National Enterprise Systems collection agency?

Question

They called my mother this morning and told her that my brother owed them money and that if she didn't pay them by noon that they would bring him to court. They squeezed $10,000 out of her and I am livid. She paid them with a credit card. Can't she stop this payment? It is not even her debt! HELP!!!

Answer 1

Please don't listen to the above posts about your mother needing to have some backbone. These collection agencies can be quite demanding and mean to people who do not know their rights. On the surface there seems to be several violations of the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act(FDCPA). A lot of what will happen depends on even if the debt is valid. There is several things your brother should have done in order to have the debt validated with this company. Whether or not he knew about the debt is another matter.

They first violated a major rule in the FDCPA Section 805(b). That is that a Collection Agency is not allowed to talk about the details of a debt unless they are talking to that person directly. So they violated this when they started to discuss the details about your brothers debt with your mother.

The second is to threaten people with actions they can not take or have no intention of taking. So if they had no intention of filing a suit she could get them on that violation. This one may be a bit harder to prove since she did pay it, and we will never know if they would have filed a suit.

Now, she can attempt to call the company back and have them cancel the payment. But chances are they will not, and it will be processed. Once it is processed she can dispute the charge with her Credit Card Company. Now, the dispute will probably fail. These companies go through several steps to be sure that it is authorized, this includes having your mom verbally agreeing to the payment on the phone. This is sometimes enough for the Credit Card company to deny the dispute. So there might not be much that she can do.

The good news is that with the violations of the FDCPA your brother can sue up to $1000 per violation. In addition to that there is a provision in the FDCPA to be able to sue for actual damages. So if it can be proven that the debt is invalid, a claim could be made that the $10,000 payment should never have been made. In this case you may be able to also recover the $10,000 if you were unable to recover it from disputing it with the Credit Card Company.

Answer 2

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
National Enterprise Systems collection agency?
They called my mother this morning and told her that my brother owed them money and that if she didn't pay them by noon that they would bring him to court. They squeezed $10,000 out of her and I am livid. She paid them with a credit card. Can't she stop this payment? It is not even her...

Answer 3

Yes you can. Send a notice to the credit card company, first by phone, then follow-up in writing advising that the payment was obtained through false pretence and that you are going to dispute it.

It's likely you'll get some resistance from them, ask to speak to a supervisor, if you get the same BS from them, call the ombudsmen of your credit card issuer (i.e. if it's CIBC Visa, call CIBC - not VISA ...). If they don't have an ombudsmen, they'll have a Customer Care or some kind of escalation path.

Just be aware that you have to really be persistent in asking to speak with them.

Make sure you get the name of whom-ever you speak with at the start of the conversation.

Answer 4

I agree with OC1999

I just wanted to add a few things.

Your mother needs to sit down, right now, and write down as much as she remembers of the conversation.

Your mother should call the credit card company and discuss it with them. She should discuss it with someone higher up than the regular CSR's that answer the phones. She should explain the whole thing about how she was coerced to pay the "alleged debt" by threats from that collector.

Both her and your brother need to file complaints with the BBB, FTC, their attorney general and the collectors attorney general.
Your mother should include what she remembers of the conversation in her complaints.
Your brother should include the FDCPA violations (and any state statutes that were violated) in with his complaints.
(I have links to the FDCPA and also the FDCPA Staff Opinion Letters listed in my profile)
They need to read their states consumer debt statutes.
All states have basic laws to protect people in this situation and some states have more teeth to those laws then the government does.

Both of them should discuss the situation with a "consumer credit" lawyer.

Answer 5

Sounds as if you mother has no back bone. Incidentally, how did she learn of this? Did he tell her?

If I were your mother I would A) grow a spine B) Call the Customer Service number on the card and ask that the transaction be reversed. C) Do this today.

Answer 6

If she paid, there's probably nothing you can do. She should have known better.