Consumer complaint received 2025-05-26 00:00:00
Product: Credit reporting or other personal consumer reports — Credit reporting
Issue: Incorrect information on your report — Account information incorrect
Company: ENCORE CAPITAL GROUP INC.
State: NJ

Complaint narrative:
This account was opened on XX/XX/XXXX. It was used and payments were made on time, never late or missed payments. In XX/XX/XXXX I closed this account myself in a phone call with XXXX. In that call, I. explained my reasoning for closing the account to being severely injured in the line of duty as a law enforcement official , county, state, federal as so seen on my credit report as to employment. This incident, along with being affected directly to medical complications due to COVID 19 which included two separate hospitalizations each over a weeks stay, caused economic hardship, emotional distress and XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX work related conditions that to date, I continue to treat monthly with XXXX. This has caused me to now receive limited income of Social Security XXXX pension and NJ stated XXXX XXXXXXXX pension. As a resolution to payment that I could not afford, I was placed in a customer assistance program, paying XXXX XXXX monthly, paying back an agreement of {$450.00}. Any remaining balance afterwards would be forgiven in the issue of a 1099c form from XXXXXXXX XXXX. The balance at the time of this arrangement was {$1300.00}. After completing payment of $ 50 monthly to a total of {$450.00} a 1099c form was never received for the balance of {$800.00}. Last {$50.00} payment was made in XX/XX/XXXX for a total of payments of {$450.00}. Over this past several months, Ive received emails from XXXX as to another payment arrangement now, and offers to settle this balance of {$800.00} in another agreement. I called XXXX and spoke with representative about the original agreement of monthly payments she could see of {$50.00} and of the customer assistance program I was in. She could also see I closed the account in XXXX of XXXX for reasons stated above. She noted the account and never received a response. I noticed my credit report was now showing I was missing payments on this closed account which I should not have been reporting. I did file a dispute on XXXX separate occasions with Experian with the above information. On XX/XX/XXXX I received an email from XXXX @ XXXX XXXX EST. This email was to inform me that my closed XXXX account ending in XXXX was sold to a debt collector, Capital Systems, LLC. This account should not have been sold as a debt as I had closed this account on XX/XX/XXXX as to again, reasons stated above, was in a customer assistance program, paying back an agreement amount of a balance at that time was {$1300.00} but paying back {$450.00} in $ 50 monthly payments til reaching {$450.00} payed back. A 1099c form was to be issued for the balance as forgiveness of {$800.00}. Such 1099c form would have to be claimed in tax return that year as earned income and was tabled I was informed of at the time of this agreement. Now, instead of issuing the XXXX form, XXXX has broken this agreement, charged off/ written of this account for tax and insurance reasons then sold this account to Capital Systems LLC for further alleged debt collection. This alleged debt is not owed and had a payment agreement in place with a plan of debt forgiveness when completed of payment schedule of $ 50 monthly, till payment of {$450.00} was received. This last {$50.00} payment was in XX/XX/XXXX which at that time, payment of {$450.00} was completed. XXXX is knowing now breaking a customer assistance program and claiming this as a charge off/ written off account again for tax and insurance purposes then unethically selling this alleged debt thats not owed to a debt collection agency for the purposes of harassment, intimidation and causing distress instead of the assistance and agreement of customer assistance in a hardship situation explained above in detail. XXXX extremely disappointed in XXXX for this outrageous and unethical business practices. It also should be noted, a credit freeze and special notification has been placed on my credit report in XXXX due to a serious data breach of my personal information. Soon after in XX/XX/XXXX, other suspicious activity was appearing on my credit report as I was notified. On XX/XX/XXXX I received a notification alert letter from the Department of Justice as to a severe data breach of my personal information, including, phone number, address, social security #, DOB , Dr reports, records and prescriptions, affiliations to law enforcement agencies and job related matters. This serious breach of very intuitive information by a contractor used by the DOJ, Graylock, McKinnon & Associates had actually happened in XX/XX/XXXX but was just informed of this ransomware attack affecting several of their systems. This classified notification further gives instructions on protection, security and personal safety steps to ensure me and my familys safety. Then on XX/XX/XXXX I received a letter from ticket Master of my personal information being exposed to XXXX party unauthorized service providers through a cloud database. With all the above credit and personal information being exposed, an Identity theft report was filed, case # XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. Due to ongoing additional issues including too many to name of SMS unauthorized contact, phishing emails and phone calls from solicitors while being registered on the national do not call list, an additional identity theft information report was filed on XX/XX/XXXX. Case # XXXX.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief