Stop Debt Collectors in Virginia

Posts Tagged ‘Abuse’

A friend of mine worked very hard to talk about the problem of debt collectors, credit reports and debt collectors.

If you have be the victim of a debt collector who has lied to you and told you that paying an old debt would improve your credit, or that they could remove the negative information, please contact us.

NO FEE IN YOUR FDCPA OR FCRA CASE UNLESS WE RECOVER!!

KCLS LIMITS THE GEOGRAPHY IN WHICH WE TAKE CASES.

YOU MUST BE A VIRGINIA RESIDENT.

If you are not a Virginia Resident, click here to find a lawyer near you.

OUR LEGAL FEES:

The rights afforded to you, as a consumer, under the FCRA and the FDCPA means that a corporation or party who has violated your rights may ultimately be made to pay for statutory damages, actual damages, and your legal fees. Therefore, if we agree to represent you in any case, you won’t pay any attorney’s fees unless we are successful and we recover on your behalf. We are here to serve and have assisted many consumers TO enforce their legal rights. Let us try and see if we can help you too. That means you pay no fee in your case unless we recover.

Contact us by e-mail or by telephone or fax or US Mail.

You can call us: 804.673.4358

You can fax us: 804.673.4350

You can contact us by US MAIL:

Krumbein Consumer Legal Services, Inc.

1650 Willow Lawn Drive

Suite 300

Richmond, VA 23230

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is designed to protect consumers from abusive or harassing conduct, false or misleading statements or unfair act by Debt Collectors.

What validation rights do you have under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act?

As usual, we start with the statutory definition.  Thanks to LII.

Read the code section- 15 U.S.C. §1692g here 15 US Code section 1692g.

When the debt collector contacts you the first time, they must send a notice, called a validation notice, or 30 day letter, which gives you 30 days after you receive the letter to dispute the debt.

If you dispute the debt, they must do certain things before they get back in contact with you, but remember, if you take longer than 30 days, they do not have to do anything.  For example, if they send the letter January 1, and you don’t tell them that you dispute until June 1, they do not have to validate the debt.

But what is “validation”?  It is nothing more than confirming with the creditor that you are the correct person to collect from, and that the amount is correct.  They check just a few things.  A debt collector must contact the creditor (read here on the difference between a creditor and a debt collector), and check your name, maybe your social security number, and the balance.  That’s all they have to do.

Usually, they will send you “validation”.

On the other hand, if they fail to provide validation, and they continue to collect, they are violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

Some examples where this is a violation-

1. If they don’t ever send you a letter that explains your right to dispute. This is a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. This is a case that is hard to prove, and in many cases, it is done by smaller debt collectors, often overseas.  They are hard to sue, even for good violations because they are hard to notify that they are being sued, and even if you do sue them, they are overseas, so your ability to collect from them is often very limited.
2. If they send you a letter, and you dispute, and they ignore your collection letter, and keep writing, or calling, etc.  This is a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
3. If they send you a letter, and you dispute, and they ignore you letter, and sue (this is only possible if they sue, for example, lawyers, and debt collectors who sue in their own name.). This would be a violation.
4. If they send you a letter, and you dispute, and they see that you are a different person from the person who owes the money (eg: different name, or different social security number), and they continue to collect.  This is a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

There are some notable exceptions.  The key one being check collectors who are parading as prosecutors.  Check collectors who are pretending to be prosecutors have their own special exemptions. They are not covered by any of the above IF the accounts are being actually reviewed by a lawyer in the office of that prosecutor. 15 U.S.C. §1692p

If you are contacted by a collector, you should keep track of all of the statements that he made (you can use our form or just write it down), and send them a letter asking for more information, called validation of the debt.  There is a sample here, and a dispute noting that you have a lawyer here.   Note that not all the questions must be answered.

If you have been impacted by anything we mentioned here, you can make an appointment to see us.

NO FEE IN YOUR FDCPA CASE UNLESS WE RECOVER!!

KCLS LIMITS THE GEOGRAPHY IN WHICH WE TAKE CASES.

YOU MUST BE A VIRGINIA RESIDENT.

If you are not a Virginia Resident, click here to find a lawyer near you.

OUR LEGAL FEES:

The rights afforded to you, as a consumer, under the FCRA and the FDCPA means that a corporation or party who has violated your rights may ultimately be made to pay for statutory damages, actual damages, and your legal fees. Therefore, if we agree to represent you in any case, you won’t pay any attorney’s fees unless we are successful and we recover on your behalf. We are here to serve and have assisted many consumers TO enforce their legal rights. Let us try and see if we can help you too. That means you pay no fee in your case unless we recover.

Contact us by e-mail or by telephone or fax or US Mail.

You can call us: 804.673.4358

You can fax us: 804.673.4350

You can contact us by US MAIL:

Krumbein Consumer Legal Services, Inc.

1650 Willow Lawn Drive

Suite 300

Richmond, VA 23230

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act has some very specific ways that are expressly not permitted and a very few that are permitted.

As we have mentioned before,  a debt collector is not permitted to, in the process of collecting a debt use language that is abusive or harassing, false or misleading, or unfair or unconscionable.

But there are other things that a debt collector can do that are illegal.

Debt collectors are not permitted to contact a person at a time that they know is inconvenient.  It is presumed that 8:00 am to 9:00 pm are acceptable hours, but if you work the night shift, that is bad for you.  If you work the night shift, tell the debt collector that it is inconvenient to take calls from 8:00 am to 5:00 PM, since that is the time that you sleep. They should call from 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm, since that is when you are awake.

Debt collectors are not permitted to contact a person they know has a lawyer.  There are a few exceptions, like if the lawyer says its OK, or if a judge authorizes it, or the lawyer is non-responsive.  But they have to know that you are represented by a lawyer, and how to contact that lawyer.  We always recommend that you “lawyer up” in writing.  Give them your lawyer’s name and address. If your lawyer is willing to talk on the phone, give them the phone number. But do it in writing.  But remember- we always suggest Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested.  That way you can prove that you sent it, and they received it.  A sample letter “lawyering up” can be found here.

Debt collectors are not permitted to contact a person at work, if they know that the person cannot take that type of call (collection calls, or more generally personal calls) at work. The key here is that they have to know, or have a reason to know (know or should know).  How do you tell them that you can’t talk at work?  You just tell them.  Tell them on the phone, when they call.  Tell them in writing.  Follow up your telephone conversation with a letter.  Send it Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested.

Then, track the phone calls with our call log.  If you can prove that they received your letter, and called anyway, we can help you.

If you have been impacted by anything we mentioned here, you can make an appointment to see us.

NO FEE IN YOUR FDCPA CASE UNLESS WE RECOVER!!

OUR LEGAL FEES:

The rights afforded to you, as a consumer, under the FCRA and the FDCPA means that a corporation or party who has violated your rights may ultimately be made to pay for statutory damages, actual damages, and your legal fees. Therefore, if we agree to represent you in any case, you won’t pay any attorney’s fees unless we are successful and we recover on your behalf. We are here to serve and have assisted many consumers TO enforce their legal rights. Let us try and see if we can help you too. That means you pay no fee in your case unless we recover.

KCLS LIMITS THE GEOGRAPHY IN WHICH WE TAKE CASES.

YOU MUST BE A VIRGINIA RESIDENT.

If you are not a Virginia Resident, click here to find a lawyer near you.

Contact us by e-mail or by telephone or fax or US Mail.

You can call us: 804.673.4358

You can fax us: 804.673.4350

You can contact us by US MAIL:

Krumbein Consumer Legal Services, Inc.

1650 Willow Lawn Drive

Suite 300

Richmond, VA 23230

Last week a Jury in Dallas, Texas made one of the biggest sanctions ever in a case involving abusive debt collections.  The jury awarded Allen Jones’ $50,000 in mental anguish damages and $1.5 Million in punitive damages due to the conduct of debt collectors employed by Advanced Call Center Technologies. This story was first reported by WFAA-TV in Forth Worth. The trial was prosecuted by Dean Malone and Mark Frenkel.

Debt Collectors employed by ACCT admitted to making the calls which included the use of racial slurs, swearing, and mental harassment.  All of this was over “Zombie Debt” of $200.00 that Mr. Jones had previously paid but his creditors refused to give him credit.

Even if you may or may not owe a company money they are not entitled to berate your in their attempts to collect a debt.  By law debt collectors must treat you with:

1. Truth
2. Dignity
3. Honesty
4. Respect.

If you are receiving calls from a debt collector and he or she is saying things that

you could not “Repeat to your Grandmother” then your rights under state and federal law are being violated.  It is time to act!   

Debt Collector harassment is illegal and can be stopped  Click Here for Help.

NO FEE IN YOUR FDCPA CASE UNLESS WE RECOVER!!

KCLS LIMITS THE GEOGRAPHY IN WHICH WE TAKE CASES.

YOU MUST BE A VIRGINIA RESIDENT.

If you are not a Virginia Resident, click here to find a lawyer near you.

OUR LEGAL FEES:

The rights afforded to you, as a consumer, under the FCRA and the FDCPA means that a corporation or party who has violated your rights may ultimately be made to pay for statutory damages, actual damages, and your legal fees. Therefore, if we agree to represent you in any case, you won’t pay any attorney’s fees unless we are successful and we recover on your behalf. We are here to serve and have assisted many consumers to enforce their legal rights. Let us try and see if we can help you too. That means you pay no fee in your case unless we recover.

Contact us by e-mail or by telephone or fax or US Mail.

You can call us: 804.673.4358

You can fax us: 804.673.4350

You can contact us by US MAIL:

Krumbein Consumer Legal Services, Inc.

1650 Willow Lawn Drive

Suite 300

Richmond, VA 23230

How can you make a debt collector cease communications under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act?

As usual, we start with the text of the statute.

15 USC §1692c(c) Ceasing communication

If a consumer notifies a debt collector in writing that the consumer refuses to pay a debt or that the consumer wishes the debt collector to cease further communication with the consumer, the debt collector shall not communicate further with the consumer with respect to such debt, except—

(1) to advise the consumer that the debt collector’s further efforts are being terminated;

(2) to notify the consumer that the debt collector or creditor may invoke specified remedies which are ordinarily invoked by such debt collector or creditor; or

(3) where applicable, to notify the consumer that the debt collector or creditor intends to invoke a specified remedy.

If such notice from the consumer is made by mail, notification shall be complete upon receipt.

This means that, under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, if you inform a debt collector that you wish for them to stop collecting from you, they are required to do so.  They are then prohibited, by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, from MOST other contact.  They can let you know that they are complying with your requests.  They can let you know that they may do certain things that are legal,  that are collection efforts- repossession, foreclosure, lawsuit.  And they can take those actions.

For most collectors, there is very little that they can do in response that complies with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, but one must be wary of collections agencies that are lawyers.  Once should be particularly aware of those firms that regularly sue in the local courts where you are located.  Those collectors, one should think carefully before deciding that you wish to tell them to cease collections efforts, as they may decide that they wish to sue to collect.

Because of this distinction, it is very important to contact a consumer protection lawyer, who is familiar with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, in your community before taking this kind of action.  If you are in Virginia, we are glad to assist you.  If you are not in Virginia, please visit the National Association of Consumer Advocates Find An Attorney webpage.

If you have been impacted by anything we mentioned here, you can make an appointment to see us.

NO FEE IN YOUR FDCPA CASE UNLESS WE RECOVER!!

KCLS LIMITS THE GEOGRAPHY IN WHICH WE TAKE CASES.

YOU MUST BE A VIRGINIA RESIDENT.

If you are not a Virginia Resident, click here to find a lawyer near you.

OUR LEGAL FEES:

The rights afforded to you, as a consumer, under the FCRA and the FDCPA means that a corporation or party who has violated your rights may ultimately be made to pay for statutory damages, actual damages, and your legal fees. Therefore, if we agree to represent you in any case, you won’t pay any attorney’s fees unless we are successful and we recover on your behalf. We are here to serve and have assisted many consumers TO enforce their legal rights. Let us try and see if we can help you too. That means you pay no fee in your case unless we recover.

Contact us by e-mail or by telephone or fax or US Mail.

You can call us: 804.673.4358

You can fax us: 804.673.4350

You can contact us by US MAIL:

Krumbein Consumer Legal Services, Inc.

1650 Willow Lawn Drive

Suite 300

Richmond, VA 23230

KCLS LIMITS THE GEOGRAPHY IN WHICH WE TAKE CASES.

YOU MUST BE A VIRGINIA RESIDENT.

If you are not a Virginia Resident, click here to find a lawyer near you.

How can a debt collector communicate with a third party under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act?

As usual, we start with the text of the statute.

15 USC §1692c(b) Communication with third parties

Except as provided in section 1692b of this title, without the prior consent of the consumer given directly to the debt collector, or the express permission of a court of competent jurisdiction, or as reasonably necessary to effectuate a postjudgment judicial remedy, a debt collector may not communicate, in connection with the collection of any debt, with any person other than the consumer, his attorney, a consumer reporting agency if otherwise permitted by law, the creditor, the attorney of the creditor, or the attorney of the debt collector.

How is this important to you?

This one is actually very simple.  A Debt Collector may not communicate with any third party about your debt, except for the purposes of location information.

A Debt Collector is not permitted to contact your family or friends or neighbors to discuss your debts.  That would violate at least two provisions of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

A Debt Collector is not permitted to contact your family, friends or neighbors, once they know where you are.  Contacts like that violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

A Debt Collector is not permitted to “verify employment” with your employer.  This also may violate more than one provision of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

As you can see, this is a remarkably simple provision that provides a fair amount of protections.

In times past, contact like this might have been the tort of invasion of privacy, but Virginia has done away with this tort for most purposes.  At least in Virginia, you have no right to privacy, only a right not to have your likeness used for commercial purposes without your consent.

If you have been impacted by anything we mentioned here, you can make an appointment to see us.

NO FEE IN YOUR FDCPA CASE UNLESS WE RECOVER!!

OUR LEGAL FEES:

The rights afforded to you, as a consumer, under the FCRA and the FDCPA means that a corporation or party who has violated your rights may ultimately be made to pay for statutory damages, actual damages, and your legal fees. Therefore, if we agree to represent you in any case, you won’t pay any attorney’s fees unless we are successful and we recover on your behalf. We are here to serve and have assisted many consumers TO enforce their legal rights. Let us try and see if we can help you too. That means you pay no fee in your case unless we recover.

Contact us by e-mail or by telephone or fax or US Mail.

You can call us: 804.673.4358

You can fax us: 804.673.4350

You can contact us by US MAIL:

Krumbein Consumer Legal Services, Inc.

1650 Willow Lawn Drive

Suite 300

Richmond, VA 23230

KCLS LIMITS THE GEOGRAPHY IN WHICH WE TAKE CASES.

YOU MUST BE A VIRGINIA RESIDENT.

If you are not a Virginia Resident, click here to find a lawyer near you.

How can a debt collector collect contact information under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act?

The law on how a collector may collect information about your location is found in 15 U.S.C. §1692b

A debt collector may only contact a third party if s/he follows the rules.

They have to 1- Identify him/her self, state only that they are verifying location information, and only identify their employer if asked; 2- NOT state that the consumer owes a debt; 3-not call more than once unless there are specific exceptions; 4- not communicate by postcard; 5- not use any information on the outside of the envelope that indicates that they are debt collectors; 6- communicate with anyone after they know the consumer is represented by an attorney.

So what does this mean for you?

There are 2 things that collectors like to do that are violations of this (and other provisions) of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

Block parties and cube-farm parties (also known as office parties).

A block party is where a debt collector calls the neighbors all around a consumer and asks for them to carry some information to you, asking you to call. They call the neighbor on the left, the right, across the street and both diagonals.

An office party or cube-farm party is where they call your co-workers, and ask for them to pass you a message.  It is the same thing as a block party, only at work.

Why do they do this?  Because it is VERY embarrassing to have your neighbors know that you have a debt collector calling.  They are going to ask you why this person is calling.  Clearly, this is intrusive, and you don’t have to answer, but the collectors know that you will do almost anything to stop the calls- like pay.  So the question becomes- why are they calling?  It’s not to locate you.  They know where you live or work.  They can write to you, or call your home or cell phone, or work phone.  It is for the sheer embarrassment factor of all those calls.  The embarrassment, and hurt.  Not only does this violate the section of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act on communication, it may also be harassment or abuse and an unfair and deceptive act under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

If you have been impacted by anything we mentioned here, you can make an appointment to see us.

NO FEE IN YOUR FDCPA CASE UNLESS WE RECOVER!!

OUR LEGAL FEES:

The rights afforded to you, as a consumer, under the FCRA and the FDCPA means that a corporation or party who has violated your rights may ultimately be made to pay for statutory damages, actual damages, and your legal fees. Therefore, if we agree to represent you in any case, you won’t pay any attorney’s fees unless we are successful and we recover on your behalf. We are here to serve and have assisted many consumers TO enforce their legal rights. Let us try and see if we can help you too. That means you pay no fee in your case unless we recover.

Contact us by e-mail or by telephone or fax or US Mail.

You can call us: 804.673.4358

You can fax us: 804.673.4350

You can contact us by US MAIL:

Krumbein Consumer Legal Services, Inc.

1650 Willow Lawn Drive

Suite 300

Richmond, VA 23230

KCLS LIMITS THE GEOGRAPHY IN WHICH WE TAKE CASES.

YOU MUST BE A VIRGINIA RESIDENT.

If you are not a Virginia Resident, click here to find a lawyer near you.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is designed to protect consumers from abusive or harassing conduct, false or misleading statements or unfair act by Debt Collectors.

What is “unfair or unconscionable” under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act?

As usual, we start with the statutory definition.  Thanks to LII.

15 U.S.C. §1692f says

A debt collector may not use unfair or unconscionable means to collect or attempt to collect any debt. Without limiting the general application of the foregoing, the following conduct is a violation of this section:

(1) The collection of any amount (including any interest, fee, charge, or expense incidental to the principal obligation) unless such amount is expressly authorized by the agreement creating the debt or permitted by law.

(2) The acceptance by a debt collector from any person of a check or other payment instrument postdated by more than five days unless such person is notified in writing of the debt collector’s intent to deposit such check or instrument not more than ten nor less than three business days prior to such deposit.

(3) The solicitation by a debt collector of any postdated check or other postdated payment instrument for the purpose of threatening or instituting criminal prosecution.

(4) Depositing or threatening to deposit any postdated check or other postdated payment instrument prior to the date on such check or instrument.

(5) Causing charges to be made to any person for communications by concealment of the true purpose of the communication. Such charges include, but are not limited to, collect telephone calls and telegram fees.

(6) Taking or threatening to take any nonjudicial action to effect dispossession or disablement of property if—

(A) there is no present right to possession of the property claimed as collateral through an enforceable security interest;

(B) there is no present intention to take possession of the property; or

(C) the property is exempt by law from such dispossession or disablement.

(7) Communicating with a consumer regarding a debt by post card.

(8) Using any language or symbol, other than the debt collector’s address, on any envelope when communicating with a consumer by use of the mails or by telegram, except that a debt collector may use his business name if such name does not indicate that he is in the debt collection business.

15 US Code section 1692f.

So, a collector is not permitted to ask for any money unless it is an amount allowed for by law or by agreement.  Examples of this are collection fees, or more commonly, fees for how you pay.  For example, if you pay by phone, some collectors charge a fee for pay by phone. This is an illegal charge under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

Post dated checks are another problem under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.  If the collector accepts a post-dated check, they must not deposit the check until the date you specify.  If that date is more than 5 days away, they must notify you in writing that they are going to deposit the money before they do so.

They also are not permitted to solicit a post-dated check, if the purpose of this is to charge you with a crime if the money is not there.

They cannot hide the charges, for example, by doing a collect phone call.  This is prohibited under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Other examples are calls to cell phones where you have a per-minute charge (I know this is relatively rare in these days of unlimited minutes, but it was more common), or if they communicate by text message, and you are charged a fee for receiving text messages.  Text messages are a whole problem unto themselves, and we will dedicate a blog to that another time.

Postcards an markings on envelopes that identify the business are improper, also, under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

The only provision of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act that applies to repossession agents is the section on repossessing or foreclosing on something that they do not have the right to do so.  15 USC 1692f[6].  A repossession agent is not permitted to repossess a car if there is no present right to repossess the car.  They cannot foreclose if they are not permitted to do so.  When are they not permitted to do so?  If there is no loan on your car or house.  If you are current on your car or house payments, this would also potentially violation the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.  There will be a longer post on that another time.

If you have been impacted by anything we mentioned here, you can make an appointment to see us.

NO FEE IN YOUR FDCPA CASE UNLESS WE RECOVER!!

OUR LEGAL FEES:

The rights afforded to you, as a consumer, under the FCRA and the FDCPA means that a corporation or party who has violated your rights may ultimately be made to pay for statutory damages, actual damages, and your legal fees. Therefore, if we agree to represent you in any case, you won’t pay any attorney’s fees unless we are successful and we recover on your behalf. We are here to serve and have assisted many consumers TO enforce their legal rights. Let us try and see if we can help you too. That means you pay no fee in your case unless we recover.

Contact us by e-mail or by telephone or fax or US Mail.

You can call us: 804.673.4358

You can fax us: 804.673.4350

You can contact us by US MAIL:

Krumbein Consumer Legal Services, Inc.

1650 Willow Lawn Drive

Suite 300

Richmond, VA 23230

KCLS LIMITS THE GEOGRAPHY IN WHICH WE TAKE CASES.

YOU MUST BE A VIRGINIA RESIDENT.

If you are not a Virginia Resident, click here to find a lawyer near you.

What is abusive under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act?

Lots of things are “abuse”.  The statute in the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, or FDCPA is 15 USC §1692d.

§1692d says that “A debt collector may not engage in any conduct the natural consequence of which is to harass, oppress, or abuse any person in connection with the collection of a debt. . . “ It then goes on to say that certain things ARE abuse, but the list is not exhaustive.

The list provided in the statute is

(1) The use or threat of use of violence or other criminal means to harm the physical person, reputation, or property of any person.

(2) The use of obscene or profane language or language the natural consequence of which is to abuse the hearer or reader.

(3) The publication of a list of consumers who allegedly refuse to pay debts, except to a consumer reporting agency or to persons [that are like a credit reporting agency.  Examples include TeleCheck, ChexSystems, Certigy, Equifax’s check recovery department, and others.]

(4) The advertisement for sale of any debt to coerce payment of the debt.

(5) Causing a telephone to ring or engaging any person in telephone conversation repeatedly or continuously with intent to annoy, abuse, or harass any person at the called number.

(6) Except as provided in section 1692b of this title, the placement of telephone calls without meaningful disclosure of the caller’s identity.

So, lets go through these.

CRIMINAL THREATS: Obviously, threats of criminal harm should be considered abusive.  When they threaten to send “Vinny” around to break your knees if you don’t pay up—they are threatening to do something to you that is prohibited, not by civil law, but criminal law.  That means if “Rocco” does show up, and break your knees, “Rocco” goes to jail. But under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, or FDCPA, “Rocco” whether or not “Rocco” shows up, “Rocco’s” employer get sued.

But it doesn’t really stop there- If they threaten to tell everyone something illegal about you, like a threat to tell the police that you are a child molester, that too is a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, or FDCPA

In some states, in fact, threats of criminal harm are also criminal acts, and you can have someone arrested for this.

PROFANE LANGUAGE: Use of profane language abounds in our society.  But some people are prohibited from using such language.  Just think about the words that the Federal Communications Commission prohibits from use on the open airwaves, and only permits on cable/satellite.  You cannot say certain words on the radio or TV.  Those words are prohibited from being used in the context of debt collection.

But the law goes further than that. It also prohibits language that the natural consequence of which is to abuse the reader or hearer.  That means use of racial epithets, being impolite to people based on race, religion or national origin, accent.  These are all examples of “abuse”, and prohibited by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, or FDCPA.

PUBLICATION OF LIST OF NON-PAYING CONSUMERS: This means that if you discover that you have been “blacklisted” from obtaining credit or services, or writing checks, or other things, you may have a violation.  Examples here are the Telecheck and ChexSystems networks.  That MAY be considered publication of a list of non-paying consumers if they send a “list” around.  Imagine going into a doctor’s office, and posted there on the wall is a list of people they are not permitted to take a check from.  They used to do this.  Usually, though, it was a list that that doctor had posted, and there was a separate list at the grocery store.  Now, imagine that when you were on the doctor’s list, that there was a central list, and that list was also posted at the grocery store.  That means if you bounce a check at the doctor, you can’t write a check at grocery store, either.  That would be very embarrassing.  And it would be prohibited by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, or FDCPA.

ADVERTISING THE SALE OF DEBT: This one is harder to explain.  Imagine that you owe a credit card company- it doesn’t matter who- Capital One, CitiBank, Chase, Applied Bank, First National Bank of Marin, HSBC, it doesn’t matter who- for some reason you run into financial difficulty.  Job loss, divorce, illness, whatever the reason.  The account goes into collections.  The collector, whom we will call “Fictional Collector” threatens to puts into the local newspaper that they own a portfolio of defaulted debts, originally owed to your credit card company, and that you are that portfolio.  They are threatening to advertise for sale your debt.  This would be prohibited by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, or FDCPA. In states OTHER than Virginia, this might be an invasion privacy, called publication of private facts, however, the Virginia General Assembly has expressly stated that this is not invasion of privacy, and the courts have upheld that.

MAKING THE PHONE RING: They call, and they call, but the only purpose is to annoy you.  They know that they are only calling to annoy you, abuse you, and waste your time.  The problem with this case is that we must prove what is in their mind.  We have to show that they knew that there would be no point in a call, and they tried anyway.  Good examples of this are multiple calls after they received a letter demanding that they cease communications, or calls where they admit that they knew that they were not supposed to call- they admit that the account is paid, or included in a Bankruptcy.  Its hard, but doiable.

FAILING TO DISCLOSE THEIR IDENTITY: This is the call where they call and say “Can I talk to Joe?” and the person answering says something along the lines of Joe is not here, can I take a message?  And the response is “No, I’ll call back” or something like that.  They are supposed to tell the person who they are.  They are NOT permitted to tell them they are a debt collector, but they must give a name.  So for example, in that situation, if they said something like “My name is Bill, and I am calling about a private matter” that MIGHT be permissible.  But there are OTHER provisions of law that might be impacted.

Stay tuned and come visit us NEXT WEEK when we talk about LIES, FALSE REPRESENTATIONS, AND MISLEADING STATEMENTS.

If you have been impacted by anything we mentioned here, you can make an appointment to see us.

NO FEE IN YOUR FDCPA CASE UNLESS WE RECOVER!!

OUR LEGAL FEES:

The rights afforded to you, as a consumer, under the FCRA and the FDCPA means that a corporation or party who has violated your rights may ultimately be made to pay for statutory damages, actual damages, and your legal fees. Therefore, if we agree to represent you in any case, you won’t pay any attorney’s fees unless we are successful and we recover on your behalf. We are here to serve and have assisted many consumers TO enforce their legal rights. Let us try and see if we can help you too. That means you pay no fee in your case unless we recover.

Contact us by e-mail or by telephone or fax or US Mail.

You can call us: 804.673.4358

You can fax us: 804.673.4350

You can contact us by US MAIL:

Krumbein Consumer Legal Services, Inc.

1650 Willow Lawn Drive

Suite 300

Richmond, VA 23230