So, uh, apparently this post from last month has angered someone out there in the interwebs.

To review, I called out NCO Financial Systems for being a scam and leaving a recurring phony spam message about debt collection on my answering machine. In an interesting development, the calls stopped shortly after I posted about this, though I can’t imagine they would be coordinated enough for that to be anything other than coincidence.

Today, a “Jonathan Walker” offered me this rebuttal of sorts via a comment on the post:

“as you did your research correctly we would’ve known that debt collection agency will be breaking the law if they diclose any information beside the right party so how would you know that the company is a fraud,just because you got a message c’mon dude do your research correctly also the BBB has alot of complains about alot of companies why do you figure that the BBB only has complains about NCO financial system you are probably another consumer that owes a debt and the only way to get out of it is by saying bad stuff about a company,probably this is not the only company you have been writting about,SO PAY YOUR DEBTS!”

[massive sic]

I have two theories about this comment:
1. It’s a Mep Reporter having a little fun or trying to stir the pot.
2. It’s someone in the employ of NCO Financial Systems trying to cover for them.

While I’m always inclined to go with #1, especially after Russ introduced zombie flash videos into my life (not to mention the origin of the whole “Omaha” thing), I doubt it in this instance. For one thing, the post is old, already on our third page. A Mepper would press buttons on a more pressing issue. For another, a Mepper would know better than to accuse me of having outstanding debts.

For, of course, I have never accrued a debt in my life. There was technically a very small student loan that my parents took out for me that was required as part of my Brandeis financial aid package my freshman year, which was almost immediately repaid. Other than that, I have never owned a credit card (though I use debit cards frequently), never taken out a loan or a mortgage, even bought a new car with a check for the entire sum. I don’t believe in debt. So, no, Jonathan, it’s not my debt.

But I smell a rat in this comment that goes beyond the implication that I’m a deadbeat debtor. The post is old, so it could only have been found via search engine, unless this guy’s a regular reader of ours that was a month behind in his posts. So he was probably searching for NCO Financial Systems (I’ll check the search log when it’s updated for the day to see if I can find the referral search he made). And the misspellings and psedo-conversational attitude are a bit of a stretch, even for Internet comment buffoonery. Either he’s new to the language, writing way too fast, or trying to look amateurish.

More than anything, though, why would some random unaffiliated commenter come to the stirring defense of a corporation that’s obviously attempting to scam people? Who spends their free time doing this? It’s an obvious and inarticulate attempt to make NCO look possibly viable, to counteract the corporate image that is clearly tanking in an Internet capable of fact-checking.

The whole point was that I did my research, Jonathan. That was the point of my original post – look on Google before you call a dubious business back. This might be why you said “as you did your research correctly” rather than “if you did…”, because you’re subtly acknowledging that I’m right.

But you better get back to your workstation and make those robocalls. Or keep Googling and covering up for NCO. Otherwise, you won’t get paid.

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