling me too.  I have applied for financial assistance through the office my bill is for and haven't heard back from them.  That's another story but for those of you who will question - yes, I have called them to find out the status and the doctor's office doesn't respond.  Regardless, even though NCO has been told I've applied and am awaiting an answer, they keep calling.  If you think about it, they're just doing their job.  But there is a point of harassment and they are definitely at that stage.  I've told them in writing to stop calling me and that I've applied for assistance, they are relentless.  

On another note about a year ago, I had one bill that the med office kept submitting to the wrong insurance company.  I had called three times to correct it and they kept telling me the insurance information was right.  I had the paperwork to show they were submitting to the wrong company, etc...  They never fixed it.  They sent it to NCO for collection.  I wrote NCO about it and sent a copy of my insurance card, EOB denying the claim (because it was the wrong insurance company), NCO did actually get that fixed for me.  They billed the right company and NCO quit calling me.  I just don't answer the phone.  I'm making minimum payments to the doctor's office and awaiting a decision on fin. asst.  They cannot place a judgement if they accept the payments (cash my check).  It's only $5 twice a month from my pay check, but it's better then nothing. I set my home phone to a fax machine and removed voicemail.  This stopped all calls to my home but I can still make outgoing calls. I have a cell phone for friends and family to call.

do you have the information about the fraud? I would love to read, please give link, thanks

Collection agent threatening me with an unpaid bill that workers compensation insurance has not paid yet.

nobody said anything, just hung up after I said "hello"

They hung up when I answered the phone.

called today said they wanted someone we knew,i called the # and it said it was mci financial assistance. said our number was given to them,we get calls from 800 numbers all the time most say nothing

I don't even know who is on the other end of the phone - I want them to stop calling my house.

It says this is not a solicitation call please stay on the phone. Then get a young girls voice that says hello hello and hangs up

calls and asys please stay on line for an importent phone call// is nco collections presently under investagation by the pa. attorny gen. office for fruad