What Are Some Of The Worst Violations Of The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act?
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is a piece of federal legislation that prohibits debt collectors from being abusive, deceptive, or otherwise violating the law. Under the FDCPA, collectors are prohibited from threatening violence, using profane language, calling over and over, inflating the debt, or misrepresenting themselves as attorneys. They are further prohibited from telling consumers that they will arrest them or garnish their wages unless they actually can take those actions and are legally allowed to do so through a court order.
So, what are some of the most egregious violations of this act? Below, we’ll discuss them.
Threatening to take away your children
In one case, the FTC shut down a Texas-based debt collector, Goldman Schwartz, for using deceptive and abusive scare tactics to force individuals to pay their payday loan debts. According to the FTC, the debt collectors called consumers incessantly, told them that they would “take them to jail,” said that they’d send the sheriff’s department to their workplace and “take care of this the hard way.” They did so without any legal basis or authority. These debt collectors went so far as to tell people that they would send child protective services to take their minor children into government custody if they did not pay.
Posing as a law firm
The same company that threatened to have children taken away from their parents also posed as a law firm or claimed to work with law enforcement authorities. In some cases, they even charged unauthorized attorney’s fees that the company referred to as “juice”. One consumer filed a complaint against the company stating that its collectors pretended to belong to a law firm one day, and the next day said they worked with local law enforcement. After calling the consumer incessantly over $300 payday loan (which she claimed she already paid) a debt collector called her workplace and told her coworkers he was going to come arrest her and they would have to pick her out of a lineup.
Pretending to be a law firm is a common tactic (albeit illegal) among debt collectors. In one case, the Pennsylvania Attorney General charged a company called Uncredit with decorating their office to look like a courtroom and holding fake court proceedings.
Threatening to exhume the dead
A different collection agency was fined more than $700,000 for allegedly threatening to dig up the dead bodies of the debtor’s deceased children and hang them from a tree or drop them outside their door if they failed to pay their funeral bills. The company claimed that it did its best to inform its collection agencies concerning the law, so if any wrongdoing was done, it was done by the employees and not the company’s executives.
Talk to an FDCPA Attorney Today
Have you been unlawfully harassed by creditors? If so, the Columbus consumer law attorneys at Kohl & Cook Law Firm, LLC can help you file suit against the debt collector that violated the law. Call our office today to schedule an appointment, and learn more about how we can help.
Source:
money.cnn.com/2013/02/06/pf/debt-collection/index.html
