Credit Collection Services is calling you from phone number 781-989-1000. We'll explain why.
Credit Collection Services, or CCS, is a debt collection agency that operates out of Norwood, Massachusetts, and 781-989-1000 is a primary outbound caller ID that the company uses to connect with consumers about supposedly outstanding debts they owe.
If you're receiving calls from this number, you're not the only one.
Hundreds of complaints about 781-989-1000 have been registered on consumer reporting platforms, and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has logged more than 640 complaints about this number that have been filed by consumers in over 25 states.
Company Information
Company Name: Credit Control Services, Inc.
Fictitious Business Name: Credit Collection Services (CCS)
Parent Company: The CCS Companies
Business Type: Third-party debt collector, debt buyer, and outsourced first-party collector
Industry Specialties: Insurance, healthcare, telecom, utilities, banking, government, and education
Business Address: 725 Canton Street, Norwood, Massachusetts
Other Locations: Salem, NH and Portsmouth, NH
Incorporated: 1966
Employee Count: 375 to 700 employees, estimated annual revenue in excess of $100 million
Better Business Bureau (BBB) Rating: B (accredited as of June 2023)
Geographic Scope: Nationally licensed; maintains a GSA Federal Supply Schedule contract that spans all 50 states and U.S. territories
Nearly 4,000 complaints about CCS have been registered with the Better Business Bureau over the last three years, and at least 2,000 more complaints about the company can be found in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) consumer complaint database.
CCS has been named in multiple federal lawsuits that accuse the company of violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), including suits challenging the content of its collection letters and the accuracy of its credit reporting practices.
RoboKiller's caller ID database has logged more than 192,000 calls from this single phone number, and the FTC says that 85 percent of the complaints it has received about 781-989-1000 are classified as either a robocall or a recorded message.
If you're getting these calls, you're dealing with a documented pattern of aggressive calling behavior that has generated thousands of complaints from consumers, courts, and consumer agencies across the country.
Why is Credit Collection Services Calling Me?
The Types of Debts They Collect
Credit Collection Services is a hybrid debt collection agency. It works as a third-party collection agency that collects debts for its clients, a debt buyer that purchases charged-off debts from creditors, and as an outsourced first-party collection agency that provides on-site collection services to its clients. The company says it receives more than $5 billion in new placements every year from its client base.
Most of the complaints about CCS are associated with its insurance industry clients. GEICO is the client mentioned most often in consumer complaints about the company, followed by Allstate, Nationwide, and Progressive. CCS also collects debts in the healthcare, cable and telecom, energy and utilities, education, retail, banking, and government (tollway debts) verticals. Court records confirm the company's diverse client relationships, and its website touts its partnerships with multiple Fortune 50 and Fortune 100 companies.
When CCS Calls the Wrong Person
Many of the complaints filed about CCS come from consumers who say the company is calling them about a debt they do not owe or trying to collect a debt from the wrong person altogether.
On the consumer complaint platform FindWhoCallsYou, one consumer reported that CCS was calling them every day and said they had verified through their credit report that they did not have any debts in collection.
On EveryCaller, another consumer said CCS had been calling them for a year despite the fact that they have perfect credit, explaining that efforts to block the number were unsuccessful and that the calls just kept coming.
These wrong-number complaints point to a weakness in CCS's skip-tracing and data-matching processes. When a debt collector calls the wrong person, the consumer has a number of powerful rights under federal law, and the collector's mistake can become a valuable point of leverage in a dispute and removal process.
How Credit Collection Services Operates
Predictive Dialers and Abandoned Calls
The single most common theme that emerges from complaints about 781-989-1000 is silent or hang-up calls. Consumers report answering the phone and hearing nothing before the caller hangs up.
This suggests that CCS is using a predictive dialer, an automated dialing system that places more calls than the company has live representatives available to field. Predictive dialers count on the fact that some percentage of targeted consumers will not answer their phones when they are called.
On the consumer complaint platform ShouldIAnswer, one consumer reported that CCS called them several times in one week and hung up on them every time they answered the phone. When the consumer called the company back, a representative got their name wrong and would not tell them which company or companies they represented.
Another user on the same platform reported that CCS was calling them five or more times every day and hanging up every time they answered the phone.
On 800notes, a consumer reported that a call from 781-989-1000 came through as "Scam Likely" and that when they answered it, the caller immediately began asking them for their personal information without explaining why they were calling. The consumer told the caller that it was their responsibility to establish their own identity before asking the consumer for personal information.
Pressure Tactics and Information Games
Debt collection agencies use pressure to produce payment. CCS is no exception. However, here's the critical insight consumers need to understand: There's almost never a valid reason to make an immediate payment, despite what a debt collector may be telling you. Any deadline a debt collector gives you is designed to serve the debt collector's interests, not yours.
Consumers have filed a number of complaints accusing CCS of playing information games with them. On CallerCenter, one consumer reported a call from CCS in which the caller already had all of their personal information but refused to provide them with any information about the debt they were calling to collect. The consumer said that when they told the caller they were a paralegal, the caller got nervous and got off the phone.
On Tellows, another consumer reported receiving not just calls but also threatening emails from CCS demanding payment on a "false" debt.
These complaints underscore a dynamic consumers need to recognize: CCS is going to push you to confirm your identity and make commitments to the company before it is willing to provide you with the validation the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) says you're entitled to.
Once you understand that game, you're in a position to outmaneuver the company.
What Are My Rights and How Can I Use Them?
The FDCPA and the Power of Debt Validation
Under the FDCPA, consumers have the right to request written validation of any debt a collection agency is telling them they owe. This isn't a privilege or a courtesy. It's a legal right that puts the burden of proof on the debt collector. If CCS cannot deliver documentation that proves the debt is yours, you have grounds to dispute the account.
Always investigate before you negotiate. Before you engage with a debt collector in any conversation about resolving the debt, you need to conduct a thorough investigation of the debt's accuracy. That means verifying the balance, the original creditor, the dates, and whether the statute of limitations has expired. Lots of consumers make the mistake of engaging in a discussion about payment before they have confirmed that the debt is valid in the first place.
Using Your Credit Report as a Weapon
Consumers are entitled to a free copy of their credit report from each of the three major credit bureaus every 12 months. But your credit report isn't just an entitlement. It's also an essential reconnaissance tool you can use to figure out what exactly CCS has reported to the credit bureaus, whether that information is accurate or not, and where you may find weaknesses you can exploit in a dispute.
Requesting your credit reports should be the first thing you do when you start getting calls from 781-989-1000. Go through your reports and look for any tradeline that mentions Credit Collection Services, Credit Control Services, or CCS. Make a note of the reported balance, the date of first delinquency, and the original creditor.
Any inaccuracy in these fields gives you grounds for a formal dispute under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
How Do I Get the Calls from 781-989-1000 to Stop?
Disputing the Account on Your Credit Report
The single best way to get CCS to stop calling you is not to answer your phone or call the company back. It's to dispute the account directly on your credit report. When you successfully dispute and remove a tradeline from your report, you eliminate the collector's leverage and remove their financial incentive to keep calling you.
Your goal should always be to get the collection removed entirely from your report. Not to pay it. Not to settle it. To get it removed. A paid collection still hurts your credit, and a settled collection still shows up as a derogatory mark on your credit report. Only a deletion removes the entire tradeline and puts a stop to the negative credit reporting.
Insisting on Written Communication
Collectors think in terms of cost-benefit analysis. Every time they place a call, that call has a cost associated with it - the time of the calling agent, the minutes on the dialer, the risk of a compliance violation.
When you force the process into written communication by filing formal disputes and demanding validation, you change the economics of the equation. Written disputes create a paper trail that protects you as a consumer and raises the cost for the collector to continue pursuing you.
Never rely on verbal promises made over the phone. If a CCS representative tells you over the phone that they are going to close your account and stop calling you, that promise means nothing unless you have it in writing. Federal law gives you the tools to force everything into writing, and that's where consumers get their power.
Conclusion
It's Time to Take Action
Credit Collection Services isn't some fly-by-night scam outfit. It's a 59-year-old debt collection conglomerate that does over $100 million a year in business and boasts Fortune 50 clients, a federal government contract, and a nationwide licensing footprint.
But that doesn't mean you're powerless. It means that the tools made available to you under the FDCPA and FCRA have real teeth, because a company as big as this one has real exposure when the law gets enforced.
The calls from 781-989-1000 aren't going to stop on their own. As noted above, efforts to block the number haven't worked for the thousands of consumers who have already tried that approach. Instead, the way forward here is strategic: You need to request your credit reports, figure out what CCS has reported to the credit bureaus, and file formal disputes challenging any inaccuracies or unverified accounts you find on your reports.
A no-cost, no-obligation consultation with a consumer advocacy specialist from FightCollections.com can help you get a sense of where you stand before you decide whether to pursue any particular course of action. It's a risk-free way to get some clarity on what CCS is claiming, whether their reporting is accurate, and what options you may have available to pursue a deletion.
And the sooner you do that, the sooner the calls from 781-989-1000 can become somebody else's problem.
