About 10 percent of Americans — 30 million people, that is — are currently being pursued by debt collection agencies. Of these people, at least 100,000 report being subject to illegal predatory tactics each year.
Debt collection is a 12-billion-dollar industry, more than 4500 companies strong. In 2012, the Federal Trade Commission received an alarming 180,000 complaints about such companies — nearly 13 times more than were received in 2000. Debt collection tactics used by these companies are often ruthless — and very much illegal.
Debt Collectors Will Do Anything to Make You Pay
Being hunted by debt collectors is obviously frustrating, especially when you have no idea where the debt came from and/or you are unable to pay a large debt. Unfortunately, the annoyances go beyond collectors calling daily with a friendly reminder to mind your bills. An Erie, Pennsylvania debt collection agency known as the Unicredit Debt Resolution Center hired employees to dress up as fake sheriff’s deputies and deliver fake subpoenas before hauling people to a fake courtroom where a fake judge would coerce them into disclosing their bank account information and hand over the titles to their cars.
Scared yet? A California-based company threatened to kill consumers’ and their pets and/or dig up the bodies of their deceased family members. Other complaints against the company involved the company revealing consumers’ debts to their employers, co-workers, neighbors, and family members; the company also allegedly threatened wage garnishment, consumer liability to legal fees incurred in collecting their debts, etc. We’re not surprised to find out the company also kept more of consumers’ money than they were entitled to, often neglecting to pass money along to clients to whom the money was owed in the first place.
Protecting Yourself Against Illegal Debt Collection
Of the 7,000+ complaints the Federal Trade Commission has published in regards to the debt collection industry, more than 2,000 were from people who reported being pursued for debts they had already paid or that weren’t their debts in the first place. More than a third of complaints released by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPC) were in the same boat.
How Safe Are We from Debt Collectors?
Being aware of what debt collectors are not allowed to do can help you fight back against harassment. You may be entitled to money for being harassed (think $1,000 per account with violations by a collections agent). Debt collectors should not:
- Do anything deceptive, fraudulent, or designed to harass or intimidate you.
- Call repeatedly or at unreasonable times (before 8am or after 9pm).
- Send you fake court letters.
- Make false representations.
- Seek collection fees or interest charges not allowed by your contract or state.
- Threaten you with arrest.
- Communicate with anyone other than you regarding your debt.
3 comments
Nate B
After one month of where I worked going out of business losing our heath Ins and all, my Wife has a Heart attack , Over $ 100.000.00 in the hole then I have a Heart Attack , Now over $200,000.00 in a hole with no Job everybody and there grandmother wants money that we don't have , If the heart attack don't kill ya the bills and the dept collectors will , I don't have a clue what our credit score is now but it use to be around 760 or so , the first thing the Debt collectors want to do is nail your credit and try to screw up your life , So my wife and I gave it some thought and came up with this , We made a big change with our life for what we think is for the better and it's working grate so far , #1 why do we need credit anyway ? lets go back to old school before there was credit , #2 If we don't have the money to pay for it then why in the world should we buy it on credit and pay interest on it if we did not have the money in the first place ? #3 We find our life much easier now that we don't use credit , Our stress level is way down , maybe it was credit and bills that started our hart attacks in the first place , #4 We know now buy having less is the way to go , It makes life much easier with less to worry about , We think that what most people buy now days don't last anyway and is mostly junk , Now when it comes to the dept from the Heart attack Bills , we pay what "we" think "we" can afford and not what they say we can afford and remember that they are the ones that screwed up your credit from trying to get a loan to pay them back anyway , So we look at it as they cut of there nose to spite there face by trying to hurt us , and when it comes to phone calls , we use a internet phone for our land-line , when a call comes in it goes to our e-mail , if we don't want it it's deleted along with the rest of our junk mail that we have to delete anyway , So for us we adjusted our life for the better by having less , And remember the less you have the less you have to worry about and the less they can take ,
ABHA Raani Sharma CCC-SLP
I did as above in reference to extreme debt collection, abuse of so called credit reports full of multitude of errors and debts of family members that are fraudulently transferred under the name of a earning member just to destroy her credit status. American society is very male chauvinistic when it comes to money,employment, and even in spiritual arena where according to Pastor Kramer wife can go to God through husband only. Since any man or woman has a right to mediate my relationship with my GOD? It is totally mind boggling.
HH. ABHA RAANI SHARMA
L.U.S.A. Global Brain Rehabilitation in 25+ languages from ages 1-115
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ABHA Raani Sharma CCC-SLP
I don't know what my credit report and background search has to do with my professional skills and employability. But the system of American way of doing business in any field is becoming very dictatorial and absolutely ludicrous. It is driving many good people are driven to stress related illnesses as a result of such a punitive system that has no match in any free democracy or even in communist or socialist governments around the world.
Recently I investigated a car loan. I was seriously disrespected and extremely insulted by many people who can't even read my resume. We should not be insulted by total idiots who believe that they own the WORLD BANK because they are born in America. One idiot wanted me to pay cash or write a 30,000 dollar check to buy a Subaru when I was just test driving. They were more intend selling the car loan instead of selling the car of my choice which they did not have in the first place. No wonder everyone is laughing at us. We hurt our own citizens and families which even animals don't do let alone humans in many other cultures.
Absolutely frustrated,
HH. ABHA RAANI SHARMA CCC-SLP 01073029