Enhanced Recovery Company [ERC] review: Criminal harassment! 18

I understand that it's frustrating to receive calls for the wrong person but why did it take this guy so long to call back & inform ERC that it was the wrong number? If anyone called my house even once for someone who does not live with me or is a friend/associate, I would have simply called ERC and had the number removed. It's that simple! And as far as the police report thing goes, yeah it would have been stupid for you to put a social security number on a fax. But you could have faxed a cease and desist letter WITHOUT a social security # & put this dramatic ordeal to rest within two day... not eight months! Whew- what a mess!

SEE: http://whocalled.us/lookup/8004973803 for another slew of complaints.
Anybody interested in a class action suit against this harassment practice of ERC, Jon Schanck, Kirk Moquin, Mark Tompson, and their dear operator, at least one of them, Ms. Tate?

I've had enough and whoever N. griffith is, it's probably someone from ERC, because it is completely untrue that they stop calling when you tell them to stop calling.

ERC is the worst bunch of so called professionals I have ever dealt with and if someone is serious about a class action lawsuit against them, count me in! I am being told that I owe $706.64 for a credit card I never had. I am still trying to contact the original lending company, Credit One Bank/Bank of Marin. The address they (ERC) have and the time frame they have do not match up with where I was living at the time and after calling my personal bank, they have no record of any payments coming out of my checking account for Credit One Bank/Bank of Marin. ERC is telling me that payments were being made on the account from January 2006 through August 2006 and then stopping. A year later ERC is now contacting me about this charged off account? Something seems very fishy about all of this.

Heck yea! I get a call from Amy from this place. I called last week, finally, after being frustrated with all the unnecessary calls... and I had them remove my number. I still get a call from AMY... then I call them.. and some idiot named William -- who does not even sound like he's even IN this country, asks for my name... my ssn.. (yeah right! Like I'm going to tell that to you!) and crap like that.. He says, "Without the reference number I can't help you. Give me your SSN so I can see if you're in our system. " Uh-huh! Right! I told him, "No! I am NOT giving you my ssn." Then he replied... "well okay, then, keep getting calls from us." What a ###!

As a former employee of Enhanced Recovery Corporation, and also as somewhat of an expert regarding every collections State Law applicable to North America, I'll have you know that most of the "research" tips you give on the Complaints Board is completely false. The reason that the fines for breaking any of the state laws are so steep is because every employee there has been trained not to break them. Every phone call is completely legal, every word we say is part of a strict guide, and every rebuttal is completely within the guidelines of the FDCPA laws (since you don't accurately complete your research, I'll just let you know that that stands for the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.) You can look that up.

As for the "unjust" phone calls that have repeatedly been deemed "harassing" are also completely legit. After three months of ignoring your Credit Card statements (which are actually a luxury, not required by law and should be accepted as such) and the proceeding three months that ERC holds rights to these accounts, I do believe that these "victims" have had plenty of time to come to terms with the reality of how bills work. You take someone's money, then cry when this person after six months asks for their money back? Not to mention that all of the collection steps are clearly stated on the Credit Card application that these innocent people are so eager to sign. My suggestion: If you don't readily have $10, 000, don't accept a credit card claiming you can pay someone that amount of money. Is that not common sense?

The term "Cold Call" is laughable at best, considering that all of the information given to us by Discover, MasterCard, Visa and American Express (Can you guess where this is going?) is given to us by *gasp* The Card holder. When you fill out that attractive piece of paper that gives you all this free money, you have to supply your Name, Social, Address, ect. We are not magical. We do not ask you for your Social for our pleasure, we verify it. And I literally laughed out loud when I read your advice on pretending to be said card holder to obtain information. Well isn't that just the pot calling the kettle black? You see Nick, in America, that's called fraud. Also you cannot record our phone calls unless you have asked our permission. There is no exception to this. We only record our phone calls because we include a declaimer informing you of our intent and purpose for calling, which is given in every call. (Much like you'll hear, should you call your cell phone provider or local bank.)

So, just to educate you Mr. Bleeker, as a former collections agent we do not wake up in the morning with a mental list of all the people that we want to make cry on our telephones. We do not enjoy being called names, being lied to or being evaded. We have families and lives and feelings and we also pay our bills on time. We are not in the wrong. Personally, I have spoken with many people who have simply fallen on hard times and could not foresee what was going to happen. In which case I pull as many strings as I can find to get these people a low settlement (which is not an option by the way, with their CCD provider) If any of the people on this Complaint Board had called this company and rationally explained their situation with intent to pay (Not to mention if they had simply paid their bills in the first place) nine times out of ten they would have walked away paying MUCH less than they owed. This to me sounds like a huge favor our company is doing for them. And just to be clear, when life gets tough, you still have rent to pay and your children are still hungry. Delinquent card holders expect bills to take a few months off. Now where was the small writing on the application that said THAT would happen? Right next to the small writing that said life was going to be easy? I thought so.

What "Whitney" says is a bunch of crap. Not everyone is dogding a debt, but ERC will just not listen.
ERC called to collect a debt. I always pay my bills. So I called ERC and asked what the debt was for. It was for an overdrawn checking account in my name, but not my SSN. My name is very common and I told them this was not my SSN and they could do everything and any thing they wanted to collect from that SSN. No skin off my nose. But to stop calling and harassing my home number. Did that work? Nope. So I called again. And again I told them they had the wrong SSN and wrong person. They apologized and said they would take my number off the list. Did they stop calling? Nope. What does it take to get these unscrupulous people to wake up and realize that they have the wrong number and SSN and nothing they do will make me pay someone else's debt. I have received 2 calls a day for 2 months, I have called them 3 times including the very first day they called and told them they have the wrong person.
I have read a lot of complaints here, but does any one have an actual solution? Can I file a small claims suit? What will it take?

Send them the following letter to verify the debt... keep all copies of their original letter send it certified return receipt and regular mail its also suggested to include the certified mail number in the letter as additional proof it was certified, keep the signed certified post card as proof they received it..chances are they can't verify the debt and will stop harrising/ collection action
------------------------------------------------------------------------

March 03, 2009

CERTIFIED MAIL, RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED

Rip you off Collection agency
Po Box 666
Screwing you, state of
Re: The debt company named
Your File number: 000000

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am disputing the debt that your client claims is from "fill In the blank"

I have no idea who Rip you off Collection agency is; I am not in receipt of any documentation making me liable to any party. I am not in receipt of any documentation making any other party liable for any alleged debt of my own. I am not aware of any novation, nor have I agreed to any novation of any description.

Under 15 U.S.C. Section 1692 (G), this letter will also serve to dispute the validity of this debt, or any portion thereof. Therefore, within thirty (30) days of the date of this letter, you, or your client, need to provide the following information in order to validate the alleged debt:

1. The original contract between the original creditor, Re: The debt company named allegedly executed by me;

2. All transfer/assignment documents between the original creditor, Re: The debt company named, and your client, , and whatever other entities this alleged debt was transferred to before it reached your client. In addition to the transfer/assignment documentation, you must provide evidence that this specific alleged debt was part of any and all transfer/assignments; and

3. A Copy of Re: The debt company named the original creditor’s, alleged last billing statement (as defined by 15 U.S.C. 1637(b), supported by affidavit based on first hand knowledge of the original creditor.

Until or unless you can supply all of the above information, you are now on notice that you have no right to send me threatening letters or telephone calls and any further communication from you will constitute harassment, and I will take whatever steps necessary to insure that violation of this request will be forwarded to the appropriate governmental entities.

Very truly yours,

There is a huge SCAM, a multimillion dollar SCAM, being forced on the american public!

And our legal system is in on it!

third party debt collectors!

When you stop paying on a credit card debt,
The original creditor is mandated by federal law, to charge-off an account when no payments have been received for 180 days.
That date is refered to as the �Date of Last Activity (DLA)’ and reported as such, to the credit reporting agencies by the creditor.

After they write it off, they "Bundle" all these uncollectable accounts and sell them for pennies on the dollar on the open market, this is where the 3rd party debt collectors come in.

They BUY a "BUNDLE" of this uncollected debt info from the original bank.

However what they buy is your name, account number, and what you owed to the original bank.

They rarely or never get your "original signed contract" with the credit card company, your last statement of payment on the account, and the original writeoff amount.

This is what they need to "PROVE" in court that they now have "TITLE" to your original debt.!

This information is usually sold several times within the "networks" still as a BUNDLE
of uncollectable debt!

They will harris you on the phone, send threating letters, saying that they represent
"XYC LLC" who now has title to your Bank of Bundi account in which you owe some
ridiculous amount.

First off the "XYC LLC" company is usually some "shell" company that the collection law firm has setup, because by law, the law firm itself cannot hold title and try to enforce a judgement against you.

So they have to "represent" a client who holds title, so they claim against you.

The law they are trying to collect on is "CONTRACT" law, , which requires them to have "the original signed contract", and the "deeds of transfer", indicating your account specifically with the "deeds of transfer", and a copy or original of your last statement, indicating your last payment on the account, and the "charge Off" amount. Which the original bank "wrote Off" its books.

They never have any of this information, what they present to the court is a hodge podge of information, a pasted piece from an excell spredsheet with your name, address ect, usually 2 pages sideways, "certifications" which are assembled by their own staff on their own computer systems, including usually an amount you owe which they assembled from their own computer system. From this "Budle" they bought for pennies on the dollar!

The problem is unless you "ANSWER THE LAWSUIT" Requiring you to file an answer to the suit, contesting the "CONTRACT CASE" Pay the $15.00 fee to the court, and Show up on the Date of the court hearing and contest the case by demanding that they supply the original contract, deeds of transfer, and last payment statement, "
indicating your account "specifically" and the "charge Off" amount...

They will request a default judgement from the Judge..and he will grant it!

I have specifically fought 3 cases against me, taking several court dates, time off from work, endless hours of waiting, but they realized
I knew what I was talking about and that they could't proof their case,
IE get over on me...and they dismissed their suits...
go here...http://www.budhibbs.com/index.html
here Collection Agencies Illegal Practices ~ New Jersey
http://caipnj.blogspot.com/
and here
http://www.geocities.com/presslerclub/

and here
http://www.debt-consolidation-credit-repair-service.com/forums/index.php

and here for a expose on tv
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTVZ4rU2_84

The reason the courts are usually on their side is "MONEY"
each time they file its $15.00 fee, each time you answer its $15.00 fee,
multiply that times the thousands of collection cases and you can see how the courts make money..not to mention that its a "Buddy" system..

you can email us at stopthirdpartydebtcollectors@yahoo.com
for more info!

I am a private investigator in California and know quite a bit about what information can be obtained by a valid debt collection. One of the activities we carry out is called "Skip Tracing". When someone has a court date and "skip" out on the date and the bail, we are the ones that must find them by every legal means available to us at the time. One of the most valuable pieces of information to us is the "Credit Header". A credit header is the information that every credit report has at the top. This credit header has a host of very important information, name and aliases, current and former addresses, SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER, and many other pieces of information.

Mr. Whitney, to put it mildly, is full of it. If he were professional, he would at least get this header information for confirmation that the name address and most importantly the SSN all matched up with the information he had been given! Either be a professional, or get ready to be sued. If anyone wants a Class Action Suit, I would recommend against that. A personal suit will garner you more money in a shorter period of time, and when these suits mount up, the company will revamp their practices and start acting like professionals. I have absolutely no sympathy for the collection agencies that are too lazy to do their job right.

I am in the same boat. Just got my first call from ERC today. The only thing these people have is my phone number. The name of the person they are looking for is not me. The address where I live did not exist before so this phone number cannot be tied to my house and a previous resident. This "bill" has been passed on to at least 6 collection agencies. It is now with ERC. I have never received anything in the mail telling me or the person they are looking for what is owed anor how this debt came to be.

I like the guy who said just call and tell them they have the wrong person. I called ERC back to tell them they had the wrong person. I was told by Lisa that I must owe this bill and I was trying hide. They will continue to call until I stop hiding and pay. LOT OF GOOD IT DID TO CALL THEM BACK!.

This must be prisoners working the phones. Who else would refuse to take down any information to help locate the right person. Who else would continue to waste the company money on rebo calls. Who else would tell you they are going to continue harrassing you until you stop hiding and pay?

So much for the statements from the former employee who said That ERC does everything legal. The need to get an open mind and realize that not all of us owe anything. Many people actually do not owe them and they are calling the wrong person. They have the wrong phone number. Get up and do the research and get the right person and stop calling me.

AT&T has confirmed that the person they are looking for has NEVER had my phone number in the past.

I have called every agency back when they first called to try and tell them they have the wrong phone number/person. Only one agency took down the information and actually stopped calling. Then they sold the junk account to the next agency. That was a big help. That was three agencies back.

I now record all phone calls, which I tell them I am doing; and am now looking to file a lawsuit for harrassment. I am going to include all six companies.

If you are getting calls from different agencies, theres a good chance that it is in public records as having this number for that person...as the person mentioned before "skip tracing" is a tool agencies use in order to contact the consumer... which most collection agencies dont even do theirselves..its an outside company who simply "skips" and then loads the number into a system...eventually if the collection agency cant contact the consumer..the origianl client who is collecting... recalls the account ( because its not bought or sold) and yep guess what..sends it to another collection agency who repeats the same process...so the person on the other end isnt a "prisoner" as you stated..just a person doing their job like you ...the collector on the other end is simply on a dialer which dials for them...so trust me we dont wake up wondring how we can annoy everyone we speak to

Enhanced Recovery is a very rude, obtuse, and immoral company I have ever seen. They have been harassing us every day for months by leaving a lot of recorded messages pretending to look for someone else even after we had filed several complaints telling them to stop. I believe this company is lying when saying that they were looking for someone else when dialing your number. They call you on purpose, and if you pick up the phone, they will try to get your personal info by telling you that they need them for verifying a debt, and also try to advertise their financial services while they have you on the phone. If you don't pick up the phone, they will continue to leave a lot of recorded messages on your machine every day until you call them back so that they can begin with their scam. Don't fall into their tricks. Since they are not allowed to call you if you put your name on the "Do Not Call List", then they try to make people believe that you owe them a debt, and if you don't really owe them anything, they try to make it sound like their calls are intended for someone else but dialing at your number. They will continue to aggravate you until you call them back so that they can talk to you. If someone really owe them a debt, they should have all their personal info including the mailing addresses. After leaving several messages and no one has called back, they should stop calling and try something else instead of harassing and interfering into other people's peace. I urge that the Government should have strict rules against these debt collector/financial advisor companies from harassing other people.

I'm unsure if any of you have even taken a look at this company on the BBB or their personal website. They have an A+ rating with the BBB and they've been in business for 10 years. I've worked in collections before so I know that due to 3rd party disclose laws they have to verify you are the correct person by name & address and in many cases last four of social security. If the address and social don't match you then the rep should understand they simply called the wrong person with the same name and remove your number. And all of these companies have reference numbers and should be able to pull up your account with your social security number so I'm unsure as to why they couldn't pull up your information, Jennjay.
And enough of this crap, these companies find telephone numbers based on what numbers were provided over the years of the person they are trying to contact. So, nine times out of ten you have their old number or the individual just used your name randomly. Normally the first scenario is correct. And no one is a mind reader including yourself, so how are they supposed to know it's a wrong number. They don't benefit by calling the wrong number so they have no problem deleting it.
This company has proven not to be a scam. check out their website at: www.erccollections.com and look them up on BBB in state of Florida.

The person that works for these [censored]bags ERC (whitney) is full of crap. They call me all the time and say my number is not in their call list. i dont owe them anything, or anyone for that matter. I have requested my number be removed and it didnt do any good. they want my personal info and they can kiss my ###. Cease and desist letter then suing for each call they make. it is going to get expensive as I have about four of these companies i am dealing with that call daily. I hope you F***s die in a fire!

Enhanced Recovery Company, LLC does in fact continue to make collection calls even after the following:
1. You have informed them that this is a new phone number and you do NOT know who, or where the person they are looking to collect the debt from, is.
2. You press #1 as instructed by the robo call that you ARE NOT the person they are looking for.
3. Best to file complaint with BBB and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
4. Post what ERC has been doing to you at ConsumerAffairs.com, Complaintsboard.com, [redacted].com and creditboards.com
5. Send Certified Letter to ERC that you are NOT person they are looking for and give them your name & phone number and inform them to never call you again. If none of the above works...
6. Call your attorney

I'm getting calls all hours of the day and night from this number [protected] but my number is registered on the do not call list and when I try to call back it says there associated with Erc but they don't say who there collecting for the only credit cards I had with capital one was back I. 1997 which my x husband was responsible for according to my divorce decree and I had this written off