Posts Tagged ‘debt collection’
Debt collectors have been known to use various techniques to secure payment, some of which violated the Fair Debt Collection practices act (FDPCA). This can include pestering debtors, their friends, relatives and co-workers with calls at inappropriate times and places. In other cases, debt collections for debts of the dead, can rise from the grave too, but in ways that they shouldn’t. Debt collectors have been known to call loved ones and others to pay off the debts of their dearly departed. Is this outrageous? We think so.
Aside from being callous, post-mortem debt collector calls are deceptive as relatives of the deceased are typically not responsible for the debts, unless the debt was joint among the deceased and the living. Playing on the lack of knowledge of the average consumer, and perhaps believing that the memory of the deceased would be tarnished in some way, debt collection agencies will call relatives and try sympathy tactics to convince the living that they should or must pay off a debt. The debt collector may not actually inform the bereaved that they have to pay the debt, but they will read from a script that is convincing enough to give that impression and to omit the fact that the living are not required to pay it.
Debt collection agencies justify such tactics with a cold heart and insensitive mentality, taking advantage of loved ones still saddened by the passing. Consumers beware: in the vast majority of cases, you need not pay the debt of someone who has passed. Check with a good consumer lawyer and find out how to protect yourself and to stop this practice.
A Delaware County woman claims that a malicious human being – and not a computer program – is behind the erroneous $286,651,237 credit-card bill that Capital One sent her last year, according to a lawsuit filed last week in Philadelphia court.
Now, Patrice Perry, 58, is suing Capital One for that same ridiculous amount for the months of harassment and “terroristic debt-collection methods” that she suffered at their hands, according to the suit.
Her attorney, Craig Kimmel, said that the nine-figure bill that Perry received in August was the final straw.
“It’s not that different from going up to someone’s house, knocking on the door and punching them in the face when they answer,” he said.
Perry’s troubles started in May 2009, when Capital One began trying to collect an alleged credit-card debt from her, according to the suit. The company not only called her at home and at work repeatedly, it also called her family and co-workers, the suit said.
Perry, a hotel clerk from Clifton Heights, received a series of bills, the first of which claimed that she owed $4,807, Kimmel said. The second bill, which came more than two months later, said, without explanation, that she owed about $100 less, according to the suit.
Kimmel said that his client never paid the first bill and was confused when the second one dropped in price. The third bill, received on Aug. 11, 2009, was $13 more than the first bill, again without explanation or a list of how the charges were calculated.
“It’s not your typical scenario, where you’d expect if they were pursing debt with interest it would only go up,” Kimmel said. “It went down and up and down and up. The only thing I can associate with that is that they were trying to confuse my client.”
If Perry was confused after the third bill, she was dumbstruck when the fourth arrived for $286,651,237. Capital One asked that payment be sent in an envelope included with the bill and threatened to pursue legal action if she didn’t pay.
“She was shocked, she had never seen a letter with such a big number on it before,” Kimmel said. “And to demand she put the money in the envelope included and send it back . . . Phew!”
Kimmel said that a bill that large would most likely have been flagged and that human beings, not computers, are behind it.
In a written statement, a Capital One spokeswoman doesn’t deny that claim.
“There are very rare occasions when human error has led to inaccuracies in customer billing letters,” the statement read, in part. “This is clearly one of those instances. . . . We are working to resolve this issue.”
Kimmel said that Capital One sued Perry for a lesser amount, but when no one from the company showed up for a hearing this spring, the case was dropped.
The last communication Perry received from Capital One was last week, when she got a letter that, without mentioning the last bill for more than $286 million, states that she now owes around $6,000, Perry said.
Article by:
STEPHANIE FARR
Philadelphia Daily News
farrs@phillynews.com, 215-854-4225
Original article here: What’s in her wallet? Well, not $286,651,237
Related Articles following this story:
Boston Herald
Courier Post Online
The Consumerist
(Philadelphia, PA) -A woman saying she was harassed by Capital One for a disputed $4,000 credit card debt has filed suit after the bank demanded more than $ 286 million dollars. Attorney Craig Thor Kimmel of Kimmel and Silverman, P.C., an Ambler-based consumer law firm, has filed the suit on behalf of Patrice Perry in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania.
According to the complaint, Capital One first demanded Perry pay $3,845 for purchases on a credit card. Perry disputed the debt and turned the letter over to her family lawyer, who wrote Capital One to cease and desist contacting Perry directly. Disregarding the letter, Capital One allegedly stepped up collection efforts, placing more calls to Perry and claiming that it was doing so because the lawyer did not make a substantial settlement offer to resolve the account. Telephone calls were made to her home and workplace, where she alleges, her employer does not allow personal calls.
Subsequently, Perry received more letters, each demanding different amounts, some higher than others, all threatening legal action if not paid promptly. The letters failed to state how the varying amounts were calculated or if amounts sought were based upon any contract between Capital One and Perry authorizing such charges. After a second cease and desist letter from the family lawyer was disregarded, Capital One in response sent a letter demanding immediate payment of $286,651,237 from Perry. The letter went on to instruct Perry to mail full payment in the envelope provided. It was at this time that Perry’s family lawyer contacted Kimmel, who assumed representation.
The complaint alleges the $286 million demand was so outrageous that it could not be the result of a computer glitch, and that it required human intervention to be sent. Perry alleges the basis for sending it was embarrass, humiliate, intimidate and cause emotional distress, of amounts incapable of being understood.
The lawsuit alleges that Capital One was compelled to cease communication upon receipt of the initial letter from her family lawyer and used false, deceptive and misleading communications to collect a debt.
Perry further claims that Capital One threatened to report the disputed debt to the credit reporting agencies, which would adversely affect her FICO credit score and unnecessarily make her other creditors insecure.
“Harassing calls, disregard for a lawyers written instructions on two occasions, demands for payment of differing and arbitrary amounts and the final letter seeking more than $286 Million, demonstrates serious abuses at the collection office of Capital One.” says Attorney Kimmel. “From this example we see how a financial terrorist works in today’s economic times and that is by escalating tensions, pushing the person to the limit, and making threats, without regard for civility, accuracy or the legal rights of the individual. No one should ever suffer the indignity and humiliation my client has experienced.”
Kimmel advises consumers to be guarded with creditors and debt collectors working for them. He recommends seeking legal advice before paying disputed debts, entering repayment agreements or providing/confirming personal information. Under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act consumers have substantial protection from this type of behavior with the debt collector, who must pay all legal fees of the consumers lawyer”, says Kimmel, “and most states, like Pennsylvania in this case, offer similar protections from creditor abuse of the type Capital One undertook with Ms. Perry.”
For more information regarding consumers’ rights in dealing with debt collection harassment, please visit www.creditlaw.com.
Related Articles in the News:
Debtor strikes back at credit card company
Lawsuit: Capital One Sent Me Letter Demanding $286 Million
Courthouse News post
When Melanie Beacham was on medical leave from her job last summer, she got behind on her car payments.
Although she called the finance company to explain, debt collectors not only telephoned her repeatedly but found another way to make her life difficult, the 34-year-old Florida resident says: Facebook.
Locating her social networking site also helped them find relatives’ Facebook pages. Then, she alleges in a lawsuit, they sent messages on the social networking site to a sister and a cousin of hers, prompting a wider family discussion about Beacham’s financial situation, reports the St. Petersburg Times.
She is seeking damages from Mark One Financial of Jacksonville for harassment and invasion of privacy, as well as a court order prohibiting the company from contacting friends and family members through Facebook or any other social networking site.
A representative of Mark One declined the newspaper’s request for comment.
However, the company’s managing director, Bruce Newmark, told WKMG, speaking generally, that the company will use Facebook to contact a client when it can’t reach an individual by phone.
Beacham’s lawyer, Billy Howard of Morgan & Morgan, says he’s never heard of another case alleging harassment by bill collectors via a social networking site. But, he predicts, there will be more such suits:
“Debt collectors,” he says, “are like any other business. They change according to their environment.”
Article Source: http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/lawsuit_points_to_alleged_new_tool_in_debt-collection_arsenal_facebook
Recently, Credit Law attorney Craig Thor Kimmel appeared with NBC10′s Tracy Davidson on “Survive & Thrive” to discuss how consumers can fight back against debt collection harassment. Here is the clip:
Consumer Attorney Craig Kimmel discusses consumer rights on KYW TV’s Talk Philly Program:
If you are receiving harassing calls from debt collectors, even if you owe the debt, you cannot be harassed, abused, threatened, or have others told about your debt! You have rights under federal law. Watch video of attorney Craig Kimmel speaking about the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act, sharing some of the abuses by debt collectors and what they can and can’t do.
NBC10 Interview with Tracey Davidson:
Are you a victim of unfair collection practices? Contact us for free legal representation! We collect all fees from the debt collectors not you! We stop the harassment immediately. You may also be entitled to money damages of as much as $1,000 and other damages. Unless you want the calls/letters to continue, call us!
MORGANTOWN – A man has filed a punitive class action lawsuit against the Kentucky-based law firm that he says illegally sent him a debt collection letter.
Nicholas Davis claims he received a letter from defendant Mapother and Mapother in June 2008 telling him he owed it $861.96. According to Davis’ complaint filed Jan. 11 in Lewis Circuit Court, the letter contained Steven B. Mulrooney’s stamped signature.
In February 2009, Mapother mailed a second letter into Lewis County threatening to proceed with further legal action if it was not paid money, the suit states.
Making Davis angrier, the letters were sent to an incorrect address in Weston and not to his Morgantown home.
“Even a cursory examination of credit report information would have provided Mapother or any other collection agency with the correct address,” the suit states.
However, Mapother claims it and co-defendant Midland Funding sent collection letters to the address Davis supplied to Midland.
“Nowhere in the counts does Plaintiff state either how attempting to contact the debtor at the last address he provided is a violation of any law, nor how there is any duty under any law imposed upon Mapother or Midland to engage in excessive efforts to find new addresses, other than the one provided by the debtor previously, searching for where a debtor might be found,” the suit states.
Davis claims he never should have received letters because West Virginia law requires that any collector or collection agency hold an approved collection agency license and a collection surety bond, neither of which Mapother possessed.
Mapother disputes the claim, saying it is not a collection agency, but instead an attorney-at-law handling claims in its own name.
Davis also argues attorneys must be familiar with a case before signing their name to a debt collection letter, the complaint says.
“If the attorney has not reviewed the consumer file, he or she could not sue as no facts would be known to the attorney and threats of legal action would be deceptive,” his suit states.
But Mapother claims a Second Circuit Court ruling allows attorneys the opportunity to send debt collection letters as long as they include a disclaimer clearly stating that the attorney is not acting as such.
“The Second Circuit made it clear that the disclaimer language complained about in the Complaint, rather than making the letter confusing or deceptive, actually accomplishes the opposite; clearly and unambiguously informing the debtor of the exact role the attorney currently holds,” Mapother’s motion to dismiss states. “For example, a letter from an attorney could easily be misconstrued by the ‘least sophisticated consumer’ as an actual legal process. The disclaimer language makes it clear this is not the case.”
Davis is seeking an unspecified judgment, plus pre- and post-judgment interest, costs, attorney’s fees and statutory damages.
But Mapother and Midland say he should receive no reward.
“When critically examined, the entire Complaint is grossly deficient,” the request for dismissal states. “It is completely lacking in legal and factual support. As the situation stands, it alleges counts that are directly in opposition to the statutory and case law applicable in this case. In such a situation, there is no choice but to dismiss the Complaint for failure to state a claim.”
Mapother and Midland, Kentucky and California corporations respectively, removed the case to U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, alleging Davis and the defendants are residents of different states and that Davis is seeking more than $75,000.
Franklin D. Cornette of Cornette Law in Weston will be representing Davis.
E. Taylor George of Mapother and Mapother in Huntington will be representing Mapother and Midland.
Original story from The Record.
Three out-of-state lawyers, accused of using unfair tactics to collect debts in Colorado, have been banned from collecting debts for periods ranging from three years to life, the Colorado attorney general’s office said Tuesday.
Under a consent decree issued late Monday, lawyer Mar vin Brandon is permanently banned from collecting debts in Colorado; lawyer Jack H. Boyajian is banned from collecting debts in Colorado for five years, and lawyer Karen Nations is banned from collecting debts for three years in Colorado.
Original story from the Denver Post
It’s a decades-old practice known in legal circles as “sewer service”. This occurs when a debt collector fails to properly serve a notice of complaint (litigation) upon the defendant (debtor) and then files a false affidavit claiming the notice has been properly served. When the debtor doesn’t show up in court, the collector can then apply for, and almost always wins, a default judgment. This is a violation of the FDCPA and has become a staple practice for “reputable” and “not reputable” debt collectors alike. If you have been the victim of “sewer service”, contact us today for free representation and immediate relief from the debt collector.
See this story about a class action suit filed in New York regarding this problem: Suit Claims Fraud by New York Debt Collectors
