A United States-based debt collection agency with operations in Barbados has been slapped with a multimillion-dollar fine for harassing and abusing debtors.
Expert Global Solutions (EGS) and its subsidiaries, which include call centre NCO Financial located at Harbour Road, St Michael, agreed to pay a US$3.2 million (BDS$6.4 million) civil penalty and stop harassing consumers with “allegedly illegal debt collection calls”, the US-based Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said in a statement issued yesterday.
The Commission complained that EGS violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the FTC Act by using tactics such as calling consumers multiple times per day, calling even after being asked to stop, calling early in the morning or late at night, calling consumers’ workplaces despite knowing that the employers prohibited such calls, and leaving phone messages that disclosed the debtor’s name, and the existence of the debt, to third parties.
“What’s more, the companies never verified the accuracy of the disputed information, even after the consumers said they didn’t owe the debt,” said Consumer Education Specialist at the FTC, Colleen Tressler. (DP)
