8002755196

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.

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

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

transworld debt collection use to be nco debt collectors its a scam

They called my husband saying he owed $1000 for an unpaid medical bill. He is disabled, and doesn't know any better, so he gave them our debit card number, and now they are taking $10.00 a month from our checking account. I know it's not much, but I don't trust this company. I'm sure they are not being honest about the amount that he owes.  Bottom feeding, vultures!