In recent negotiations with NCO Financial it is comical with some of the things I am hearing. I am told my case is only worth $1000 against them and they want me to sign a confidentiality agreement.

Here is what I feel that they have done and owe me for.

2 violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and several violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

2 violations of the TCPA at a minimum in my state carry a statutory penalty of $500 each, however a judge or jury could treble that amount up to $1500 for each call. Just the TCPA violations are valued at $1000 minimum.

This does not even taken in account the FDCPA claims I may have against them. I was willing to settle with them for the $1000.00 but would not agree to a confidentiality agreement and they have balked and their attorney told me it is only worth $1000, but I must sign the NDA.

I may just be a layperson, not an attorney, but I know this an order of appearance to defend them from an attorney in my jurisdiction for a prima facie claim of the TCPA will cost them more than $1000.00 and I am guaranteed at a minimum of $1000.00 with the evidence I have against them, which could be trebled to $3000.00 plus the FDCPA claims. Then it would be public record.

It is worth more than $1000 to enlighten other consumers of their shenanigans and to eventually win a suit against them and collect it via a garnishment filed against their client.

In 2007 NCO Financial was sued in Federal Court a Minimum of 1oo, mostly for FDCPA and FCRA Lawsuits. This was after they they paid a $1,500,000 settlement in 2004 for violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Well we can add NCO Financial to the list of collection agencies that uses automated dialers to call cellphones. The good thing is I do believe they are on the ball as far as realizing that it is against the law, if they use a predictive dialer to call one.

Using predictive dialers to call cellphones without “Express Permission” is a violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act(TCPA). Wrong numbers and existing relationship are not exclusions to this provision of the TCPA. If they are calling your cellphone with dialing software they owe you for your troubles under the TCPA.

One of the things they do is capture numbers when you call in on their toll free line, as admitted by their attorney, you can not block your number when you call an 800 number. So if you do not want NCO calling your cell number do not call them from it. If you do they will capture it and enter it into their calling software if they can identify it with you. This will cause them to call you with prerecorded messages and based on the verbiage of the message they use and if it is to your cell phone they would owe you $500 unless your state laws are different. Another thing if you tell them to take that number out of their dialer and you still receive calls from them it would be a willful violation of the TCPA which could cause a judge to treble the amount. So the best way to avoid calls to your cell by NCO Financial is to not call them from it, if you have made that mistake already and are receiving robo calls from them you should start investigating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and hold them accountable if you are so inclined.

I do not only try to help consumers with when dealing with credit and collection issues through several blogs that I author I also mentor several people who are affiliate marketers.  In recent blogging on a new advertising platform being launched called Pay Per Play - NetAudioAds I have pointed out several inconstancies in their marketing materials and have received many libelous comments and blog post directed towards me.

The first time I gave the founder of Pay Per Play a pass for doing this because he had some of the information taken down.  Yet he continues to publish blog post insinuating that I have libeled NetAudioAds - Pay Per Play and Voice2Page.

Being someone that holds the law to it’s highest standard I would never publish anything online that was not fact or opinion, nor would I intentionally discredit an individual, unless they cast the first stone.  Big companies are one thing that participate in illegal activities.  Personally attacking someones beliefs with lies and misinformation is another.  I tried to keep my emotions out of this one and when I saw the newest libelous post on their blog on Christmas Day it sent a shiver down my spine when I though I had a gentleman’s agreement with them.

Pay Per Play, NetAudioAds  and Voice2Page think they can push me around with intimidation tactics and false claims in an attempt to discredit me.  The fact is I don’t really care what others think of me or their outlandish claims.  What I do care about is someone lying in their comments and website content when it is directed at me.  If I have screwed up and done something wrong or made false claims that is ok it would be justified.  But I have not done these things.  Now they will have to feel my wrath personally and professionally.

I hope they had a Merry Christmas because their New Year revelry will ruined before the launch of the new program when they receive service for their libelous blog comments and post.

In a recent interaction I had with a credit repair forum administrator over stolen content from here it reminded why I chose not to participate very much in these venues.  Forums are social animals and are generally used to feed the egos of their creators.  If you disagree with a forum owner you usually meet strong retribution from them under many aliases and the rally of their supporters.

Forums do provide a resource if you are having trouble with a specific issue and you generally get opinions. good and bad, from many sources.  While forums use does require you to spend hours doing research in their environment before you can really understand the depth of knowledge needed to deal with credit repair or dealing with collection agencies.  Regulars in forums want you to research before you ask questions, this is understandable, but many only find them after having an issue hit them face first

If you do enter many of the credit repair forums on the net you need to be prepared to be flamed if you do not agree with the regulars or point out lack of proper resource acknowledgment.  The best piece of advise to offer people that are looking for forums is to stay away from ones that have little activity or a small user base because you will not receive a varying amount of opinions given your situation.  You are better to use the collective value of forum participation versus a linear everyone on the same page atmosphere.

In my opinion the best credit repair forum on the net, with a broad range of experience is:

• Creditboards (I am not associated with them nor have they asked me to promote them)

I will not list the ones to stay away from here but one thing you want to watch for is active participation by several users.  Stay away from forums that tout small user bases or if you see the same poster in many place as the most recent commenter as the knowledge shared in these arenas is biased to one set of opinion and does not provide a diverse range of experience, they are more to allow self proclaimed gurus to flaunt their opinion.  For the most part they claim to be a credit info resource, while some of the info is correct, the personalities you encounter make them a waste of time.

I make my living using the Internet as my only source of income.  In a recent debate inside of a niche that I was considering returning to people have decided to take pop shots at me and claiming that I have issued lies at on one of my blogs dealing with the Downline Integrity Brigade.  I have offered those individuals the opportunity to issue a retraction and they have not done so at this point.

Many times in the heat of passion we all make statements that we wish would not of made and that is the only reason I have offered them the opportunity to retract their statements, although that is not a requirement because they are not a news source.

Many times people forget what is published on the internet is recorded and precautions need to be taken to make sure you do not open yourself up to a lawsuit for libel and defamation of character.  It is a fine line to walk but calling someone a liar or implying that someone is lying without first had knowledge is the definition of libel when you put it in print.

On a personal opinion if you are considering getting into the world wide web as a portal to earn income I would shy away from any program that implies that they are a member of the Downline Integrity Brigade.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters has allowed a rogue affiliate to tarnish their good name and instead of removing the affiliate from their online marketing program they are apologizing to the affiliate for not being more clear in their terms.

The long and short of the problem with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters is that they had an affiliate violating their agreement and when a consumer felt like they were slighted by the affiliates unclear website terms they filed a Rip Off Report about Green Mountain Coffee Roster’s Affiliated website. The webmaster of the site then proceeded to denigrate the consumer and use threats of lawsuits and legal action to get the consumer to retract the comment.

The webmaster also used an alias to expose the consumers real name. The webmasters real name that she has used in communications with me and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters is Donna-Lee Moore-Stout and Ms Moore-Stout as of this writing has not issued the consumer an apology for her actions in the same public forum that she used to attempt to belittle the consumer.

By allowing this webmaster to remain in the Green Mountain Coffee Roasters affiliate program GMCR is doing a poor job to protect it’s most valuable asset - Their Customers.

Despite being sued by the Illinois Attorney General, Leading Edge Recovery Solutions not only continues to violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act they also participate in criminal activity.

It is a violation of Illinois Law for telephone calls to be recorded without the consent of all parties. I reside in the State of Georgia so I am allowed to record calls without the other parties permission, however if you are in Illinois you have to have all parties permission. It is a crime by their State law for them to do that without getting your permission.

I have a recording of their manager admitting that they record calls which will be available as soon as it is edited for brevity.

The reason I had contacted them is because an account that was in their office has been resolved and wanted to see if they were still trying to collect on it. This one will be fun to expose. As they are already under scrutiny from the Illinois Attorney General.

Make Sure You read My Disclaimer

Debt Collectors do not generally do not fall under the Do Not Call laws if they are calling your landline.  However the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) does apply if they are using automated dialing equipment to call your cellphone.

One of the tale tale signs that you are being called by an automated dialer is the clicking sound or dead line silence before a person actually speaks after you answer the phone.  Automated messages to your voice mail are also a dead giveaway.

Generally speaking though most all calls placed by debt collectors are done via a predictive dialer, which is the exact term used in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.  The excerpt below is taken from the FTC Website Regarding the TCPA: [ftc.gov]

Automatic Telephone Dialing Systems and Artificial or Prerecorded Voice Calls

The FCC has specific rules for automatic telephone dialing systems, also known as “autodialers.” These devices can be particularly annoying and generate many consumer complaints. The rules regarding automatically dialed and prerecorded calls apply whether or not you have registered your home phone number(s) on the national Do-Not-Call list.

Autodialers can produce, store, and dial telephone numbers using a random or sequential number generator. They often place artificial (computerized) or prerecorded voice calls. The use of autodialers, including predictive dialers, often results in abandoned calls – hang-ups or “dead air.” Except for emergency calls or calls made with the prior express consent of the person being called, autodialers and any artificial or prerecorded voice messages may not be used to contact numbers assigned to:

• any emergency telephone line;

• the telephone line of any guest or patient room at a hospital, health care facility, home for the elderly, or similar establishment;

• a paging service, wireless phone service (including both voice calls and text messages), or other commercial mobile radio service; or

• any other service for which the person being called would be charged for the call.

This rule of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act applies to all companies that use predictive dialers.  The only exemption that callers recieve for calling a cell phone with a predictive dialer is with expressed consent.  A prior business relationship is not express consent, as mattr of fact the ACA is trying to get this law changed and appears stymied in their efforts.

One of the way that collection agencies capture consumers cellphone numbers is when you call into their toll free number.  You cannot block your telephone number when you call a toll free number as they are paying for the call.  So if you call a collection agency from a cell phone and they can identify you with that number then more than likely they will add that number to their database.  So if you do not want a collection agency calling your cell number with a predictive dialer do not call them from your cell number.

If they do happen to call your cell number from a predictive dialer then they are liable to you for a minimum of $500 up to $1500 under the TCPA if you can document their calls, unless your state has exemptions or enhanced statutory damages.  Those amounts are per call not a one time event.  They absolutely owe you $500 if they call your cellphone one time with a predictive dialer and $500 for each call after that.

Each call with a predictive dialer would also have Fair Debt Collection Practices Act violations as well as they are using an illegal means to attempt to collect a debt.

Make sure you read My Disclaimer

Looks like the powers that be at FBCS Inc is starting to get the picture that ignoring this situation will not make it go away. They spent over an hour today in a video conference with someone listening to their collector and manager break the law and try to intimidate me.

It looks like the meeting took place between 12:30 and 1:30 EST today, which would of been between 11:30 and 12:30 their time, via Global Crossings online meeting software.

I had given them every opportunity to resolve this matter prior to me filing suit against them and their attorney has stonewalled me. I made a very clear and cost effective offer in compromise to them and they never responded. The time has now by far passed for them to accept that offer.

I had mentioned to them I am a professional web publisher. I own over 150 web domains and provide content and SEO to several hundred other sources. There will be a professional redesign of this site in the very near future. I admit that in its current form it is ugly, but then again I never proclaimed to be a designer. My strong point is SEO and half assed content creation. I just have accepted this site as mine and will not turn over content creation to one of my writers.

I hope they enjoyed their lunch.

If you are receiving calls from Federal Bond and Collection Service to your cell phone you are in luck. Hopefully they left you a message with their automated dialer and you still have a copy of the voice mail because each call from any of these numbers made via an automated dialer to your cellphone is worth $500 - $1500 under Federal Law. (866-594-8640, 866-594-8641, 866-594-8642, 866-594-8643, 866-594-8644, 866-594-8645, 866-594-8646 and 866-594-8647) Your state laws may be different so make sure you research before you sue them.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act makes calls from an automated dialer to a cellphone illegal and in some states it is criminal unless they have your prior express permission. I don’t know of anyone that would give a collection agency permission to call a cellphone with an automated dialer!

If they have called your cellphone with an automated dialer make sure you report it to the Federal Trade Commission as well as the Federal Communications Commission. The fact that they called your cellphone with a robo dialer is a violation of both the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

More on this topic later…

Read My Disclaimer.