On January 10, 2003, my wife received a call from from some tough guy who calls himself "Gene Starks" and claims he's with some outfit called National Check Control. He threatened her with felony check fraud charges.
After I got her to stop crying, she gave me his phone number, 201-867-6700, Ext 232.
I'm in Northwest Indiana. I checked the phone number at a reverse lookup site on the Internet and learned that he called from Union City, New Jersey. This told me something about his threat . . .. it was CRAP. I've been a criminal defense attorney since August of 1984 and, trust me, I know a little about criminal warrants.
I called him back and tried to get information from him. I'm kind of used to dealing with hostile witnesses. I asked him for his FAX number. He refused to give it to me. I asked for his address. He refused. I asked him for information about the "alleged check fraud." He told me it wasn't "alleged," it WAS "check fraud."
I pointed out that, to the best of my knowledge, he wasn't a juror and hadn't yet rendered a verdict, so it WAS alleged.
I asked him how he could threaten my wife with felony prosecution from New Jersey. He denied threatening her. Well, his call had originally been answered by her brother . . . and he had told her BROTHER that she was going to be charged with felony check fraud.
So I let him have it. Hey, I admit it. I cursed him out but good. Not only was I my wife's lawyer, I was her IRATE husband.
And, for some bizarre reason, he hung up on me. LOL.
I called back and asked to talk to his supervisor. They gave me back to him. I asked him for his supervisor, and he said the HE is the supervisor. I asked for his FAX number or his mailing address, and he refused to give it to me. He told me he was recording the phone conversation that I was having and I told him I was glad that he was and that I wanted a copy.
He hung up.
I went on the Net and did a search for this outfit at Google.Com. I found several interesting entries, which led me to the www.debtamerica.com website. There, I found DOZENS of complaints about these CLOWNS, pretty much covering November 2002 until January 2003.
I started posting. I starting doing more research. I received e-mail information from others who had been where I was earlier.
FASCINATING STUFF.
These guys have apparently been sued and have judgments against them for violations of the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
If you've been harassed by these jokers, I submit,
these guys need some religion, and I'm not going to stop until I help them
find some.
This is the address to their "web site," WWW.NCCNSF.COM
NATIONAL CHECK CONTROL
55 HARTZ WAY – SUITE 202
SECAUCUS, NEW JERSEY 07094
TELEPHONE (201) 867-6700
Here is their e-mail address: nccnsf@nccnsf.com
I've sent them e-mails. I get those automated responses, but as of this date, February 3, 2003, I have NOT received a copy of this alleged check we supposedly bounced 3 years ago at "Oshkosh." Haven't shopped there since my kids were small . . . and I never go to Wisconsin except during the summer, yet these . . . "collectors" . . . claim the check was written in March 2000.
Here is some information that I've gleaned, via e-mails and some of the posts that were on Debtamerica.com's bulletin board. Interestingly, after I launched into giving free advice to people as to how to try to fight these sphincters on that board . . . after I PROMISED to do everything I could to haunt these no-good b@st@rds . . . Debtamerica.com suspended their bulletin board.
Coincidence? Hmmmmmmmmm.
| Web Domain: http://www.nccnsf.com
Domain is registered to: Mr. Barry Sussman
Recently charged with misconduct (two counts) in District VI Ethics Commitee : http://www.cjnj.org/html/documents/0602022.pdf Office address is the same as that of National Check Control (above). See the following web pages under "Harassment/Threats": http://www.starhq.com/html/policebeats/02/0302/policebeats031902.html (the harrassment continued - note dates between the two) http://www.starhq.com/html/policebeats/02/0302/policebeats031402.html See the following web pages as to how the State of Maine views those people: http://www.state.me.us/pfr/ccp/bounced.htm Direct Link to the NJ Attorney Generals Office: http://www.nj.gov/lps/formmail.htm
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I found this board doing a serch of National Check Control of 55 Hartz Way, Secaucus, NJ from this link: http://www.cardreport.com/wwwboard18/messages/7160.html [now archived] http://www.cardreport.com/wwwboard/wwwboard.html I recieved a call from these guys and after asking for a copy of the check in question, they got really rude with me. I abruptly hung up and they called back 5 times and were very vulgar with threats of prosecution in between. I filed a police report and when the officer called, they were very rude to them. I see that I am not alone. Even the state of Maine put
out a notice of them as they also operate under the name of JR
Goldman & Associates:
Someone else did what I did and it made the local paper: http://www.starhq.com/html/policebeats/02/0302/policebeats031902.html After the police contacted them, they still harassed her: http://www.starhq.com/html/policebeats/02/0302/policebeats031402.html
www.creditinfocenter.com/ These guys seem to be "above the law". If anyone comes
across them, I urge you to hang up and not deal with these fools. If harassment
persists, contact the police!
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| Posted by _____ on December 02, 2002 at 19:31:59:
In Reply to: Re: National Check Control posted by ______ on November 08, 2002 at 18:11:02: I received a notice from them today stating that I wrote a check for 156.62. I checked with the place the check was supposedly written to and they do not use this company and never have. I left messages and requested copies of the check as allowed by law and they got nasty and rude to me and hung up. Told them I was going to report them instead of them reporting me. Let me know any other feed back you have. |
From an e-mail I received:
I too have encountered these wonderful individuals!! I am a retired legal secretary and when I asked the |
There were other posts by folks who claimed they were lawyers who had actually sued these . . . collectors . . . and won default judgments.
I'm beginning to suspect that they have NO proof to back their claims, that they just HOPE that folks will be afraid and send them money.
PLEASE . . . do NOT do it. FORCE THEM and DEMAND that they send you proof of the debt. There were too many stories on that website where people posted that they had never written checks to the businesses where these shysters were claiming checks were bounced.
You do NOT have to take some stranger's word over the phone. I have a feeling that very few of these debts have any basis whatsoever. Imagine this: you get your hands on some list of folks who have bad credit. You start calling them and demanding that they pay for "fraudulent checks" they had written 2 . . . 3 . . . 4 years ago. They threaten you by saying that if you don't pay in 72 hours, they'll have a warrant issued for your arrest [which THEY can't do . . . only a prosecutor can initiate criminal charges and a warrant has to be signed by a judge].
How many folks do you think are so scared, or so tired, that they just cut a check for the $172.50 or whatever the amount is?
How's this for a hypothetical scenario: imagine some fly-by-night scumbag outfit hires 10 people to phone solicit for them, and each of those folks makes, oh, 6 calls an hour for an 8 hour shif.
That's 480 calls per day. If only 20% of those called cave in and send money . . . at the approximate sum of $150.00 or so . . . they're getting about $14,400.00 a day.
What's their overhead? Heck, have the people calling work on commission. They have long distance lines at a reduced rate at 3 cents a minute, or less. That's $1.80 per hour . .. or about $15.00 per shift, or $150.00 a day.
Even if you pay each operator $6.00/hr . . . which means, with taxes and other deductions, you're paying out about $640.00 per day for labor . . . you're getting a $14,400.00 per day return on an $800.00 investment.
Yeah, there's rent and monthly phone service and utilities, but if you're doing this 20 days a month, you're getting $288,000.00 per month, right? And with labor and long distance at only $16,000.00 per month, do you honestly believe rent and utilities is more than $5,000.00 a month? Throw in another $10,000.00 a month for tables, chairs and an investment in a computer system, and this hypothetical outfit is still only paying out about $31,000.00 per month, which means a cool quarter million a month profit, right?
All preying upon folks who have fallen upon hard times and who panic.
DON'T PAY THEM until they've checked out and proven
to you that owe the money!!!
If anyone has gone any further than just phone calls with these people, or has more information to share on these scum, please e-mail me so that we can compare notes.
I do NOT intend to stop until I make these folks pay for their unfair debt collection practices to the full extent under the law.
How can you fight back? Call Barry
Sussman at (201) 370-9194. He's the one who registered
the domain, so he is materially involved with this outfit.
Imagine this: A small claims case costs about $35.00 to $50.00 to file in most jurisdictions. You can sue for a maximum of $2,000.00 . . . in some places . . . up to $5,000.00.
Imagine if folks who have been unfairly treated all over the country file lawsuits . . . ALL OVER THE COUNTRY . . . against these guys.
How many lawyers can they afford to pay to represent them?
How many times are they even going to appear? I'd imagine at some point a New Jersey lawyer would be VERY interested in taking all these thousands and thousands of dollars in default judgments and attempt to collect by attaching the property of these bozos.
Who would have the last laugh then?
February 3, 2003 Update:
After leaving a phone message last Friday, January
31st, I've been contacted by the Porter County Indiana
Sheriff's Department, which is in the county where I live, and I've
made a complaint.