This company Foster and Friedman is a BIG SCAM.  They are posting fake messeges here so to confuse people.  Sure, you might have debt as most people do, but giving them money, wont settle the debt. I highly recommend you ignore their claims. if you owe money... call the company you owe money to and PAY DIRECTLY TO THEM.  Don't trust someone who happened to get your number.  In this economy, everyone is trying to make money, too bad they are making things worse.  I hope they get what they deserve!!!

This is how it works.
Our debt settlement program is actually quite simple.

Your current level of unsecured debt will be skillfully negotiated for you, and essentially you will end up paying a fraction of the debt. Generally, we estimate we can reduce your debt by 40% to 60% of the current total.

We will set you up with an affordable monthly payment, which is determined on a client-by-client basis between you and a counselor at DebtSettlementUSA. Based upon what you are able to pay each month into your settlement account, we can determine how many months you will be part of the program, and ultimately be debt free. Throughout the program, we communicate with your creditors, on your behalf, and you will no longer be dealing with burdensome phone calls and letters from your creditors.

Upon enrollment, we will immediately contact each of your creditors, individually, and let them know that we are now representing you, and also let them know of your interest in settling your debt with them. Reaching a settlement usually takes several phone calls and communication between DebtSettlementUSA and the creditor. Once a settlement offer has been reached, and you as the client have agreed on this amount, you will pay the agreed upon amount from your settlement account. This is always done with your authorization, whether verbal or written.

At that point, the creditor has accepted the payment in full, and you are free of that debt forever. DebtSettlementUSA will diligently continue to work on negotiating all of your debts, until you are finally free from the once overwhelming debt that you started our program with.

Our main goal is to get you out of debt. We work only for our clients; not for the benefit of the creditors. Becoming debt free is the first step to becoming financially secure, and debt settlement may be your best option.

[Background] Carol Newman from Pay-Star [888.576.1260] is attempting to collect a $722.xx debt / Case# 172XXX.  she mentioned that she would settle it for $433.29 before her client would take legal action later today.
_________________________________________________________________________
[Confirmation letter sent from Pay-star Intl]

"Jenny Lopez" <jenny@paystarintl.com>,

June 8, 2010

RE: C-172XXX: Payoff
Original Account: XXX
Original Client:  XXX
Current Balance: $722.14
Settlement Amount: $433.29

To CHRIS,

As per your conversation with Carol Newman, our office is willing to compromise the above referenced matter with a settlement in the amount of $433.29, which is due on June 8, 2010.

Upon clearance of your payment a letter will be issued, after thirty days, stating that the account have been paid in full.  We will also report this as paid in full to the credit bureau, and have this item removed from your credit history.  

Thank you for your time and cooperation.

Sincerely,

Jenny Lopez
Payment Dept.

CC: Carol Newman
____________________________________________________________________________

I have been contacted by your company about a debt I allegedly owe. I am instructing you not to contact me further in connection with this debt. Under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, you may not contact me further now that I have notified you not to do so.

I'm uncertain how you acquired my personal information but,
Paystar has no further specifics on the late fees and other
misc charges on my seven year old Bank checking acct.  
There is no mention of my previous addresses, acct#s or
breakdown of the charges from prior to 200X.

I'm contacting my lawyer and notifying the
ST Attorney General, FBI and the local police.
___________________________________________________________________________

http://www.callerfinder.com/888-576-1260.html

http://www.callercomplaints.com/SearchResult.aspx?Phone=888-576-1260

I have had calls from similar numbers from these bozos. You can add a new fake attorney to their list: Robert Mason. I looked him up and there are no licensed attorneys in New York working in Huntington Station or Melville.

And don't believe anyone here who is saying good things about them, as they work for PayStar. Think about it: why would anyone who has dealt with them and paid or paying them, be googling them to find out who is calling from the phone number that far after the fact?

I received a voice mail on my cell phone from a Joseph Taylor calling from "a prelegal verifications department" regarding another person's (whom I will refer to here as X) alleged debt for which he says I am a primary contact person. He referred to
The Firm of Karen Jenson and Steven Klien and instructed me to inform X to contact Karen and Steven at this number:
1 866 300 7907
and refer to a case #
He said: "X needs to contact Karen and Steven as soon as possible by the end of  today to prevent any paperwork from being sent out to the adverse on file and to prevent any further actions from being taken at this point in time."

The language of these phone calls is very carefully selected to plant seeds of fear in the mind. For example, the term "Pre-legal". It almost sounds like the term "legal" which is a very scary word to most people.
And the term "Firm" sounds almost like "Law Firm" (OMG).

I immediately googled the "Firm" and, of course, there is no mention of it anywhere on the net. A reverse phone search of 1-866 300 -7907 brought up no results (of course) because the main weapon these people have in their favor is anonymity. Legitimate businesses do not operate in this fashion.
Beware of the slick encouragements by alleged posters on this site who urge you to cooperate with these con artists - do you think they wouldn't stoop to misrepresenting themselves on these posts (i.e. 'Paul J in MD'; 'they're ok, pay them';'helpedme'; 'steve riley'; 'chingchingaling';'Mamie')?

You got screwed.  These guys are documented criminals.

The best way to check and see if they legially own your debt is to check your credit report.  It will list the collections, the amount owned, and the COMPANY WHO OWNS IT.  

I called the REAL collections company and paid them after I was SCAMMED by Porter & Martin.  They are posting FAKE messages on here to get people to hand over their hard earned money.  In no way is their claims legit.

They have also broken several laws under the "Fair Debt Collection Practices Act"  You can find the details of this wonderful LAW here:  http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre27.pdf

YES!!!  Unfortunately, they will take money out of your account without your permission or authorization.  You need to IMMEDIATELY close your bank account and reopen it with a different account number.  They can and will take out whatever they want out of your account.  I know, it just happened to me.  They took out $100 the first day, and $300 the next day.  They do not own my debt.  The bank can't do anything about it because you gave them your account information willingly.  Act now before you loose any more money.  Contact a lawyer or your Attorney General's office and make a formal complaint.  Keep records of phone calls and look at your credit report.  If a collections company owns your debt, they amount and owner of the debt will be listed on your credit report.  You can get one without paying or a credit card.  Just google, Free Credit Report Without Credit Card.

I'm sorry to tell you this, but they are scammers.  You need to make sure they actually OWN your debt.  Most of the time, they have purchased your information and have just enough to convince you they are legit.  Unfortunately, you are paying "Paystar International" while your actual debt goes unpaid.  They are so happy to work with you so quickly because they want you to give them money.  They have called me from 2 different phone numbers:  631.755.3068    866-299-8558  .  

If they are legitimate, they will follow the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.  http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre27.pdf

Do not give them money, do not acknowledge it is a valid debt.  Have them send you proof in writing.  Make sure they actually own your debt.  They probably don't.

the people who own paystar and foster and freedman are the same they work in the same office some of them pretending to work for a processing dept some actin like lawyers like nancy stevens and gary wallace and some taking the calls that come to paystar international. its all one office owned by barry with his daughters lauren and dawn as well as his son in law anthony. the people who work there all use the same aliasis.

The first post is the accurate one.  This company Foster and Friedman is a BIG SCAM.  They are posting fake messeges here so to confuse people.  Sure, you might have debt as most people do, but giving them money, wont settle the debt. I highly recommend you ignore their claims. if you owe money... call the company you owe money to and PAY DIRECTLY TO THEM.  Don't trust someone who happened to get your number.  In this economy, everyone is trying to make money, too bad they are making things worse.  I hope they get what they deserve!!!

Well, I had an experience with them as well. I contacted them in regards to a Washington Mutual acct and Nancy Stevens gave me 50% off the bal. I paid this in full with my checking account over the phone, and sure enough... this is now reported as paid in full under this acct under my revolving credit. Thanks Foster and Freedman, now all my accts are in good standing and I got preapproved for a mortgage!

well sounds like to me that you had no dispute with them right? becuz gurl i paid them $100 today for a down payment on a larger amount for my kid and Mr. Walace was so nice and I had no big deal with it all I knew my lazy son hadn't paid it in sometime. If there was a sumons or not I took care of it and I trusted the phone call because we got papers actually right after they called like an hour later.

Nancy Steven said if I did not call by 3:30 a summons will be issued on me. I did call our court house to see if a civil suit has been issued on me. Found out the case number did not match up to any of their files.
Foster and Freeman are the lawyers she reported have my file. Well before you give in and out any information to any one, please check. I looked up the phone number she left on the net just to see where Foster and Freeman were located, and I found out I am not the only person this
has happed to. Please! be aware and do not trust just a phone call.

Yea I pulled my credit but why is it only on my Equifax and not the other 2? anyone know?

I had a different experience with them actually positive so I think you just got too upset for your own good hunny. They took care of my action and gave me a payment arrangment with paystar for three hundred dollars a month so I think you just were to upset or just didn't want to pay. I have to say that we all have bills and this time in the economy is rough on all of us. I make just about 500 dollars every week but I know what it is like to have a judgement so all I can say is if you think it's a joke or a scam or a lie just wait till you actually get the legal crap in the mail that says otherwise. My best recomendation is that you just do something if you can't pay a large amount get a payment plan with them they will give it to you from paystar if it's not too late as what Mr. Wallace did for me what a gentleman.

I couldn't sleep this evening thinking to myself that maybe I had made a mistake today helping my daughter stop her legal action. I gave this lots of thought and did the research that I needed to in order to determine if I was going to lend my assistance to her or let her 'default' and up in court over this matter. I called into Mr. Gary Wallace's office and I must say the guy really knew his stuff. He was very respectful, courteous, and willing to provide me with any and every piece of information to prove the debt truly belonged to my daughter. I myself am a business man and took the advantage of running my daughter's credit. I know for a fact that all the information he gave me was true because I saw it in black and white on my daughter's credit reports. After making my daughter beg to resolve this case I took lead to resolve it for her by offering them $3200.00 on a nearly $15,000 debt. He got his 'client' aka Paystar to come down to this amount, never once was he rude, or pressure me to pay a dime. He told me some real scary scenario's including the fact that my daughter only had this one debt plus she is 26 years old and is unemployed if a court ordered default judgement was to appear against her she would result in having that be made Public Record and this would affect her in a background or employment checks. He told me he wasn't an attorney but more of a legal advisor who does legal processing and was more than willing to negotiate some sort of settlement for my daughter. They gave me three supurlative options which also included large monthly payments and smaller ones on the full amount. I told my daughter to call them she did and decided she would have to make the small payments out of her unemployment. She called me back after speaking with Mr. Wallace she told me that he was willing to set up the payments but she knew about everything already and he was so nice and willing to hold the options open ended for an additional 30 days if she could get the full amount together I honestly give this guy merit and appreciate all of his honesty and compassion. You really don't find A-class guys like him, but the one thing I found funny was he kind of sounded like a woman, but I'm going to go on a more political approach here and assume he was homosexual which is probably why his demeanor was so motivating and successful. So from one salesman to the next I give this guy 'kudos' and thanks for helping my ailing daughter!

I had the same thing happen that was in the first report.  A wierd number on my cell phone, some chick told me to all a number, I called, the guys said bank of america wants to take your car if you don't pay up, ect, ect.  I went bullistic on the guy but he was perstistant.  he gave me 2 payment options.  I told him i'm not paying a dime until i spoke to bank of america.  he said to call him back after i called them.  I called b of a, they tranfered me to collections, then told me to call another collections office twice over just to find out:  he was telling the truth.  I felt dumb, but i called him back and made arrangements.  If they call, tell them you want to verify their info first.  If they're goiod, make arrangements because judgements suck.

I too got the same exact call from the complaints dept. I called into Foster and Freedman and spoke with Nancy stevens. She was able to negotiate 60% off of the balance owed on a Bank of America card. I know I owed this money... so I research it, and sure enough after calling Bank of America I ended up called Paystar. They told me I need to resolve with Foster and Freedman. I even ran my credit and it posted on there. I have multiple debts in the past and I was happy to deal with these people! Better to settle it than to have a judgment placed against you. Which happened to me with an old porvidian card. Now I cant negotiate and have to pay 4000 in order to settle this judgment, even though the card was for the most 1000! These debts will follow u if you dont resolve them! I dont need to be dodgin bill collectors all my life!

[This post has been removed]

I got a call that sounded almost exactly like KMK.  I spoke to a guy C. Wallace and he too put me on hold to retrieve the information and placed it on hold. He even tried to workout a resolution without going through the legal mumbo jumbo as a liason for his client.  He went as far as saying that a lien would be placed over our vehicles, and when I advised him they were both being financed he quickly responded by saying that would be a problem with the financee as "if Capital One would reposses our vehicles when we are making payments on time and for larger amounts". They amount he is trying to collect is $2,176.00.

Well I would still call but ask for Nancy Steven she was the one that helped me and I pulled it on my credit report I mean I know I owed it but still i'm not sure if they are legitimate I would call the paystar people directly if you can get their info or above someone put there number up there just see if they really have something for you there. That's what I did and I pulled my credit for free online and sure enough it was on my equifax report so I don't know maybe Freedman is a scam but paystar isn't so I guess that's debatable???

I am so glad I researched this number because I just got a voicemail stating all of what kmk said and I've been debating on should I call.  So, should I call and find out what it's about or just leave it alone and see what happens?

wow ok well that's interesting I just paid them some money yesterday and set up a payment plan with a very nice woman named nancy stevens so should I cancel it then if this is true?

it's all crap that's all I have to say. These people are liars and thats all they know how to do is lie. There is no Foster and Freedman or state processing. I called them over and over again tonight with nothing but issues. They are crooks and thanks to kmk for putting the other number. Apparently they are going as another outfit called Jacobs and Klien. Don't pay them they will drain your bank account according to other people so just dont return their calls or anything its an answering service and thats all they will say till you give them a case number so they can capture your phone number and harass you.

I received a phone call that came up restricted on my caller ID.  The lady said she was Kim Walters and she was calling from the civil complaints department and there had been a complaint issued against me and that a summons would be served from my county and she knew the name of my county.  She gave me a case # and told me to call 1-888-210-8874.  She said I should call before 4PM today or a summons would be served.
When I called the number they were an answering service and asked for my case # and name then forwarded me to another person who said she was Nancy Stevens from Foster and Freedman and that if I waited for 30 seconds she would call my county to ask them not to serve the summons.  When she came back she said now the information had been released on her computer and she could tell me that the debt was from Paystar International who was her client.  It was apparently for an "old" credit card that I had years ago.  I told her the debt wasn't valid and she said it was on my credit report and I said just because it was on my credit report didn't mean it was valid.  She argued that yes it was and that if I didn't resolve it in one hour the summons would be served.  I asked her for the address and phone numbers for Paystar International.  She gave me 273 Walt Whitman Road, Ste 356, Huntington Station, NY 11746 and phone numbers 631-755-3075 and 888-628-0025.  I found more information on this website under phone number 888-855-0751 which sounds very similar to the phone call I received today.  Maybe everyone was catching on to their previous number and they had to change it.  I immediately put a certified letter in the mail to them asking them to verify the vailidity of the debt and to verify they are licensed to practice debt collection in my state.  I also sent a certified letter to Equifax indicating I was disputing the debt.  I probably won't hear from them again.  I hope this information helps others.  Please don't buy into their scare tactics, that's all they are.  If something is that old and even if you do owe it, they can't legally take you to court on debt that is 10 years old in most states.  Research and know your rights and don't let them get a dime from you.