In our second installment of Scam Week, we go into the seedy underworld of abusive collection agencies. Now let me say that I fully support the collection agencies that act in an ethical and legal manner. In this country I feel a lot of times we discount the concept of personal responsibility, and legitimate collection agencies serve the valuable purpose of holding people accountable for their debts and helping businesses with legitimate claims to recover at least a portion of what they are owed. Unfortunately this company falls outside of the bounds of ethical and legal practice.

Our experience began a couple of weeks ago when we receive a call early on a Sunday morning. Being early we let the machine answer and the caller left a message for a family member that has never lived here and even has a different last name. The caller identified themselves as an investigator named “Morgan Stevens (Stephens)” representing a company referred to as NSP and was calling regarding a supposed civil complaint that was going to be filed against the family member. She left a callback number of 678-916-5965 and a case number. Knowing that the family member had never lived here and that any valid claim would need to be communicated in writing, we simply ignored the message.

Unfortunately this is not the last we would hear from this outfit. About a week later one mid-week evening they call us again, at which time my wife answered the phone. The caller again identified themselves as an investigator named “Morgan Stevens” with NSP and asked for our family member. When my wife informed them that the person did not live here, the caller was extremely pushing and inquired as to whether we knew the person and then whether we could give the person a message. After a few questions from my wife it was noted that the full name of the company was “National Service of Process” and that they would supposedly be filing a complaint in civil court if the underlying matter was not immediately resolved. The next night the same person called again and left a message on our machine asking for the family member and claiming that they would be filing their civil complaint if they were not contacted within 24 hours.

After discussing it within the family, we found out that we were not the only family members that had been contacted. And after doing a little bit of research, we found that this is apparently the company’s method of operation. For whatever reason, they get information on very old debts (which in most cases had been previously settled or were well beyond the time limitations to be reportable to credit reporting agencies) and then start contacting family members and associates of the person to pressure them into payment. So what’s the issue? Well, besides annoying us, they are in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act on several points, namely:

1. Debt collectors may not use harassment to encourage payment. For instance, debt collectors may not “repeatedly use the telephone to annoy someone.” Seeing that they have now called here three times and they have called other family members multiple times, they are certainly in violation on this point.
2. Debt collectors may not use any false statements when collecting a debt. Debt collectors may not state that actions, such as a lawsuit, will be taken against you, which legally may not be taken, or which they do not intend to take. That NSP in this instance has never sent anything in writing to the family member in question indicates they have no intention of ever filing a lawsuit as they are threatening.
3. Debt collectors may contact third parties, but only to gather information on how to contact you. They are not permitted to disclose that you owe money, nor are they generally permitted to contact a third party more than once. In this instance NSP did disclose that our family member owed money (indicated by the disclosure that a civil complaint would be filed) and contacted us three times, including once after we told them the family member didn’t live here and asking them not to call back.
4. Debt collectors are not permitted to contact you at inconvenient times or places. Seeing that we were contact before 8:00am on a Sunday morning, this certainly qualifies.

What should you do if you or a family member are being harassed by an abusive debt collector? First, you should be familiar with your rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. A great summary of your rights under the act can be found here. Secondly, be very cautious about what level of information you provide to a debt collector or someone who may be a debt collector. You have no obligation to answer any of their questions, and any and all information given to a debt collector can be used to pursue payment on the debt they are collecting. In this instance, I would recommend taking down the contact information and that’s it.

So what are others saying about National Service of Process (NSP)? You can check out their profile with an unsatisfactory rating with the BBB here, which indicates 7 unresolved complaints as of the writing of this post since the BBB open a file on them in June 2008. You can also see some raw comments on them at CallFerret, CallerComplaints.com, WhoCallsMe, PhoneOwner.info, WhoCalled.us, 800notes.com, and a write-up that indicates they are operating under even more aliases here.

There is also a great summary of the scam that was posted by a user on 800notes.com, which shows among other things that they are a just a front working out of a UPS Store mailbox in Georgia:

You have nothing to worry about; it’s a scam.

This scam operation calls from many numbers, most of which have a Georgia area code and have many complaints filed on 800Notes. Here’s all the information on these crooks: http://budhibbs.com/debtcollectorpages/cmc_recovery.htm

As Bud Hibbs’ report indicates, these crooks are actually in Buffalo, New York, operate under many dopey aliases (CMC Recovery, Claims America, RSI, National Service Processors, etc.) and falsely represent themselves as being physically located in Georgia.

There are two Georgia addresses associated with this scam. One address in Georgia — 5295 Stone Mountain Hwy, Stone Mountain, GA 30087 — is actually the location of a Mail Boxes, Etc. storefront. In other words, the RSI/Claims America scam’s Stone Mountain “office” is just a rented private mailbox.

The other Georgia address used by this scam is:

RSI Claims Process Services
2483 Heritage Village, Suite 16-324
Snellville, GA 30278
(404) 287-0204

Unsurprisingly, “Suite 16-324″ is not a suite but another rented private mailbox at The UPS Store in the Heritage Village shopping center:

The UPS Store
Heritage Village Shopping Center
2483 Heritage Village
Snellville, GA 30278
Phone: (770) 979-7011
Fax: (770) 979-5711
http://www.theupsstore.com/locations/locdet.asp?strCenterNum=MBE1063

So don’t let these scammers worry you. It’s a handful of petty grifters hiding out in Buffalo, NY trying to swindle you out of your money. Ignore their illegal threats and report their extortion attempts to the following:

1) The U.S. Secret Service is responsible for protecting the country’s financial infrastructure and payment systems. Call or write your local Secret Service field office to alert them to the details of this attempted extortion. The addresses and phone numbers for the local Secret Service field offices are listed at http://www.secretservice.gov/field_offices.shtml or in your phone book.

2) Alert the FBI at https://tips.fbi.gov Be sure to tell the FBI that you are being targeted by an extortionist over the phone and give them all the details.

3) File a complaint with your local police. Most police departments will take a report over the phone. Be sure to tell them that you’re being targeted by an extortionist and give them all the details.

4) These grifters maintain rented private mailboxes in Georgia and represent themselves as calling from Georgia, so file a complaint with the Georgia Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs here. 

5) These crooks are operating in New York and are associated with this address: 3835 Bailey Ave, Buffalo, NY 14226, so file a complaint with the New York New York Attorney General at http://www.oag.state.ny.us/complaints/complaints.html or 800-771-7755

6) File a complaint your state’s attorney general, the contact information for whom is at www.naag.org

7) File a complaint online with The Federal Trade Commission at https://rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01

In addition to reporting these thieves to law enforcement, you can also sue them. For more information on protecting yourself from crooked debt collectors and suing them, check out these websites:

http://www.naca.net/debt-collection-abuse/
http://attorneysforconsumers.com/
http://www.fairdebtlawyers.com/
http://www.myfairdebt.com/
http://www.consumercounselgroup.com/
http://www.westcoastlitigation.com/
http://www.theadvocateslaw.com/
http://www.budhibbs.com/First.htm
http://www.creditlawnetwork.com/
http://www.collectionstopper.com/

If these crooks call back, promise them nothing, pay them nothing and tell them nothing other than that you know they’re a scam and that you’ve reported them to law enforcement.

Hope this helps.