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

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

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

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 USC §1692c prohibits a collector from communicating with third parties that you owe a debt.

15 USC §1692d prohibits collectors from using abusive means to collect a debt, including

(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.

15 U.S.C. §1692e says a debt collector may not use any false, deceptive, or misleading . . . means to collect a debt, including

(11) The failure to disclose in the initial written communication with the consumer and, in addition, if the initial communication with the consumer is oral, in that initial oral communication, that the debt collector is attempting to collect a debt and that any information obtained will be used for that purpose, and the failure to disclose in subsequent communications that the communication is from a debt collector, except that this paragraph shall not apply to a formal pleading made in connection with a legal action.

(14) The use of any business, company, or organization name other than the true name of the debt collector’s business, company, or organization.

15 U.S.C. §1692f says a debt collector may not use unfair or unconscionable means to collect or attempt to collect any debt.  Including–

(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.

What does this mean for you?

It means that a debt collector CAN collect by text message IF they comply with all of the rules of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.  But they are very limited, when they have a limit of 140 characters.

If they only have 140 characters to communicate, and they must 1-disclose their identity, 2-that they are debt collectors, and 3-that they are collecting a debt, all 4-without causing you to be charged a fee, and 5-without disclosing to a 3^rd party that you owe a debt, that’s pretty hard.  The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is strict liability, which means that if they violate ANY provision, that they can be sued.  It is similar in this fashion to the speed limits in the United States.  Neither the police officer or the judge cares WHY you were going 40 when the speed limit was 35, they only care THAT you were going 40. You have to pay the fine.  Similarly, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act says that they are not permitted to violate one provision in order to avoid violating another section. (See: Edwards v. Niagra Credit, (11^th Cir)).    If the violate any provision, they must pay the fine.

Read next time about damages- both actual and statutory.

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

YOU MUST BE A VIRGINIA RESIDENT.

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

The Fair Credit Reporting Act is designed to protect consumers from inaccurate or outdated information on credit reports.

MAXIMUM POSSIBLE ACCURACY and The Fair Credit Reporting Act

All references to code sections are courtesy of the Legal Information Institute at Law.Cornell.edu.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires the Credit Reporting Agencies, or Consumer Reporting Agencies to have a procedure to assure “maximum possible accuracy”.

The section that discusses the requirements for maintain a credit file is 15 U.S.C. §1681e subsection [b].

As usual, we start with the statute.  Please note that we will only be reviewing the section on maximum possible accuracy, so the rest of the section will not be reprinted or discussed.

(b) Accuracy of report

Whenever a consumer reporting agency prepares a consumer report it shall follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy of the information concerning the individual about whom the report relates.

Last time, we talked about Maximum Possible Accuracy for the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

But that is not all.  The code says they must have a PROCEDURE TO ASSURE Maximum Possible Accuracy.

This means that they have to think about what is reported, and have a system to know that it is inaccurate.

In each of these cases, the key thing is that the information is inaccurate.  Remember, the Fair Credit Reporting Act can only help fix problems of false, inaccurate information.  If the information is true, you cannot remove that information, no matter how much you might try.

So what would be a valid procedure?

For example, as the recent consent order in the White/Acosta v. Equifax, TransUnion and Experian cases, has shown, if a consumer files for Bankruptcy, they must change the reporting WITHOUT the intervention of the creditors.  So even if your creditors still think update and show that you still owe, they should show that the account is Discharged in Bankruptcy.

They know that they have a problem with mixing credit files up. They have known for several years.  They are supposed to be able to keep your file separated, and they know it.  That would be another example.

The problem gets stickier when the account is an ID Theft account.  How can they know? Maybe, if the account comes with a report that you live at a different address?   That should trigger someone looking at the file more closely.

The short of this is that they must actually look at the accounts, and have a way to assure that the information that they are disseminating is accurate to the fullest extent.

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

NO FEE IN YOUR FCRA 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

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 a DEBT COLLECTOR and how is a DEBT COLLECTOR different from a CREDITOR?

A “Creditor” is defined at 15 U.S.C. §1692a[3]- “The term “creditor” means any person who offers or extends credit creating a debt or to whom a debt is owed, but such term does not include any person to the extent that he receives an assignment or transfer of a debt in default solely for the purpose of facilitating collection of such debt for another.”:

A “Debt Collector is defined at 15 U.S.C. §1692a[6]- The term “debt collector” means any person who uses any instrumentality of interstate commerce or the mails in any business the principal purpose of which is the collection of any debts, or who regularly collects or attempts to collect, directly or indirectly, debts owed or due or asserted to be owed or due another. “  There are some exclusions, that we will talk about (briefly) later.

Why is this important?

In Virginia, this is particularly important, because a debt collector is covered by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), and a creditor is not covered by the FDCPA.  A debt collector is subject to regulation (and more importantly, to being sued) for acts that are abusive or harassing, false or misleading, or unfair and deceptive.

A creditor is NOT subject to anything.  A creditor, and their employees may not violate criminal law in the collection of a debt.  Generally, this means that they can’t send someone to your house to beat you up.  That’s about it.  The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) does not apply.

So, what is a “Debt Collector?”  A debt collector is anyone who uses the phone, mail, telephone, telegraph, or any other thing that crosses state lines, to collect debts that are or were owed to someone else.

The easiest way to explain this is examples.

1. You owe First National Bank of Nonesuch (FNBN) for a credit card.  FNBN’s employees call and violate the law (never mind how, that’s another blog entry, lets just assume that they did something that would violate the law).  FNBN is a creditor.  They did not violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), because the act does not apply to them.
2. You owe FNBN for a credit card, and the account goes into default.  Mean Debt Collector (MDC) has an employee who calls and violates the law (once again, never mind how, that’s another blog entry).  MDC (and their employees) are debt collectors as defined by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), so they have violated the law.
3. You owe FNBN for a credit card, and the account does NOT go into default.  Mean Debt Collector (MDC) has an employee who calls and violates the law (once again, never mind how, that’s another blog entry).  MDC is not collecting an account that is in default, so they did not violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), because the act does not apply to them- they are not collecting an account that went into default.
4. You owe FNBN for a credit card, and the account goes into default.  Junk Debt Buyer (JDB) lets you know that they have bought your account, and you should now direct all your payments to them.  Then they call and violate the law (once again, never mind how, that’s another blog entry.).  JDB has violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) because they are debt collectors as defined by the act.

In other states, like North Carolina, California, Florida, and Maryland, creditors are covered by the state laws.  VIRGINIA DOES NOT HAVE A STATE COLLECTION ACT.  The Virginia Consumer Protection Act DOES NOT APPLY to debt collectors.

Read more about what we can do to assist you in protecting yourself from collection harassment or abuse, false or misleading statements or unfair and deceptive acts in the main section of our website.

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

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.

The first questions to ask in an inquiry is “Am I a consumer who is entitled to protection?”

Lets start with the definition from the statute.

15 U.S.C. §1692a[3] says a “consumer” means any natural person obligated or allegedly obligated to pay any debt.

So, you must be a natural person.  This means that for MOST purposes if you are a business, you are not protected.  There is a key exception.  Harassment or abuse is something that is prohibited in the collection of consumer debts as to ANY person, and for this section (15 U.S.C. §1692d), any person INCLUDES non-consumers– businesses, and other entitles.

But the discussion of consumer does not end there. A consumer also owes or is alleged to owe a consumer debt.

So, just because you are a real person does not mean that you are entitled to protection.  They must owe a consumer debt.  Consumer debts are generally debts incurred for personal, family or household use.  Commercial debts, tort debts, and taxes and fines are specifically excluded.

This means that most people are protected, generally for most usual kinds of debts, but not all.

Read up on What is a “Debt”? next week.

Read more about what we can do to assist you in protecting yourself from collection harassment or abuse, false or misleading statements or unfair and deceptive acts in the main section of our website.

If you have been impacted by any of the things that we have mentioned in this or any other blog post, please contact us.

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

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 consumer under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act?

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

15 USC §1692c(a) Communication with the consumer generally

Without the prior consent of the consumer given directly to the debt collector or the express permission of a court of competent jurisdiction, a debt collector may not communicate with a consumer in connection with the collection of any debt—

(1) at any unusual time or place or a time or place known or which should be known to be inconvenient to the consumer. In the absence of knowledge of circumstances to the contrary, a debt collector shall assume that the convenient time for communicating with a consumer is after 8 o’clock antemeridian and before 9 o’clock postmeridian, local time at the consumer’s location;

(2) if the debt collector knows the consumer is represented by an attorney with respect to such debt and has knowledge of, or can readily ascertain, such attorney’s name and address, unless the attorney fails to respond within a reasonable period of time to a communication from the debt collector or unless the attorney consents to direct communication with the consumer; or

(3) at the consumer’s place of employment if the debt collector knows or has reason to know that the consumer’s employer prohibits the consumer from receiving such communication.

So, what does this mean?

Debt collectors are not allowed to contact you in manners that are inconvenient.  The statute defines what is pre-determined to be inconvenient.  If the debt collector knows that the time or place that they are contacting you is inconvenient, they are not allowed to contact you.  For example, before 8 am or after 9 pm.  There are exceptions to this, for example, if you work night shift, then 8am to 9pm is inconvenient- that’s when you sleep.

But they can’t call you at work if they know that you are not allowed to get personal phone calls at work.  How would they know this?

You can tell them, but that becomes a swearing match- you swear you told them, and they swear you never said that.

You could tell them and record, but many debt collectors are in states that require the consent of all parties to the conversation, so recording may be a crime.  You get the money, but go to jail in the process.  Our opinion is that there is no amount of money for which it is worth going to jail.

But you can write them a letter, and tell them in the letter.  If you send them a letter Certified Mail Return Receipt Requested (CMRRR), you can prove that you sent it and you can prove that they received it.

But you don’t really need that to prove that they did something.  It works just as well to take pictures of your caller ID.

Those work calls can be very annoying.  All you need to do, supposedly,  is tell them you cannot take calls.  They should NOT call back.  But they may do so anyway.

If you have any of these problems, first, you can use our call log, to track these calls, and second- contactus.

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