Tag: fdcpa
Are Debt Collectors Sending You Texts? Here’s What You Need to Know
Debt collectors reportedly have a new strategy to get consumers’ attention: text messages. “YOUR PAYMENT DECLINED WITH CARD ****-****-****-5463 . . . CALL 866.256.2117 IMMEDIATELY,” reads one such text, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The agency has temporarily halted three debt collection operations that allegedly misused texts and is attempting to permanently ban the activity as part of its “Messaging for Money” enforcement sweep. New York-based Unified Global Group sent the text above, and others like it, the FTC says. Some consumers who received such texts hadn’t set up any card payment with the firm; and the firm failed to identify itself as a debt collector in the message, a violation of the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act, according to the FTC. “Legitimate
Debt Collection Complaints Rise
WASHINGTON, Dec, 20(UPI) — The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said complaints about aggressive debt collectors had jumped 73 percent since 2008, a symptom of a sluggish economy.“We’ve seen a high level of complaints, and I think some of it is collectors realizing in hard times they may have to press that much harder to get someone to pay,” the agency’s chief debt collection lawyer Tom Pahl said.“And a lot of them are pressing,” he said.The agency handled 180,928 complaints about debt collection agencies in 2011, making it the No. 1 industry it terms of complaints filed, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.Roughly half of the complaints concern abusive phone calls. But complaints also involve legal tactics undertaken by debt collectors. Many of those complains involve
Can Your "Employment Credit Score" Hurt Your Chances At Getting A Job?
By Robert Linkonis Sr.I’ve often defined and called out the “Myth of Credit score and Employment” as the Unicorn of the credit world—a lot of people have heard of this, but nobody has actually ever seen a case where a credit score caused an applicant to be denied employment on this factor alone …In trying to dispel this idea altogether, I have noted many cases – all exposed in this blog – but Suze Orman’s recent campaign to promote her new Prepaid Debit Card – in which she eludes to the fact that not having a FICO score could cost consumers a job… Whaaaaaaaaaa ???Suzi and I have never been friends, but — what is she telling her prospective customers?Here’s the truth: Credit scores are never sold by
Can Debt Collectors Contact You via Social Media?
.Fantastic strategies to preempt unwanted calls or other communication from collectors:By Susan Johnston The Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA) was designed to protect consumers against abusive practices by the debt collections industry. But when FDCPA took effect in 1978, few people could have anticipated how Facebook and Twitter would infiltrate our daily lives. In recent years, a handful of lawsuits by consumers who were allegedly contacted by collectors through social media have brought the issue to light.One strategy collections agencies use, according to Michelle Dunn, a 24-year veteran of the debt-collection industry and author of The Guide to Getting Paid, is to set up a fake profile and try to friend someone (however, a few states have laws against online impersonation). “If you look
