205-396-3619

THE BOTTOM BODDOM BODOM FEEDER FEETER.

Ahhhhh, ring in the new year, here comes Portfoolio Recovery, eager to make a$$es of their pitiful selves. Been calling here for five years now, no one ever so much as picked up the phone. They were a nuisance when they were ringing the phone 4 to six times a day, so I complained to our state atty. general office. After that, I got a letter from PRA's lawyer named Pearson, who wrote "we have decided to cease collection efforts." The so-called debt is unverified, I asked for verification, Sir Pearson stated it could not be verified. Four years later, the vermin are still calling, twice a day, two or three days a week, -- this was call #468 since they "decided to cease collection efforts "--  no one has ever picked up the phone at this end, no one ever will. So much for "cease collection efforts." Bottom-feeding pond scum, can't help themselves.

Gives me a chance to inform people, do not pick up, if you do, do not converse, talk, give out any information including even your name, just hang up. The so-called debts they are trolling for cannot be verified, may not be yours, and are way past statute of limitations, so ignore them.

They CAN legally call on Sundays.

However, every state has its own laws concerning "statute of limitation" on ALL debts!!!

Here in Arkansas, the statute of limitations on ALL but MEDICAL debts is 5 years, with medical debts, the statute of limitations is a mere 2 years!!!

An excellent website to start at is;
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/the-st ... contact-me.html

Same ole message

You do realize that it is against the law for any creditor to try to make you pay a debt
if you have no attachable property and your sole source of income is Social Security?
The only exceptions being delinquent taxes to the IRS, Child Support, or Alimony obligations.
The Federal law is located at 42 U.S.C. 407(a).
If you tell them this and they continue to call you it is a violation of the
Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
NOTE: Supplemental Security Income payments cannot be levied or garnished.

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/checking/sepa ... rity-funds.aspx

I have 30 #'s I can block & Portfolio has 20 of em'. They don't stop calling, even Sunday. They call Sunday every week. Don't EVER agree to pay ANYTHING or you blow the SOL & they will say you agreed to pay off the debit!! Legally, they will have your a$$!!

does anyone have any idea what companies they collect for?

they seem to be big on credit cards from banks too big to fail...Citibank is one. The banks have already gotten their generous write-offs from the gov,, then they are allowed to "sell" the written-off "debt" to bottom-feeders like PRA. They bought an old written-off credit card bill from 1997, in 2001. Then they waited around for eight years, and then  !!!!  started pest calls to our house. They did not verify the debt, they cannot verify the debt, the debt was at that point 5 or 6 years past statute of limitations. They probably paid about $50 or $60 bucks for the unverified written-off debt, but they decided to claim an amount 8 or 10 times that, more than doubling the face value of the debt they "bought".

It's an extortion scam, folks, it was made possible by the Best Congress Money Can Buy, with some scam legislation passed after the Savings and Loan debacle way back whenever. An extortion scam made legal by bullies, thieves and thugs for bullies, thieves and thugs, to prey on the people. Tell them to go fly a kite. Do not even talk to them.

I've been getting calls fromt his number but they don't leave a message and they call at all hours of the day.

thanks for the info i haven't had a credit card in well over ten years and i filed bankruptcy on them so they're chasing ghosts!!!

another number for portfolio- 731-345-4195

The called me at 7 AM and hung up on me.  I am not who they are looking for, but they are not stopping the harrasment.

Thanks for the numbers,,,,,I am printing them off.

If the debt is outside the Statute of Limitations for your state (check your state law - it ranges from 3 to 10 years) these "zombie" debt collectors can't legally do sh*t other than call and hope you are dumb enough to send them a few buck to shut them up (which is WORST possible thing you can do as it resets the Statute of Limitations and then they could potentially sue you, although most still won't as they are in it to make the quick, easy buck and lawsuits that they might still never collect on cost money). Again they CAN'T do anything if the debt is outside the Statue of Limitations! Best thing to do is ignore them, don't even answer the phone and NEVER give out any personal information, if you do happen to answer by mistake, just laugh at them and hang up. They purchase outdated debts for pennies on the dollar and still make tens of millions even if they can only collect 5% of them.

Yawn....Another day, another Portfolio number blocked.

"It's an extortion scam, folks, it was made possible by the Best Congress Money Can Buy, with some scam legislation passed after the Savings and Loan debacle way back whenever. An extortion scam made legal by bullies, thieves and thugs for bullies, thieves and thugs, to prey on the people. Tell them to go fly a kite. Do not even talk to them."

Exactly.

History

The debt buying industry in the United States began as a result of the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s. During this time banks were closing at an alarming rate and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which insures deposits up to a certain amount, received the assets of the bank to cover the expenses associated with repaying the closed banks depositors.

When the FDIC, and eventually the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) took control of the assets they had to find institutions, organizations and private investors that would be willing to purchase the assets of closed banks including both performing and non-performing (delinquent or charged-off) accounts.

The RTC held auctions around the country allowing various organizations to bid for portfolios of mixed assets. At these auctions the bidders were not able to evaluate the assets prior to bidding and most purchasers had no idea what they had purchased until they had left the auction.

The availability of these assets to the general public was the fuel used to launch the debt buying industry.

Industry overview

Due to the historic profitability of the business, the debt buying industry has seen dramatic expansion since 2000. Debt buyers purchased approximately $110 billion in face value of delinquent debts in 2005, which is about double the amount bought in 2000.[1] Credit card debt comprises seventy percent of the accounts sold to debt buyers, followed by automobile loans, telecommunications debt and retail accounts.[2] However, purchased debts can also include personal loans, utility bills, medical bills, primary and secondary mortgages, etc.

Depending on the age and history of the debt, a buyer typically pays between 3 and 16 percent of the face value of the debt. Accounts that come directly from the original creditor without having been placed with a collection agency have the highest value, with prices decreasing based on the number of agencies that have previously attempted to collect the debt.[3] As a result of the 2008 economic downturn, prices for the best accounts have fallen from the 2007-2008 high of 14 cents on the dollar to 4-7 cents.[4] However, the large increase in delinquent accounts as a result of the recession has also resulted in sizable growth in the debt buying industry overall.

Debt buyers range in size from very small private businesses to multi-million dollar publicly traded companies - there are currently four publicly traded debt buyers. NCO, previously the largest debt collector, was taken private in 2006 after merging with One Equity Partners.[5] As the visibility and profitability of the industry has grown, so too has competition, both in terms of the number of debt buyers and the rising prices of bad debt.[6] Additionally, there is a secondary market in this debt, with the debt buyers reselling the debt.

Debt buyers may be classified as "active"—those who attempt to collect on the accounts they purchase, or "passive"—those who invest in the debt and then outsource the collection activities to a separate collection agency or collection law firm.

Secondary market

Due to the varying size of debt buying organizations, not all organizations have the capital required to purchase large portfolios directly from the debt issuer. Historically, smaller debt buying firms would have to wait and purchase their debt accounts from a larger buyer after that larger buyer had already collected on the account.

Debt buying has historically taken place via the purchase and sale of whole portfolios consisting of a static group of accounts. Debt issuers usually prefer to sell their entire portfolio to a single debt buyer because the issuer is responsible for supplying the debt buyers with the documentation needed to prove the account in a court of law. This documentation known as "media" in the debt buying industry may include the original account application, monthly statements, affidavits of sale and charge-off statements. This information is necessary to prove in court that the debtor owes the money and that the debt buyer owns the account.

Most of the major banks that sell all or a portion of their charged-off assets sell their accounts to a small selection of pre-approved buyers who purchase using a vehicle known as a “Forward Flow Agreement”. A forward flow is an agreement between a debt buyer and debt seller to transact a fixed amount of debt over a fixed period of time for a predetermined price. For example a debt buyer and debt seller may enter an agreement to transact $20 million face value of debt each month for 12 months at a price of 7%.

Controversies

]A debt buyer does not have the same incentive to maintain the customer relationship with a debtor as the original creditor, and some debt buyers may be unconcerned about negative publicity and complaints.[2] Thus, there are reports that some debt buyers engage in abusive debt collection practices, which are illegal under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, including the following:

Filing lawsuits with no documentation showing that the debt was ever purchased or assigned to the plaintiff[7][8]
Pursuing debts that are not actually owed by the person being targeted[9]
Attempting to collect, improperly suing, or threatening to sue people on debts that are past the applicable statute of limitations or were settled and closed via bankruptcy
Reporting inaccurate creditor information to a credit bureau
Impersonating law enforcement and threatening to have a person arrested, or threatening to directly garnish a person's wages, seize their property, etc.
Failing to validate debt in writing when requested
Continuing to call a person's place of employment when instructed not to
Ignoring cease-and-desist notices to stop telephoning and communicate only via mail
Verbally abusing, using obscene language, threatening and harassing consumers[1]
While original creditors are often exempt from fair debt collection laws, courts and regulators have generally taken the position that debt buyers and any other third-party collection agency are covered by these laws.[10] Thus, debt buyers who engage in abusive collections practices are subject to lawsuits under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act and other state and federal laws. They may also be subject to regulatory action by state attorneys general or the Federal Trade Commission, which in 2004 shut down Capital Acquisitions and Management Corporation, a debt buyer that allegedly engaged in extensive abusive collection practices.

To address many of the controversies surrounding debt buyers and to learn more about the business, the FTC in January 2010 asked nine of the largest debt purchasers in the country to submit detailed information about their businesses and the debt portfolios they have bought in the past.[11]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt_buyer

These people keep calling me about a debt that I paid off 13 YEARS AGO!!!! I have no proof that I paid it off because WHO KEEPS RECEIPTS OF PAID-OFF DEBT FOR 13 YEARS?!?!?! That, and I lost almost everything in a flood 10 years ago. I explained this to them. They said that they would send me a dispute form, which they did. I filled it out and sent it back to them and THEY STILL KEEP CALLING!!!! This is a ghost debt scam!!!!

Its not illegal,  it is just poor manners and disrespect.

It is the cheapest and most effective way to stop them at the soonest.    Here's a Tip.  send them a certified  with signature request cease and desist.   In your letter state that the cease and desist applies to PRA as well as any and all of their affiliates,  associates,  and/or subsideraries.    If you don't they merely pass it on to some other slimeball that they are associated with.   They will cease.  Been there and done that and it is very effective in pulling the plug on them.  BTW,  did I mention that they are the lowest form of feces on the face of the earth and are not worth the cost of the  gun powder to blow their noses.  I absolutely deploy PRA and the Basturds who operate it.

correction:   "I absolutely deplore"   and also I meant to say "low life Basturds"