You are being contacted by NCO Financial concerning a delinquent debt. NCO Financial is commonly referred to as NCO group, NCO collections or a similar variation. NCO is third party collection agency with a checkered history.
NCO is typically hired by a lender to come in and collect delinquent debts. They are known for using intimidation, threats and harassment at tools to collect on a debt.
NCO was punished in 2004 for violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act. They were caught working the credit system in an attempt to keep a delinquent debt on the borrowers' credit report for longer than 7 years. They were forced to pay $1.5 million dollars to the FTC.
Collection agencies are known to have called a borrowers family member, neighbors, places of employment in order to collect payment. To stop a collection agency from contacting you in the future you need to mail a letter where you say you do not want further contact from them.
You should send this letter certified mail and save copies of all communication between you and the collection agency. These copies will be evidence if a lawsuit is necessary or to just file a complaint.
The collection agency will be able to notify you of how they plan on continuing the collection. Then according to the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act they agency can no longer contact you. This legislation was created in 1996 because congress needed to protect debtors from the collection agencies and their collection methods.
The FDCPA states that collection agencies can not misrepresent themselves or threaten a debtor. Unfortunately this is often disregarded because collection agencies are known to threaten imprisonment to debtors and call neighbors or relatives in an attempt to humiliate the debtor into payment.
The FDCPA was passed to protect people and unfortunately enforcement is lacking. Filling a law suit can be very frustrating and expensive. Many collection agencies are fly by night operations that have made it there business to hide assets from lawsuits.