Stop Collection Agency Harassment

Tobias Boyland, who authorities said was in charge of the operation that consisted of at least nine debt collection companies across Western New York, was taken into custody by Erie County Sheriffs after the suspect, located at home, was found to be carrying a loaded, .380 semi-automatic pistol.

According to the lawsuit filed by the office of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Boyland, a convicted felon, and three other individuals ran numerous debt collecting companies that operated out of at least four locations in Western New York. The other three individuals named in the lawsuit are Kayla Pritchett, Dellian Sharp and Dorian Wills. Both Sharp and Will also have criminal records, investigators said.

The names of the companies associated with the collection operation included: Central Resource Management, Final Claims Asset Locators, Final Control Asset Locators, Interchange Payment Solutions, Next Step Services, Portfolio Asset Assurance, Silverbay Services, and Teleport.

The AG said collectors routinely made scripted telephone calls designed to intimidate consumers into paying their debts by pretending to be law enforcement officers. If consumers failed to pay, they were threatened with arrest and incarceration. These employees also falsely informed consumers that they were being sued in civil court.

The action is part of a larger investigation by Cuomo into unlawful debt collection practices. Earlier this month, the AG announced settlements with three other Western New York-based debt collection companies to reform their deceptive methods. Investigators have also subpoenaed nearly twenty companies and law firms operating as debt collectors throughout New York state, shut down two collectors for threatening and intimidating consumers into paying debts that they did not owe. And in early May, Attorney General Cuomo announced a lawsuit against two debt settlement companies for fraudulent business practices and false advertising by selling misleading debt settlement plans that very rarely deliver the promised benefits to consumers dealing with debt.

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NEW YORK (AP) – New York authorities say they’ve shut down a debt collection company that was falsely telling people they’d be thrown in jail if they didn’t pay immediately.

State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says the Buffalo firm routinely broke the law by having its collectors impersonate law enforcement officials.

In reality, the company was run by ex-convicts.

Owner Tobias Boyland was arrested Tuesday after investigators serving a search warrant discovered a loaded pistol.

A judge issued a temporary order closing the company’s doors.

Boyland’s firm did nationwide business under several names.

It was the subject of an expose on Dateline NBC in March.

Messages left with the company and Boyland’s lawyer weren’t immediately returned.

We say >>>>>  Consumers can change the status quo!

MINNEAPOLIS: The banks need another bailout and countless homeowners cannot handle their mortgage payments, but one group is paying its bills: the dead.

Dozens of specially trained agents work on the third floor of DCM Services here, calling up the dear departed’s next of kin and kindly asking if they want to settle the balance on a credit card or bank loan, or perhaps make that final utility bill or cellphone payment.

The people on the other end of the line often have no legal obligation to assume the debt of a spouse, sibling or parent. But they take responsibility for it anyway.

“I am out of work now, to be honest with you, and money is very tight for us,” one man declared on a recent phone call after he was apprised of his late mother-in-law’s $280 credit card bill. He promised to pay $15 a month.

Dead people are the newest frontier in debt collecting, and one of the healthiest parts of the industry. Those who dun the living say that people are so scared and so broke it is difficult to get them to cough up even token payments.

Collecting from the dead, however, is expanding. Improved database technology is making it easier to discover when estates are opened in the country’s 3,000 probate courts, giving collectors an opportunity to file timely claims. But if there is no formal estate and thus nothing to file against, the human touch comes into play.

New hires at DCM train for three weeks in what the company calls “empathic active listening,” which mixes the comforting air of a funeral director with the nonjudgmental tones of a friend. The new employees learn to use such anger-deflecting phrases as “If I hear you correctly, you’d like…”

“You get to be the person who cares,” the training manager, Autumn Boomgaarden, told a class of four new hires.

For some relatives, paying is pragmatic. The law varies from state to state, but generally survivors are not required to pay a dead relative’s bills from their own assets. In theory, however, collection agencies could go after any property inherited from the deceased.

But sentiment also plays a large role, the agencies say. Some relatives are loyal to the credit card or bank in question. Some feel a strong sense of morality, that all debts should be paid. Most of all, people feel they are honoring the wishes of their loved ones.

“In times of illness and death, the hierarchy of debts is adjusted,” said Michael Ginsberg of Kaulkin Ginsberg, a consulting company to the debt collection industry. “We do our best to make sure our doctor is paid, because we might need him again. And we want the dead to rest easy, knowing their obligations are taken care of.”

Finally, of course, some of those who pay a dead relative’s debts are unaware they may have no legal obligation.

Scott Weltman of Weltman, Weinberg & Reis, a Cleveland law firm that performs deceased collections, says that if family members ask, “we definitely tell them” they have no legal obligation to pay. “But is it disclosed upfront — ‘ Smith, you definitely don’t owe the money’? It’s not that blunt.”

DCM Services, which began in 1999 as a law firm, recently acquired clients in banking, automobile finance, retailing, telecommunications and health care; DCM says its contracts preclude it from naming them.

The companies “want to protect their brand,” said DCM’s chief executive, Steven Farsht. Despite the delicacy of such collections, he says his 180-employee firm is providing a service to the economy. “The financial services industry is under a tremendous amount of pressure, and every dollar we collect improves their profitability,” he said.

To listen to even a small sample of DCM’s calls — executives played tapes of 10 of them for a reporter, electronically edited to remove all names — is to reveal the wages of misery, right down to the penny.

A man has left credit card debt of $26,693.77, the legacy of a battle with cancer. A widow says her husband “had no money. He pretty much just had debt.” Asked about an outstanding account of $1,084.86, a woman says the deceased had no property beyond “some tools in the garage” and an 18-year-old Dodge.

Not everyone has the temperament to make such calls. About half of DCM’s hires do not make it past the first 90 days. For those who survive, many tools help them deal with stress: yoga classes and foosball tables, a rotating assortment of free snacks as well as full-scale lunches twice a month. A masseuse comes in regularly to work on their heads and necks.

Brenda Edwards, one of DCM’s top collectors, spoke with a woman in New Jersey about her mother’s $544.96 credit card bill.

“She had no will, no finances, nothing,” the daughter said. “Nothing went to probate.” The $200 in the checking account was used for funeral expenses. But the woman also said the family “filed a form with the county,” indicating that perhaps there was a legal estate after all.

“Is anyone in the family in a position to pay this?” Edwards asked, adding: “I’m not telling you it needs to be paid at all.”

The woman reached a decision. “I will talk to my brothers and sisters and we will pay this,” she said.

Edwards has a girlish voice that sounds younger than her 29 years. “If you plant a seed and leave on a good note, they’ll call back and pay it,” she said.

DCM started a Web site called MyWayForward.com to provide the bereaved with information, tools and, some day, products. “We will never sell death. But it’s O.K. to provide things that could be helpful to the survivor,” Farsht said. Death will be the end of one customer relationship but the beginning of another.

Some survivors are surprised, and a few are shocked, that they are hearing from a collector.

Eric Frenchman, an online consultant, said a DCM agent inquired about his late father’s $50 Discover card balance before the bill was even due. Since Frenchman had been planning to pay it anyway, he emerged from the experience vowing never to get a Discover card himself.

The major deceased-debt firms say such experiences are rare. Adam Cohen, chief executive of Phillips & Cohen Associates of Westampton, N.J., said his team of 300 collectors “are all trained in the five stages of grief.”

If a relative is more focused on denial or anger instead of, say, bargaining, the collector offers to transfer him to the human resources company Ceridian LifeWorks, where “master’s level grief counselors” are standing by. After a week, the relative is contacted again.

DCM executives say some of the survivors not only gladly pay but write appreciative notes. They offered up a stack, with the names deleted, as proof.

One widow wrote that a collector “was so nice to me, even when I could only pay $5 a month a few times.” Saying that money was “so tight” after her husband died, she added: “It was very hard for me, and to get a job at my age. Thank you.”

NEXT LEVEL CREDIT

“Taking Your Credit to the Next Level”

Just review some time what they offer by clicking on the business services, then collections.

Here is Experian’s we help you Collect site
http://www.experian.com/collections_industry/index.html

This is nice to know….. improving your credit by settling with a creditor or two and old debt can come back to life, with a re-aged date of last activity.. ring, ring, surprise!
http://www.experian.com/products/collection_triggers.html
“With financial event triggers, you will know when to contact consumers regarding old debt as their financial status improves. Making accounts current, paying off debts in full and having funds available on an open bankcard are examples of triggers in this category…”
The collectors can monitor you for life with these triggers.

A handy little sales pamphlet.
http://www.experian.com/products/pdf/collection_advantage_ps.pdf”

(Our emphasis in bold and red.)

FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT !

NEXT LEVEL CREDIT

“Taking Your Credit to the Next Level”

UN-BROKE : WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MONEY

After Mellody started talking about the premise of the show, it showed a scene with Antonio Banderas and Marisa Tomei as a married couple talking about a future student loan. Student loans are low interest rate, but the amount is outrageous. Can you explain to me why college costs so much?

Then Cedric came on the show talking about CASH and fair exchange. Pay cash.

Mellody led into credit cards. These are staggering figures. The AVERAGE family – most likely with two parent income – has 5 credit cards with a total of $10,000 balance. This will take 58 YEARS to pay off the balance with minimum payments. AAAAgggghhhh!

Cedric showed up again talking about SUB PRIME mortgages. SUB PRIME – get it? And who was sitting around that table when the idea came about? It was a trap for consumers. But consumers did NOT pay attention and think that 1 + 1 = 100,000 !!!

Then he talked about having only ONE credit card.

Seth Green showed his “crib” and his “ride”. The man has investments and lives modestly. Kudos to Seth Green!

Media and marketing does not help our budgets. Now is it chic to cut coupons?

Marisa and Antonio started talking about having an emergency fund and a safety net at least a year of saefy put aside.

What about $1 per day (in a piggy bank) for the next 4 months?

Then what about $5 per day the following 4 months? Do the math. How much would that be in one year?

The Jonas Brothers talked about stocks – and Mellody said buy while stocks are low and stay in for the long term. Same with bonds. Do you know the difference?

DOW, S&P 500, NASDAQ

Even Oscar from Sesame Street was on this show!!!

Why don’t they teach this in high school?

Retirement – what is a 401 (K)

Christian Slater and Rosario Dawson explained what a 401(k) is and why you should take advantage of it.

Our favorite part was Samuel L Jackson. He portrayed an author as a guest on a radio talk show. Getty Greene.

He looked stressed out. He said he, Getty Greene, was broke and he explained how and why. Then he wanted the audience to take action and shout wherever you are – in the street, out the window, etc.

“I’M BROKE AS HELL AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE”

He said this is what we are going to do:

-buy cheaper cars to use cheaper gas

-pay off credit cards and only use one for emergencies

-buy cheap stocks and stay in for the duration

-live within your means

THESE ARE THE MELLODY HOBSON UN-BROKE STEPS:

#1 – one credit card for emergency

#2 – buy an affordable house

#3 – emergency fund for 1 year

#4 – buy stock for the long term

#5 – retirement savings

Life after collection debt elimination?

**If we missed any parts, let us know. This is only a paraphrased version.

So is this the answer??? What do you think?

NEXT LEVEL CREDIT

“Taking Your Credit to the Next Level”