National Action Financial Services scams
Oh, here we go again. Just as I’ve stopped getting calls from the fake company “Account Services“, I started getting robot calls from a collection agency called National Action Financial Services. They’re a real company, but they don’t ask for anyone by name on the messages they leave. It turned out they were after the person who had my phone number before I got it – I still get calls for him, and it’s been my number for years – but I certainly don’t owe anyone any money.
But then I did some research and found out it may be worse than I thought:
National Action Financial Services, Inc. is a New York based collection agency which joined Sitel, a global business process outsourcing company. It is reported to indulge in illegal collection practices and has been sued and fined by the New York State Attorney General in 2007 (“http://www.oag.state.ny.us/media_center/2007/dec/dec18a_07.html”). The company has come across a large number of complaints filed with the Better Business Bureau (BBB). It has received an “F” rating from the BBB (“http://search.buffalo.bbb.org/codbrep.html?ID=46002285″).
Some consumers feel this company is actually making up fake debts and trying to scare them into paying, and then the company keeps the money. One customer reports they told him he owed money to a Blockbuster in Ohio, but he’d never been to Ohio and never had a Blockbuster account. That didn’t stop the company from harrassing him by phone and letter. For some reason, there are a lot of Blockbuster debts mentioned in these stories. It could be this is who Blockbuster uses to collect, or it could be a scam rigged by someone who figures everyone has a Blockbuster account.
I’m lucky enough not to owe anyone any money, so I knew when I got a call from them that it was baloney, mistaken identity or another auto-dialer scam. But if you do owe anyone money, I would suggest do not deal directly with this collection agency. They have threatened to sue consumers for not paying debt that’s beyond the statute of limitations and have an all-round bad reputation. Find out who they claim you owe, and contact that company or person directly to work out your payment.
If you’re not the person they think you are, you can get your number pulled from their database, call 716-565-1020 or 1-866-529-1899. I tried this fairly recently, but it seems to have worked so far. I was getting daily calls, and now I haven’t had any in three days.
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Posted in Scam Notices on February 8, 2010
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i do owe a debt this company has, and I called to ask them to extend for three weeks depositing a check i gave them over the phone and the woman Mrs Malone told me “borrow the money” be a “woman of my word” stop with this nonsense and other degrading stuff and then hung up on me! i called back and I actually never could get her to let me arrange a date to pay my whole balance in three weeks when i get paid. I had only made this arrangement once and it wasn’t like i kept putting it off.. they are real lowlifes, and what’s really funny, is I couldnt’ even get her to take my money! i was calling to arrange a payment i could make! She kept talking over me and talking down to me and wouldn’t even listen.
i think she personally wasn’t going to make any money on working with me because it was someoene else i had made the arrangement through, and they were making her take the call, so she didn’t even try to be respectful, and they really showed their true colors.
now, after reading this i’m wondering who I can pay, since I’m worried they are not reputable.
Julie, good luck! If you end up paying them, document everything thoroughly. Make a copy of any check you send them. Write down phone calls and dates and the names of people you spoke to.