Unwanted call from GC Services
Complaint
Avrina
Country: United States
"GC Services" has called me and asked to go to my neighbor house and ask them to call this company. I asked who they are, and they refused to tell. Just said that they are trying to contact my neighbors regarding a personal matter. I didn't feel comfortable doing what they asked me, so I hung up.
I just found out that this company is a collection agency. Is it a common practice to call neighbors and ask them for this kind of favors? Or was it a scam call?
I just found out that this company is a collection agency. Is it a common practice to call neighbors and ask them for this kind of favors? Or was it a scam call?
Comments
http://www.ag.ny.gov/media_center/2009/sep/sep29b_09.html
http://www.wtae.com/r/25569199/detail.html
How do you ignore a problem until it gets so big it costs you $1.75 Million?
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/10/alliedinterstate.shtm
"...
For Release: 10/21/2010
Debt Collector Will Pay $1.75 Million to Settle FTC Charges
Ignored Consumers’ Disputes Without Checking Its Information for Accuracy
...
“Debt collectors had better make sure their information is accurate, or they could end up paying a big penalty,” said David Vladeck, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “There is no excuse for trying to collect debt from someone if you can’t confirm that they actually owe it.”
..."
If they had to be careful about dunning and threatening the wrong people, they wouldn't be able to use cheap computer searches to just send out "shotgun" mailings. If they had to pay statutory damages for even "accidental" credit damages, this old junk debt wouldn't be profitable.
The debt collection industry engages in negligent, deceptive, and abusive practices because it costs them nothing to do so. They are like irresponsible polluters, dumping their "sewage" in the credit database "river" so the towns downstream can drink it. Hey, not their problem, they don't have to pay to clean it up.
The best way to handle these "mistakes", is to research the perpetrator, determine from other reports if they comply with FDCPA and FCRA, and if they are unlikely to comply resposibly with the law, hand the matter off to an attorney. They apparently prefer "correction by lawsuit" anyway.
The industry will continue to see its reputation dragged through the mud, and deservedly so. CAMCO, NAF, "reaging", "sewer service", "robosigning", "Moon" affidavits, "Kunkle" affidavits, "collecting" debts discharged in bankruptcy, the list goes on.
Several very large national debt collection companies are showing complaint patterns indicating they have little compliance, can't even remove a phone number from their autodialers, and willingly try to collect from wrongly identified parties by evading validation. Allied Interstate got nailed for $1.75 Million, but many of their peers do the same thing.
And those are the ones with some claim they are collecting a debt, even if they don't care too much from who. Even some of your so-called legitimate debt collectors will accept "accounts" from known fraudulent telemarketing scams, playing a careful game of implied phone threats but ready to fold at the first hint of an Attorney General complaint. The Indian "payday loan" scam collectors, and their Buffalo or Corona copycats don't even have to buy their junk debt, just make it up, yet they have the same access to credit reports and skip-trace info as you do.
Deception and lying work, as the continuing exponential growth in debt collection complaints indicates. As in poker, doing it all the time destroys your credibility. But it won't help you to have integrity if half your industry doesn't.
For all you pious people out there who say you never miss a payment and that a person shouldn't use credit if they can't pay it back--wait until you lose your job, or get out of your 4x4 too fast and break a hip. See what happens then. When the insurance runs out. And the money's all gone. And the gas just got turned off. And little Tommy's hungry. And you missed a Bank of America credit card payment and the interest increased to over 30%. Try to make that payment on a $3000 card. "$3000!" you say??? It was 2k last month and you didn't charge anything because it has been cut off...that's interest increase alone. You will default. Like the hypocrite you are.
Then call the neighbors with whom you have no business.
See what happens.
Some things just aren't right.
Even if they're legal.
As per FDCPA, the ONLY reason they can contact third parties is to obtain LOCATION information.
There is no general permission to call third parties to get arbitrary "information" allowed by FDCPA. The only reasons allowed are specifically spelled out, so all others are prohibited.
Furthermore, there is NO reason to contact third parties who you have reason to believe do NOT have any location information, such as people who have new phone numbers who have told you to cease calling.
So what is this non-location "information" you would be looking for? Medical information in violation of HIPPA, to see how much abuse you can use without causing a stroke? The blood pressure of coworkers you repeatedly call, to use in your office pool? Bank account numbers and balances through "pretexting" so you can debate payment offers? Political party registration? Marital status to make sure the husband won't show up at your door? Juicy gossip?
If they already have accurate LOCATION information, then they would not be contacting third parties to get what they already have. and there would be NO allowed reason to contact third parties at all. Such contact would only be for purposes of illegally harassing the third parties (presumably neighbors, relatives, and employers), and embarassing the alleged debtor through illegal disclosure.
You flexibly fabricate your beliefs to do whatever you want.
But no one cares about the "inner workings" of some self-serving for-profit company. There is no reason for people to give you slack so you can cut corners, harass them over unowed debt or calls intended for someone else, or ignore your violations of law just so you can make a little more money.
Debt collectors aren't "dumb", They are, however, paid to be "dumb". It just doesn't cost them enough when they act negligently toward others.
"So when you get calls asking for Bob, and you are clearly not Bob, its not that the person calling you looked in the phone book for Bob and said "same name, must be same debtor", rather that was the information provided by the debtor."
Many times that is exactly what they are doing.
You violate the law, you can be sued. You don't like that? Don't violate the law. That is all that matters.
No letter makes anyone follow the law, any more than the law can make them follow it when they first call. It's just a way to find a cause of action if you need to sue.
Send a "cease and desist" letter, then sue when they violate.
The credit reporting agencies are required by law to post fraud alerts when consumers believe their identification information may have been compromised, but studies of fraudulently opened accounts have shown that many creditors ignore such notices and issue credit with no additional checks despite such fraud alerts. They then just sell off fraudulent accounts as "bad debts" to debt collectors willing to pressure consumers for payment on legally unowed debts.
It's cheaper for them to ignore the warnings that might also interfere with legitimate new business, and just recover some of the occasionally losses by sale to debt collectors.
Such debt collectors often show a pattern of selling off challenged fraud accounts rather than voiding them as required by law, perpetuating the fraud.
Hope you get to keep your crappy job. It would be a shame if you lost it and then fell into debt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://gcserviceswatch.blogspot.com
Including the home address of the OWNER, Gerald Burton Katz (that's where GC comes from). Other good stuff as well. Nuke 'em!