If they can't pay their bill after doing this crap to people, that's their problem. They shouldn't have their bill suspended, they should be told "tough crap pay it" like they told their customers.
@Jon Jukoba Their masons their cars, all that crap. They can keep just enough money so their kids don't starve. Lesson in humility for their whole household Edit: removed a curse word out of respect for Mr Lehto's channel, don't want him getting flagged because I cursed.
The courts know how this goes. The best way to put an end to this is track down where the principle of these companies live and cut off their legs with a chain saw. That remedy is extremely effective.
yes it is blatant fraud but it is also extortion and theft. think about it. the fraud is them calling you telling you you owe them money that you don't. the extortion comes into play when they put it on your credit report in order to force you to pay. then the theft comes in if you pay the bogus bill because they are then taking money from you that they have no legal right to.
I had a company that bought bad debt try this on me in the 90's. They put the amount on my credit but I told them I didn't care because I didn't buy on credit. I laughed at the person on the phone and said it would come off in seven years so go ahead, and they did. These people need to go to jail.
If they can't afford to pay I have the perfect solution. Make the owners and all high level managers report all of their phone numbers to authorities. Then call them every 5 minutes to ask when they'll have the money to pay.
Long winded story coming I have a brother in law that was found unconscious and then loaded in an ambulance to the ER when he was 17. Years latter when he was getting Married he tried to buy a house and they told him he didn't have good enough credit because of the debt for the Ambulance. He called the debt collection agency and asked why this debt was on his credit. They told him they just bought his debt and he had to pay them. He says "No I don't!" They say yes you do. He argued with them for a while, then asked to talk to the manager. The manager says we just bought your debt, you HAVE to pay it to get it off your credit report. He says "No I don't, that debt is 12 years old." The manager tells him that because they "Just Bought It" time doesn't matter. So he tells them again "Remove that from my credit report or I will Sue you". The manager cut him off and laughed at him and said "go ahead and try." Then my brother in law say "ok, I was 17 when that happened and no one ever notified my parents because they couldn't get ahold of them, so that debt is from a minor that could not agree to get into debt in the first place, so I will see you in court." They hung up on him and wouldn't talk to him again after that. But they did pull it off his credit after about a week.
The courts know how this goes. The best way to put an end to this is track down where the principle of these companies live and cut off their legs with a chain saw. That remedy is extremely effective.
Once upon a time, I worked for one such debt collector and if it was ilegal, they were doing it. From buying judges to wage theft from employees to stealing from debtors and creditors, they were doing it all. After a couple of failed attempts to stop them at the local/state level (who were in their pockets), some of us got together and blew the whistle at the federal level. Within a couple of years, the scam was exposed and they were disbanded and made to pay a $3 million fine. And they are not the only ones. Your best defense against these crooks is to know the law which, coincidentally, is very simple and straight forward. You can fight back and easily beat them at their own game.
They do this in Salt Lake City, Utah in a little different way. I have a common name and when I bought my house there the county recorder dumped every judgment that was held by people that had my same name on my house as leans against it. When I tried refinancing I had to go through about 50 leans and show that none of them were against me.
I go through the same thing when I try to renew my driver's license. I have a CDL and a very common name. Everybody who's had a driving judgment or owns money gets put in my record and I have to hire a lawyer to clear everything up. It's a pain in the ass. All they need is a name. As far as they care your guilty until you prove your self innocent.
That happened to me. There was a random $560 loan on my credit report. I contacted the credit reporting agencies, they told me to file a report with FTC. I contacted FTC, they said file a police report. I went to the police station and asked for a police report, they told me there was probably nothing they could do. I told them I don't expect them to do anything, I just need a report# to file with the FTC investigation. Police said there is nothing they could do, I repeated myself about the FTC. After repeating myself several times in different ways to account for the fact I'm talking to someone with a below average IQ, and having my ID checked for warrants, I did receive a report #. After all that, the officer tells me he had to do the same thing, but I don't think anyone ran his ID for warrants when he got a report. Whatever, it got removed from my credit report. Thanks, Merry Christmas 🎄
Those vultures also exist here, in Switzerland. The good part is that to get anything added to the official record, one must send that unpaid bill or whatever to a kind of federal debt collection office (called "Betreibungsamt") with a form and pay a fee, which will let the debtor know that they need to pay. If that debtor has reason to believe that something is not right with that debt they can challenge it, which stops the whole collection process. The creditor now must prove that the debt is actually existing and due. That challenge must be rendered within 10 business days or the debt is officially accepted and must be paid in full. The general consensus is that you should render that challenge (in time) if there is the slightest doubt just to be on the safe side. If it's an unpaid bill, the proof is easy: Just send a copy of the bill along with a 2-page form you must fill out. The form is simple, I've filled those out in the past. The next step is that a judge will take a look at the situation, hear both sides and render a verdict which both sides can live with. The part with hearing both sides is not mandatory though, and if you don't show up the judge will decide based on the file they have. So, show up. I've seen correct debts being reduced by the judge, but the thinking of the companies is "better a part than nothing" - and nobody forces the company to continue doing business with that debtor in the future. Now, if the debt cannot be proven, such as with those vulture companies, the (false) debtor themselves can get the record cleared. All that's needed is a form and a 40 Dollar fee. The fact that starting the official debt collection process is not free and that the debt must be properly proven if challenged means that those vulture companies are toothless. All they can do is send you letters which are legally meaningless. The problem is that not everyone knows that and believe the threats or fall for the coersion within those letters. I don't know how big that percentage is, but it's obviously, and sadly, big enough.
Curious, it it is a paid that one has paid, and you don't have a receipt to show that it has already been paid(for instance, several years later), what happens in this type of situation in Switzerland?
@@Genesh12 That ... is a good question. I am an accountant, and I don't think that this situation can come up, honestly. On the company's side, when we do the annual financial statesments all open bills have to be listed with the amount due and due date. The example below can only happen with small invoices between companies and private persons, as big business is booked differently and errors like that won't happen as several companies are involved. It happens that paid invoices get booked wrongly (people sometimes pay amounts that have nothing to do with the invoice, don't ask me why), but that is usually found out quickly and corrected. So the situation you refer to can happen, but only in a space of months - and then both the person paying and the company have their bank statements to check and find out for sure. It also happens that people say they paid but didn't - that gets found out quickly. The interesting cases are when people paid but with a small error that causes the money to be sent back: For a payment to go through the account number must be correct (duh), but also the address and company's name. If one of those informations is not correct, the bank will return the money to the sender, who may never realize that that happened. I've seen that happen several times, and that has always gotten resolved amicably. If an error like that is not found during the year or while doing the annual financial statement it will likely never be found out. And if, for some odd reason, that is found out several years later, the amount will likely just get written off because the accountant knows that trying to get the money will cost time and therefore too much money to be worth it. Writing off invoices is normal practise, there are rules to do it properly and in accountancy training we learn them. It should, of course, happen as little as possible, but it's inevitable. There are instances where a company tries to get that money anyway (there are a$$hats everywhere), and that's where the debt collector companies enter the stage. As proving these invoices is difficult at best, the original advice holds true: Ignore and contest. If (and that's a big IF) the case goes before a judge they'll probably make you pay a small part of the invoice if you can't proof that you've already paid it, which is annoying but life happens sometimes.
I got on one of those lists. The company calling was relentless. They never dinged my credit report but they tried for a few years. I started playing the "how much of their time can I waste".
Midwest tried this to me 3 times under various collection company aliases. Each time the recycled debt was found to be false. But what a mess to play whack-a-mole with them.
I'm glad at least some debt collectors are being held accountable. Here is my long story about a shady debt collector called Assets Acceptance out of San Antonio. In 1995, I bought some appliances from a long-gone store called Montgomery Ward and I put a small portion of it on store credit. I never got a bill, but then they had debt collectors call me, so I paid up in full in 1995. I even got a letter from the bank issuing the credit confirming I had paid in full. Around 2002, I got calls from another debt collector, Assets Acceptance, that I had not paid my Walmart credit card bill. I never shop at Walmart. I finally tracked down that this was the Montgomery-Ward bill I had already paid and that it had been sold many times until Walmart ended up with it, this time not paid. I sent Assets Acceptance a copy of the letter from the bank showing it had been paid. They did not care and yelled at me over the phone. I never paid them, since it was already paid in full. It stayed on my credit report 7 years, and the only time I was rejected was from Sprint when I tried to take out a multi-line cell phone plan. Debt collectors are horrible.
I assume the FTC asked them if they had a friend or family member they could borrow the 24 million from. That's what you get asked when you can't pay the collection agency.
when they ask me if I had a friend or family member I could borrow from I say Do you have a friend or family member I can borrow from usually shuts them up
Starting in Dec.2013 and through to April 2014 I had a problem with a collection agency. They started calling me in mid December. I was lucky in using an online search to find the collection agency act. I went through the act and found out that the collection agency violated 3 different areas. First, they were supposed to send a letter before contacting me by phone, which they failed. Second, when I reminded them of this, then they sent 2 letters, dated 3 days apart. Then they are supposed to wait at least 3 days after I received them before calling me on the phone, which they failed that as well by starting the calls within 2 days. The 3rd issue was the frequency of calls They were only supposed to call 3 times within a week, but a couple of times they called 4 times. The problem started in 2006 when a creditor went into my bank account, once in Sept. and once in Nov. and withdrew money to settle a debt. The problem there is that creditor failed to notify me of their intentions and if the money they withdrew settled the debt or not. So in the end, I sent a registered letter notifying the collection agency of their violations and I sent them a hard copy of the act with the violations highlighted. I also told them in this letter that by making the violations in regards to this act, they violated my rights and I reminded them that there was a Statute of limitations of 7 yrs which closed the debt they were trying to collect a month before they contacted in December 2013
The courts know how this goes. The best way to put an end to this is track down where the principle of these companies live and cut off their legs with a chain saw. That remedy is extremely effective.
I hope this is one of the creeps that has been calling my number for the last twelve years trying to collect a "debt" for someone I don't know. They NEVER remove old phone numbers from the file, even though they say they will.
Always ask them to send you a letter with a return address. For me, this seems to be the best way to get some of the scammers to leave me alone. I will never give out my SSN or bank info over the phone.
Had this happen to me, I was buying a new semi truck and this debt that I never made had to be payed before I could make the purchase. It was like $500 dollars but I had no choice but to pay it so I could get a $180k loan.
I had this happen to me years ago from some random floor company that I'd never dealt with. I called the flooring company and told them that I would be suing them, and not the collection agency. Amazingly it was removed from my credit report within a couple days. I'm not sure if it was a scam or mistake, but I knew the flooring company had money and wouldn't want a lawsuit, and I doubt a sleazy collection agency would care they would just do like this company and claim they're broke.
I was, once contacted by a debt collection agency who tried to collect money for a surgery I did not have. I called them and told them that they had the wrong person. The rep told me that I had to call the hospital and get it corrected I told them that it is there problem, not mine and I never heard from them again nor did it show up on my credit report.
I had one saying I owed money from 16 years ago. They refused to say what I owed it for and from exactly when. They even went as far as saying they would call the local police to arrest me in Texas for a debt I had in Wisconsin.
I was falsely accused of a debt a few years back. Tried to find an atty in my area that handled debt. Could not find even one. I looked in online directories and called attys in my area that were recommended. The offices ALL said they did not do consumer debt law. Very strange. I finally just looked up the law under the FDCPA and handled it myself with the most recent debt collection agency contacting me. They were decent enough(after being threatened) to drop the debt I did not owe and removed it from my credit score.
My bank updates my FICO credit score every month and it jumps around for no apparent reason. It's typically over 800, but one month last year, it dropped to 790 and the next month, it was over 800 again. Now 790 is still good, but I have no idea why it dropped for a month. Very strange.
Probably because credit reporting in general is a bit of a scam in the same way that the SATs are a bit of a scam. You don't know the rules or the scoring procedure, but you're all but forced to play the game anyway.
I had this happen. I asked for their address so I could take care of them personally. They never contacted me again. The trick is being able to imply what you will do when you meet them.
If you get a claim from a debt collection agency simply WRITE/ EMAIL a request for a copy of the contract they are claiming for. You will not hear from them again.
Actually, when you get a phone call asking if you are chris m and you say yes. You are on the hook. Whenever someone calls and asks if you are (insert your name here) tell them they must have the wrong number and hang up.
Legally, you can only be chased for a debt if you signed a contract/ agreement. Typically, debt agencies buy debts in a bundle so they do not have a copy of the contract. If they cannot produce it on demand, they cannot pursue the debt further as a court will ask for the same contract as evidence that the debt is actually owed.
You can write "I refuse to pay because..." (whatever reason) and that should take care of them contacting you. I'd only do it on small stuff or out of statute of limitations.
$24 Million they can't pay? Turn that over to a competing debt-collection service, and hound the SOBs for the remainder of their lives! Edit - I'm not paid by them (heck, I am retired!) but I have subscribed to Credit Karma for years. Free, but they do make you look at a few ads for various financial products. But since my wife and I are involved in real estate investment, I always check my credit scores before attempting to purchase a property.
@@kendavis8046 I even changed my password but it still shows the error trying to log in. I tried on my computer (two different browsers) and my phone. All show the same error. I'm glad it's up for you. I've also seen the CDC website being down but other people haven't noticed it either. Perhaps my ISP is having problems or the DNS I use instead of my ISP DNS. I don't know what's going on.
Why would the credit agency add things to people's credit without any evidence of the existence of an actual debt? What sort of system is this anyway, can I add debt to anyone I want to too? And if so, can we add the 24 million debt to the owners of the company that has mysteriously made 24 million disappear?
I paid off a debt in 1992, and was contacted in 2019, by a debt collector, who claimed I never paid it. I told them that I had then they demanded that I send them a copy of the final payoff to prove it. After 27 years, as you can imagine, I no longer had the payoff letter. The collector then said they'd file with the IRS to take my tax return. I suggested that I would file a legal answer to the theft, and they've never contacted me again.
Use an app like Credit Karma. Don't get any of the advertised loans from them. The interest rates are high. You can dispute reports on it. And check your score every day.
I worked for a commercial collection agency. They don't do the kinds of harassing things they used to do but they will do anything they can get away with. Many people in the biz have been banned from owning a collection agency but they just go to work for their friends. I will tell you one thing that happens. Someone places a legit debt. They go out of biz. The collection agency collects but the people who placed the debt are gone. And the collection agency keeps the money. Collection agencies make a lot of money. A lot of money. They only sell services. I worked for NCO financial, the largest collection agency in the world. Had seven branches. The uncollected debts would be placed from one branch to another. The process sometimes went on for many years with a fresh collectors in a different branch.
if they say they can't pay the money back, because they say they don't have it.. They all shouls go to jail for grand larceny , and other reasons, their crooked.
My understanding of one of the reasons for this is to trick people into resetting the statutory period by which a debt can be collected. Let's use the $80 copay debt from the episode. Let's say the person who owes the debt hasn't paid anything on it for X years and the statutory period for the debt is X+1 years, the debt holder will claim that the debtor owes $8000 (not the actual $80) on the copay. When the debtor contacts the debt holder and complains, the debtor many times will admit to the $80 debt if the debt holder removes the bogus $8000 claim, which resets the statutory period by which the debt holder can go after the debtor for the original $80.
I used to work for a debt collection company and for a major wall street firm. I can say with 100% confidence that every single debt collection company makes the worst wall st firms look like angels. It is so bad that even though I am an accountant, and understand selling receivables, i think the practice of selling receivables should be banned. I barely put debt collectors behind pedophiles on the list of the worst people on earth. They are worse than politicians. And yes, the debt collection company i worked for did get fined while i worked for them. They were also ordered to stop certain practices by a certain date and make employees sign affidavits that they were given and read the action against the company and were aware of the banned practices. How did they respond? Well after you signed that you received the action, it disappeared and you couldn't access it anymore. They also had people working overtime to get lawsuits filed, that under the government action they had to cease, before the effective date. AKA, they worked people overtime to file suits that they were legally not allowed to file a few weeks later.
Experian has an app, check monthly. Send you a push notification when a change to your credit file occurs. I pay $20/mo to access all 3 because I'm working on increasing it and seeing the 'score increased' notification is a reward.
Here in the UK, we have a few unscrupulous debt collection agencies, but we also have far stricter laws. I had a “default debt” on my books, namely I held a cable company in breach of contract, (had issues when it rained heavily, they “couldn’t” compensate me until it was fixed, and the engineer that last visited said if that his repair didn’t work, they’d have to replace the cable from the junction box to the house, and Customer Service said they Would NOT be doing that, so I had to out up with crap service & pay top dollar). They sent me a nasty letter & red bill, I sent a copy of my initial letter holding them in BoC, and heard no more from them. One debt collection agency, and one not known for being nice, contacted me about 3 months later, and They got copies of the letters I’d sent... radio silence for 68months. I then had a letter regarding an unspecified debt, could I call. I called, and was asked to go through “security questions”. Told em that was Not happening until I knew what we were discussing. The refused that, so I said don’t bother contacting me again. We have a system wherein if no formal communication is received from the person in debt for a period of 6yrs, the debt becomes Statute Barred, i.e.they cannot chase it. That, btw, is the only debt I have never paid, on the principal it was an unjust debt.
If you find a collection on your credit report be sure to dispute it. Even if you believe the dept may somehow be valid filing a disbute will cause the company to have to go back and varify all aspects of such transactions and proove that the dept is valid and no mistakes were made in the process. If any one mistake shows up the entire collection becomes invalid and the company will have to go back to start. Most won't bother.
Steve, part of the settlement order you read went something like this: "...They are required to comply with rules and regulations pertaining to the collection of debt..." Now, I'm no lawyer, but isn't that a little bit like a judge telling a convict to OBEY THE LAW? Not really being sarcastic, but it's a novel concept: obey the law and avoid nonsense like this.
I would imagine it to be a bit like in the UK, where a court may order a company to obey the consumer protection regulations and if they fail to do so, they can be held in contempt of court.
That’s exactly why companies become incorporated....the liability falls on the corporate entity itself, not the executives. Being incorporated means that the executives are shielded from prosecution if the entire board agrees to do something illegal. The only way executives themselves can be held personally liable is if they lie to other board members like with the Enron scandal.
The same thing happened to me but after I'd cleaned up my credit and bought a house. The even placed a lien against my bank account. We went to court and the judge told the company attorney to call his boss to cancel the debt. He said he couldn't so she did it for him. She told him off and canceled the debt. she told me that its an ongoing problem with debt collectors and advised me to keep all my paperwork cause they'll try to get me again. Its about 20 years since then.
I have a question that has nothing to do with this video. I live in washington state. My lease ran out and I want to move. The landlord offered a month to month at the same price. Now they want $300 a month more than I was paying. Or I must renew the lease. Is there anything I can do stop this?
In my state on a month to month tenancy they can increase rent with 30 days notice. Most states are that way. So unfortunately all you can do is sign a lease or move. They are dumb trying to do that now
I’ve tried getting “free” copy of my credit score from the 3 major agencies. I received letters from all 3 with a form and instructions how to remit the filing fee. I never was able to receive a free copy of my report.
You ended up on the wrong website. There's a shady company using the same name as the real website but with a different suffix. Go to one of the three credit bureaus and look for the link to get your free credit report. Then do that for the other two
In the UK there are firms of solicitors who buy unenforceable debts and use threats of litigation and even jail in an attempt to get people to pay up. A friend showed me such a letter his wife had received and after one glance, I could tell him the debt was over 6 years old. If no attempt to get payment is made in 6 years, the debt is unenforceable in the UK.
had an in-law that had the same name as another person who was highly in debt and being chased by debt collectors. they were in the same town with nearly the same name and the information was being reported to the wrong person
I once had a debt collection company call me over an $85 debt with a waste disposal company. However, I didn't owe them $85 they owed ME $85. So I asked the debt collector when they were sending me a check for the debt they bought. I never heard from them again.
I used to get frequent calls/letters from debt collectors. They don't really do much "research"/investigation--they just shotgun out letters/calls, hoping to get a response. Haven't gotten letters/calls within the past couple of years--the FTC/Consumer Protection Agency must have tightened up enforcement.
How is this not a criminal fraud case where defendants are sent to jail? Im reading about an instance in this case where somebody owed 80 bucks for a copay but this company placed a $1500 debt on their credit and demanded payment?
I think they call these cases "Piercing the corporate veil". They need to look at payments (dividends, bonuses, etc.) from the company to shareholders, executives, etc. and "claw back" those payments if possible.
This seems complex, all you need to do is send a letter to someone saying you owe under $100 from a debt 12 years ago, please pay it here. Some fraction of people will just pay it. My mother got a letter like that one time and was going to pay the $75 until I pointed out that she never lived at the address the debt had been billed to.
This is part of the reason I refuse to deal with any debt collector. I deal only with the original creditor, or the current owner of the debt, and I demand written letters stating the exact amount owed, on company letterhead, before I pay anyone who isn’t the original owner of the debt, I also confirm the original creditor sold them the debt and that they have no valid claim before I pay someone other than the original creditor. I check my credit report monthly using a couple of the free online services. Debt collectors usually hate me, because I refuse to play their game, and have the owner of the debt fire them.
You never mentioned whether or not you get your attorney fees reimbursed if you have to go after one of these credit companies have taken off your credit report
Hello Steve, I had an old debt from 2005. It was bought and sold around and the intial amount that was owed ballooned to about 2-3x the amount. I was just recently contacted by a company trying to collect on that debt last week, any advice for me here? Thank You
I was leading an investigation into debt collection practices when with the US Senate. There are a lot of violations of the FDCPA that are ignored because it was left to the state Attorney generals to take action.
Had a debt collector contact me for my mother's credit card debts after she died. He told me I should pay them "because it was my obligation as her son" . I asked if my name was on the card; he said "no". I told him to pound sand.
It is amazing how many people and companies have direct access to a consumers credit report. Anything can be assigned to a credit rating with no over sight. And you will play hell getting something removed.
Once I owed $60 to a hospital that I didn't even know I owed and it went to a collection agency. When they contacted me I told them to send me the original or confirm that I owed the hospital the money. They simply didn't call me again but they put a $6,000 debt on my credit report that I found when I went to buy a car.
none of this matters unless the owners, managers and employees of these companies get criminally prosecuted and sent to jail if found guilty. even a low level employee can be guilty if they see thousands of complaints every month with no resolution. only if they are held accountable will they speak up and/or quit and by that stop those schemes.
I had to file a chapter 7 BK about 2 years ago. At the time I owned my own home and had a rental property. The Federal Judge allowed me to retain both properties. However, my mortgage company (for my owner occupied house) has reported on my credit report that I actually filed the chapter 7 BK against that mortgage in effect seriously damaging my credit score even further than it normally would have. This is a blatant lie being perpetrated against me for no reason at all. Especially, since I did not file against either mortgage. I am currently having it looked into by an attorney and if I find they have put this on my credit report illegally I will sue the mortgage company for every dime I can get out of them. This is pure 100% bull shit that a mortgage company can publish an out right lie about someone on their credit report.
I put a reminder on my calendar to check my credit report every four months. Since there are three credit reporting agencies, this works out to once a year per agency.
I have been a victim of this. A bad merchant on ebay with a 28% positive rating and out of business / sold to another person was trying to collect a bogus core charge / replacement cylinder head on some auto parts from over 5 years ago. The collection agency demanded hundreds of dollars even had the other owner on the phone. Unable to prove the case due to tracking numbers going stale in the UPS tracking system they still dinged my credit report even when I warned them what they were doing was illegal ! Company was in California.
Steve, Over the last 8 months I've been getting letters from a debt collections company for a debt with a well know telecommunications company that I have never done business with. The letters that they have been sending are addressed to a name that is "similar" to my first name. Please note I go by my middle name and have used it in 99% of all my business dealings over the years (I am currently 65). When the first notice of the debt was received I sent a letter back stating that this debt was not mine but they have ignored that and continue to send me statements. The last statement I received they offered a reduced amount (half of the original amount) and said everything would be settled if I would just send them the payment for the reduced amount lol. These folks are obviously fishing and I have no idea if what they are doing is legal or not. I've kept all of the statements just in case but otherwise I'm just ignoring them and just living my life lol.
I know someone who received a bill from a debt collection agency.Debt wasn't their's. Asked be a copy of the bill to show it was there's. Agency refused to do this. The following might help you: www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/are-there-laws-that-limit-what-debt-collectors-can-say-or-do-en-329/
My daughter got a letter that said if she didn’t respond within 30 days. Then wanted her PII to verify she was the target person. We responded with denial and questioned their privacy practices and complained about their processes. The hospital was 6 hours away and the charge was for an MRI that I’m sure belonged to the 83 year old woman who lives nearby with the same name. We never heard back.
A while ago (over 20 years), I was approached to invest in a company that bought "stale debt", that was beyond the statue of limitations. These were bought for $.25 for $100 of debt (yes, a quarter for $100). Their idea was to get someone to pay a little bit to "restart" the debt and make it good again. Needless to say, I didn't invest.
They're called "zombie debts" (because if you acknowledge them, they become "reanimated", i.e. the statute of limitations begins anew) and a lot of people will just pay them instead of fighting with collections because they're afraid of getting sued and/or can't afford a lawyer to look over the situation and send a C&D.
We had a bunch of debt collectors sending us letters and calling us multiple times per day for a lady we didn't know. We kept telling them that they didn't live there and had never lived there. One threatened to show up with the police... We said sure we were home and would be waiting, they never showed. We eventually sent a signed and notarized letter stating that we did not know this person listing our address, our phone number and that if they continued calling us we would pursue legal action. What was going on is this lady was putting our address and phone number down as hers when she would rack up some debt, when we threatened the collection agency they investigated and had her arrested for fraud. We haven't had a contact from a single collection agent since.
If the FTC is getting that many complaints a month and 80-90% of the debts are invalid it sounds like the credit agency should be held accountable for allowing this to happen.
Another example of why laws regarding liability and corporations need reform. The principle operators of corporations know it relatively easy to avoid the penalties for their actions since a judgement is against the corporation; all they have to do is liquidate and migrate to rerun the same malfeasance under a different corporate name.
From the NYT article: Rohit Chopra, one of the trade commission’s five members, voted against the settlement and criticized it as inadequate. In a statement, he said he disagreed with the terms because the defendants were not barred from working in the debt collection industry and consumers “will receive almost no help whatsoever.” Mr. Chopra said he would like to see the F.T.C. work closely with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on such cases because that could help victims qualify for compensation from the bureau’s civil penalty fund. Also, he said, a “systemic fix” for debt parking probably requires the major credit-reporting bureaus - Equifax, Experian and TransUnion - to take action to cut off debts submitted by problem collection firms.
@@markwhi1 Thanks for the info. Not agreeing with a vote by others doesn't always mean you're against what they're doing. Whether it's something like this, or even legislative action, sometimes the vote is against doing something inadequate.
There are so many issues with companies having unfettered incentive to mess with credit scores that it should be changed to only allow debts to be registered by a court judgment.
The officers of this company should be criminally indicted
Capital crimes. Messing with someone's credit report should be a crime against humanity.
This was fraud. Hearing the legal jargon tiptoe around it is insulting.
@@keres993 Appears to be more like Extortion!
@@keres993 the charges should be at a minimum fraud, extortion and theft. all felonies...
there is no consequences for white collar crime. if they had a different skin color, they'd throw the book at them though.
The irony of a debt collector who cannot pay their debt is a wonderful Christmas tale.
About time,we should call them 45 times a day
God bless us, every one!
But nothing happens to them.
How much money do they bring in? Can't pay? I don't buy it. The feds let these scammers skate on massive fraud.
If they can't pay their bill after doing this crap to people, that's their problem. They shouldn't have their bill suspended, they should be told "tough crap pay it" like they told their customers.
Or send it to another collection agency
@Jon Jukoba Their masons their cars, all that crap. They can keep just enough money so their kids don't starve. Lesson in humility for their whole household
Edit: removed a curse word out of respect for Mr Lehto's channel, don't want him getting flagged because I cursed.
Speaking of bills, looks like Bennie is enjoying a bit of KAARME
Don't they have a family member they can borrow the money from? (Actual line from a collections agency that was calling me in 2004-ish).
Title of video should've been "Debt Collection Company Doesn't Have to Pay Its Debts"
They need to go to prison for a long time. Not a slap on the wrist.
I would say 1 year for every $0.01 they collected would be about right.
The courts know how this goes. The best way to put an end to this is track down where the principle of these companies live and cut off their legs with a chain saw. That remedy is extremely effective.
Isn’t this just blatant fraud where are the criminal charges?
Came here looking for this comment.
yes it is blatant fraud but it is also extortion and theft. think about it.
the fraud is them calling you telling you you owe them money that you don't. the extortion comes into play when they put it on your credit report in order to force you to pay. then the theft comes in if you pay the bogus bill because they are then taking money from you that they have no legal right to.
Good luck with that.
@@hellshade2 it's also defamation let's not forget
@@jeremypike9153 not 100% sure of that one but it is possible.
I had a company that bought bad debt try this on me in the 90's. They put the amount on my credit but I told them I didn't care because I didn't buy on credit. I laughed at the person on the phone and said it would come off in seven years so go ahead, and they did. These people need to go to jail.
If they can't afford to pay I have the perfect solution. Make the owners and all high level managers report all of their phone numbers to authorities. Then call them every 5 minutes to ask when they'll have the money to pay.
@Donny D Or student loans...
Long winded story coming
I have a brother in law that was found unconscious and then loaded in an ambulance to the ER when he was 17. Years latter when he was getting Married he tried to buy a house and they told him he didn't have good enough credit because of the debt for the Ambulance.
He called the debt collection agency and asked why this debt was on his credit. They told him they just bought his debt and he had to pay them. He says "No I don't!" They say yes you do. He argued with them for a while, then asked to talk to the manager. The manager says we just bought your debt, you HAVE to pay it to get it off your credit report. He says "No I don't, that debt is 12 years old."
The manager tells him that because they "Just Bought It" time doesn't matter.
So he tells them again "Remove that from my credit report or I will Sue you". The manager cut him off and laughed at him and said "go ahead and try."
Then my brother in law say "ok, I was 17 when that happened and no one ever notified my parents because they couldn't get ahold of them, so that debt is from a minor that could not agree to get into debt in the first place, so I will see you in court."
They hung up on him and wouldn't talk to him again after that. But they did pull it off his credit after about a week.
The courts know how this goes. The best way to put an end to this is track down where the principle of these companies live and cut off their legs with a chain saw. That remedy is extremely effective.
This is where the CEO of that debt company needs to go to prison for actual crimes.
Once upon a time, I worked for one such debt collector and if it was ilegal, they were doing it. From buying judges to wage theft from employees to stealing from debtors and creditors, they were doing it all. After a couple of failed attempts to stop them at the local/state level (who were in their pockets), some of us got together and blew the whistle at the federal level. Within a couple of years, the scam was exposed and they were disbanded and made to pay a $3 million fine. And they are not the only ones. Your best defense against these crooks is to know the law which, coincidentally, is very simple and straight forward. You can fight back and easily beat them at their own game.
They do this in Salt Lake City, Utah in a little different way. I have a common name and when I bought my house there the county recorder dumped every judgment that was held by people that had my same name on my house as leans against it. When I tried refinancing I had to go through about 50 leans and show that none of them were against me.
I go through the same thing when I try to renew my driver's license. I have a CDL and a very common name. Everybody who's had a driving judgment or owns money gets put in my record and I have to hire a lawyer to clear everything up. It's a pain in the ass. All they need is a name. As far as they care your guilty until you prove your self innocent.
So outrageous
lazy bureaucrats.....the same should be done to them
That happened to me. There was a random $560 loan on my credit report. I contacted the credit reporting agencies, they told me to file a report with FTC. I contacted FTC, they said file a police report. I went to the police station and asked for a police report, they told me there was probably nothing they could do. I told them I don't expect them to do anything, I just need a report# to file with the FTC investigation. Police said there is nothing they could do, I repeated myself about the FTC. After repeating myself several times in different ways to account for the fact I'm talking to someone with a below average IQ, and having my ID checked for warrants, I did receive a report #. After all that, the officer tells me he had to do the same thing, but I don't think anyone ran his ID for warrants when he got a report. Whatever, it got removed from my credit report. Thanks, Merry Christmas 🎄
You know protect and serve
Most if it probably went to the CEO and minimum wage for the associates.
Not far from the truth!
Those vultures also exist here, in Switzerland. The good part is that to get anything added to the official record, one must send that unpaid bill or whatever to a kind of federal debt collection office (called "Betreibungsamt") with a form and pay a fee, which will let the debtor know that they need to pay. If that debtor has reason to believe that something is not right with that debt they can challenge it, which stops the whole collection process. The creditor now must prove that the debt is actually existing and due.
That challenge must be rendered within 10 business days or the debt is officially accepted and must be paid in full. The general consensus is that you should render that challenge (in time) if there is the slightest doubt just to be on the safe side.
If it's an unpaid bill, the proof is easy: Just send a copy of the bill along with a 2-page form you must fill out. The form is simple, I've filled those out in the past. The next step is that a judge will take a look at the situation, hear both sides and render a verdict which both sides can live with. The part with hearing both sides is not mandatory though, and if you don't show up the judge will decide based on the file they have. So, show up. I've seen correct debts being reduced by the judge, but the thinking of the companies is "better a part than nothing" - and nobody forces the company to continue doing business with that debtor in the future.
Now, if the debt cannot be proven, such as with those vulture companies, the (false) debtor themselves can get the record cleared. All that's needed is a form and a 40 Dollar fee.
The fact that starting the official debt collection process is not free and that the debt must be properly proven if challenged means that those vulture companies are toothless. All they can do is send you letters which are legally meaningless. The problem is that not everyone knows that and believe the threats or fall for the coersion within those letters. I don't know how big that percentage is, but it's obviously, and sadly, big enough.
Curious, it it is a paid that one has paid, and you don't have a receipt to show that it has already been paid(for instance, several years later), what happens in this type of situation in Switzerland?
@@Genesh12 That ... is a good question. I am an accountant, and I don't think that this situation can come up, honestly. On the company's side, when we do the annual financial statesments all open bills have to be listed with the amount due and due date.
The example below can only happen with small invoices between companies and private persons, as big business is booked differently and errors like that won't happen as several companies are involved.
It happens that paid invoices get booked wrongly (people sometimes pay amounts that have nothing to do with the invoice, don't ask me why), but that is usually found out quickly and corrected. So the situation you refer to can happen, but only in a space of months - and then both the person paying and the company have their bank statements to check and find out for sure.
It also happens that people say they paid but didn't - that gets found out quickly. The interesting cases are when people paid but with a small error that causes the money to be sent back: For a payment to go through the account number must be correct (duh), but also the address and company's name. If one of those informations is not correct, the bank will return the money to the sender, who may never realize that that happened. I've seen that happen several times, and that has always gotten resolved amicably.
If an error like that is not found during the year or while doing the annual financial statement it will likely never be found out. And if, for some odd reason, that is found out several years later, the amount will likely just get written off because the accountant knows that trying to get the money will cost time and therefore too much money to be worth it. Writing off invoices is normal practise, there are rules to do it properly and in accountancy training we learn them. It should, of course, happen as little as possible, but it's inevitable.
There are instances where a company tries to get that money anyway (there are a$$hats everywhere), and that's where the debt collector companies enter the stage. As proving these invoices is difficult at best, the original advice holds true: Ignore and contest. If (and that's a big IF) the case goes before a judge they'll probably make you pay a small part of the invoice if you can't proof that you've already paid it, which is annoying but life happens sometimes.
I got on one of those lists. The company calling was relentless. They never dinged my credit report but they tried for a few years. I started playing the "how much of their time can I waste".
"For once" lol snuck that in there quick. Some good news coming out of Washington *for once*.
No it’s not! Someone needs to serve time.
Midwest tried this to me 3 times under various collection company aliases. Each time the recycled debt was found to be false. But what a mess to play whack-a-mole with them.
wait, the fee was reduced cause they can't pay,, lol they should be sent to collections
They need to take ALL the personal assets of the owner of the company!
*Integrity, Morality, & Honesty! Trust No one! These people need to be in Prison!*
I'm glad at least some debt collectors are being held accountable. Here is my long story about a shady debt collector called Assets Acceptance out of San Antonio.
In 1995, I bought some appliances from a long-gone store called Montgomery Ward and I put a small portion of it on store credit. I never got a bill, but then they had debt collectors call me, so I paid up in full in 1995. I even got a letter from the bank issuing the credit confirming I had paid in full. Around 2002, I got calls from another debt collector, Assets Acceptance, that I had not paid my Walmart credit card bill. I never shop at Walmart. I finally tracked down that this was the Montgomery-Ward bill I had already paid and that it had been sold many times until Walmart ended up with it, this time not paid. I sent Assets Acceptance a copy of the letter from the bank showing it had been paid. They did not care and yelled at me over the phone. I never paid them, since it was already paid in full. It stayed on my credit report 7 years, and the only time I was rejected was from Sprint when I tried to take out a multi-line cell phone plan.
Debt collectors are horrible.
I assume the FTC asked them if they had a friend or family member they could borrow the 24 million from. That's what you get asked when you can't pay the collection agency.
Ah, you've had that one thrown at you too?
when they ask me if I had a friend or family member I could borrow from I say Do you have a friend or family member I can borrow from usually shuts them up
@@annflores415 I told the collector they all died recently, and thanks for bringing up the fresh pain.
So now take the remaining balance they owe and tack it onto the company owners credit report and treat it as a student loan.
Starting in Dec.2013 and through to April 2014 I had a problem with a collection agency. They started calling me in mid December. I was lucky in using an online search to find the collection agency act. I went through the act and found out that the collection agency violated 3 different areas. First, they were supposed to send a letter before contacting me by phone, which they failed. Second, when I reminded them of this, then they sent 2 letters, dated 3 days apart. Then they are supposed to wait at least 3 days after I received them before calling me on the phone, which they failed that as well by starting the calls within 2 days. The 3rd issue was the frequency of calls They were only supposed to call 3 times within a week, but a couple of times they called 4 times. The problem started in 2006 when a creditor went into my bank account, once in Sept. and once in Nov. and withdrew money to settle a debt. The problem there is that creditor failed to notify me of their intentions and if the money they withdrew settled the debt or not. So in the end, I sent a registered letter notifying the collection agency of their violations and I sent them a hard copy of the act with the violations highlighted. I also told them in this letter that by making the violations in regards to this act, they violated my rights and I reminded them that there was a Statute of limitations of 7 yrs which closed the debt they were trying to collect a month before they contacted in December 2013
Until they go to jail this stuff will continue 😡
The courts know how this goes. The best way to put an end to this is track down where the principle of these companies live and cut off their legs with a chain saw. That remedy is extremely effective.
I hope this is one of the creeps that has been calling my number for the last twelve years trying to collect a "debt" for someone I don't know. They NEVER remove old phone numbers from the file, even though they say they will.
Always ask them to send you a letter with a return address. For me, this seems to be the best way to get some of the scammers to leave me alone. I will never give out my SSN or bank info over the phone.
Had this happen to me, I was buying a new semi truck and this debt that I never made had to be payed before I could make the purchase. It was like $500 dollars but I had no choice but to pay it so I could get a $180k loan.
I had this happen to me years ago from some random floor company that I'd never dealt with. I called the flooring company and told them that I would be suing them, and not the collection agency. Amazingly it was removed from my credit report within a couple days. I'm not sure if it was a scam or mistake, but I knew the flooring company had money and wouldn't want a lawsuit, and I doubt a sleazy collection agency would care they would just do like this company and claim they're broke.
I was, once contacted by a debt collection agency who tried to collect money for a surgery I did not have. I called them and told them that they had the wrong person. The rep told me that I had to call the hospital and get it corrected
I told them that it is there problem, not mine and I never heard from them again nor did it show up on my credit report.
I had one saying I owed money from 16 years ago. They refused to say what I owed it for and from exactly when. They even went as far as saying they would call the local police to arrest me in Texas for a debt I had in Wisconsin.
We need to send a debt collector after this debt collector. Merry Xmas, Steve !.
Let;s say you had access to a substantial quantity of tar and had a friend with similar access to a significant stash of feathers.....
...and shenanigans ensue
Are there debt collection debt collectors?
With $ 24 million at stake, there soon will be.
Are there any avenues under defamation law to claim damages against people who place incorrect information with the credit reporting agencies?
I was falsely accused of a debt a few years back. Tried to find an atty in my area that handled debt. Could not find even one. I looked in online directories and called attys in my area that were recommended. The offices ALL said they did not do consumer debt law. Very strange.
I finally just looked up the law under the FDCPA and handled it myself with the most recent debt collection agency contacting me. They were decent enough(after being threatened) to drop the debt I did not owe and removed it from my credit score.
Have a great Christmas Steve! Thanks for another fun video.
My bank updates my FICO credit score every month and it jumps around for no apparent reason. It's typically over 800, but one month last year, it dropped to 790 and the next month, it was over 800 again. Now 790 is still good, but I have no idea why it dropped for a month. Very strange.
Probably because credit reporting in general is a bit of a scam in the same way that the SATs are a bit of a scam. You don't know the rules or the scoring procedure, but you're all but forced to play the game anyway.
Thank Goodness I don't have to worry about my Credit Score
I don't have any credit to keep score of
Reminds me of a great quote I once read "When the red river's aflowing take the dirt road home "
I had this happen. I asked for their address so I could take care of them personally. They never contacted me again. The trick is being able to imply what you will do when you meet them.
If you get a claim from a debt collection agency simply WRITE/ EMAIL a request for a copy of the contract they are claiming for. You will not hear from them again.
Actually, when you get a phone call asking if you are chris m and you say yes. You are on the hook. Whenever someone calls and asks if you are (insert your name here) tell them they must have the wrong number and hang up.
Legally, you can only be chased for a debt if you signed a contract/ agreement. Typically, debt agencies buy debts in a bundle so they do not have a copy of the contract. If they cannot produce it on demand, they cannot pursue the debt further as a court will ask for the same contract as evidence that the debt is actually owed.
You can write "I refuse to pay because..." (whatever reason) and that should take care of them contacting you. I'd only do it on small stuff or out of statute of limitations.
$24 Million they can't pay? Turn that over to a competing debt-collection service, and hound the SOBs for the remainder of their lives! Edit - I'm not paid by them (heck, I am retired!) but I have subscribed to Credit Karma for years. Free, but they do make you look at a few ads for various financial products. But since my wife and I are involved in real estate investment, I always check my credit scores before attempting to purchase a property.
Seems Credit Karma is down. I just tried to log in and it refused to let me giving me a generic error message.
@@AmbiguousUser You made me look. Working for me. Both Equifax and Transunion are showing me at 827.
@@kendavis8046 I even changed my password but it still shows the error trying to log in. I tried on my computer (two different browsers) and my phone. All show the same error. I'm glad it's up for you. I've also seen the CDC website being down but other people haven't noticed it either. Perhaps my ISP is having problems or the DNS I use instead of my ISP DNS. I don't know what's going on.
Why would the credit agency add things to people's credit without any evidence of the existence of an actual debt? What sort of system is this anyway, can I add debt to anyone I want to too? And if so, can we add the 24 million debt to the owners of the company that has mysteriously made 24 million disappear?
It’s easier in Europe. We don’t even have a credit report:)
I paid off a debt in 1992, and was contacted in 2019, by a debt collector, who claimed I never paid it. I told them that I had then they demanded that I send them a copy of the final payoff to prove it. After 27 years, as you can imagine, I no longer had the payoff letter. The collector then said they'd file with the IRS to take my tax return. I suggested that I would file a legal answer to the theft, and they've never contacted me again.
Use an app like Credit Karma. Don't get any of the advertised loans from them. The interest rates are high. You can dispute reports on it. And check your score every day.
So if they don't pay, will they be referred to themselves for collection?
I worked for a commercial collection agency. They don't do the kinds of harassing things they used to do but they will do anything they can get away with. Many people in the biz have been banned from owning a collection agency but they just go to work for their friends. I will tell you one thing that happens. Someone places a legit debt. They go out of biz. The collection agency collects but the people who placed the debt are gone. And the collection agency keeps the money. Collection agencies make a lot of money. A lot of money. They only sell services. I worked for NCO financial, the largest collection agency in the world. Had seven branches. The uncollected debts would be placed from one branch to another. The process sometimes went on for many years with a fresh collectors in a different branch.
if they say they can't pay the money back, because they say they don't have it.. They all shouls go to jail for grand larceny , and other reasons, their crooked.
I had a local hospital told me I had to pay for a brain scan. I would think I would remember a brain scan.
Debt collector had its own bills to pay?
My understanding of one of the reasons for this is to trick people into resetting the statutory period by which a debt can be collected. Let's use the $80 copay debt from the episode. Let's say the person who owes the debt hasn't paid anything on it for X years and the statutory period for the debt is X+1 years, the debt holder will claim that the debtor owes $8000 (not the actual $80) on the copay. When the debtor contacts the debt holder and complains, the debtor many times will admit to the $80 debt if the debt holder removes the bogus $8000 claim, which resets the statutory period by which the debt holder can go after the debtor for the original $80.
Or the debt company pays $5 on your behalf on the $80 to renew the debt.. then add a $1000 convenience fee. :P
I used to work for a debt collection company and for a major wall street firm. I can say with 100% confidence that every single debt collection company makes the worst wall st firms look like angels. It is so bad that even though I am an accountant, and understand selling receivables, i think the practice of selling receivables should be banned. I barely put debt collectors behind pedophiles on the list of the worst people on earth. They are worse than politicians.
And yes, the debt collection company i worked for did get fined while i worked for them. They were also ordered to stop certain practices by a certain date and make employees sign affidavits that they were given and read the action against the company and were aware of the banned practices. How did they respond? Well after you signed that you received the action, it disappeared and you couldn't access it anymore. They also had people working overtime to get lawsuits filed, that under the government action they had to cease, before the effective date. AKA, they worked people overtime to file suits that they were legally not allowed to file a few weeks later.
Experian has an app, check monthly. Send you a push notification when a change to your credit file occurs. I pay $20/mo to access all 3 because I'm working on increasing it and seeing the 'score increased' notification is a reward.
Great videos thank you 👏👏👏👏👏💯
Here in the UK, we have a few unscrupulous debt collection agencies, but we also have far stricter laws.
I had a “default debt” on my books, namely I held a cable company in breach of contract, (had issues when it rained heavily, they “couldn’t” compensate me until it was fixed, and the engineer that last visited said if that his repair didn’t work, they’d have to replace the cable from the junction box to the house, and Customer Service said they Would NOT be doing that, so I had to out up with crap service & pay top dollar).
They sent me a nasty letter & red bill, I sent a copy of my initial letter holding them in BoC, and heard no more from them. One debt collection agency, and one not known for being nice, contacted me about 3 months later, and They got copies of the letters I’d sent... radio silence for 68months. I then had a letter regarding an unspecified debt, could I call. I called, and was asked to go through “security questions”. Told em that was Not happening until I knew what we were discussing. The refused that, so I said don’t bother contacting me again.
We have a system wherein if no formal communication is received from the person in debt for a period of 6yrs, the debt becomes Statute Barred, i.e.they cannot chase it.
That, btw, is the only debt I have never paid, on the principal it was an unjust debt.
If you find a collection on your credit report be sure to dispute it. Even if you believe the dept may somehow be valid filing a disbute will cause the company to have to go back and varify all aspects of such transactions and proove that the dept is valid and no mistakes were made in the process. If any one mistake shows up the entire collection becomes invalid and the company will have to go back to start. Most won't bother.
Steve, part of the settlement order you read went something like this: "...They are required to comply with rules and regulations pertaining to the collection of debt..." Now, I'm no lawyer, but isn't that a little bit like a judge telling a convict to OBEY THE LAW? Not really being sarcastic, but it's a novel concept: obey the law and avoid nonsense like this.
I would imagine it to be a bit like in the UK, where a court may order a company to obey the consumer protection regulations and if they fail to do so, they can be held in contempt of court.
Why aren't people going to jail for this? I mean I know why because it's a corporation not a person but still got to be people at the helm!
Imagine if the laws were enforced in corporate and white collar crime as strictly as everything else.
That’s exactly why companies become incorporated....the liability falls on the corporate entity itself, not the executives. Being incorporated means that the executives are shielded from prosecution if the entire board agrees to do something illegal. The only way executives themselves can be held personally liable is if they lie to other board members like with the Enron scandal.
The same thing happened to me but after I'd cleaned up my credit and bought a house. The even placed a lien against my bank account. We went to court and the judge told the company attorney to call his boss to cancel the debt. He said he couldn't so she did it for him. She told him off and canceled the debt. she told me that its an ongoing problem with debt collectors and advised me to keep all my paperwork cause they'll try to get me again. Its about 20 years since then.
I have a question that has nothing to do with this video. I live in washington state. My lease ran out and I want to move. The landlord offered a month to month at the same price. Now they want $300 a month more than I was paying. Or I must renew the lease. Is there anything I can do stop this?
In my state on a month to month tenancy they can increase rent with 30 days notice. Most states are that way. So unfortunately all you can do is sign a lease or move. They are dumb trying to do that now
@@simplynstylish2140 thank you. Its been over thirty days I paid the rent at the usual price last month.
I’ve tried getting “free” copy of my credit score from the 3 major agencies. I received letters from all 3 with a form and instructions how to remit the filing fee. I never was able to receive a free copy of my report.
You ended up on the wrong website. There's a shady company using the same name as the real website but with a different suffix. Go to one of the three credit bureaus and look for the link to get your free credit report. Then do that for the other two
@@NikoBellaKhouf Nope. I was on the correct websites for each of the 3 credit bureaus.
@@kradwonders you're entitled to one free report per year by law directly from them. I haven't gotten one lately but I used to get them every year.
In the UK there are firms of solicitors who buy unenforceable debts and use threats of litigation and even jail in an attempt to get people to pay up.
A friend showed me such a letter his wife had received and after one glance, I could tell him the debt was over 6 years old.
If no attempt to get payment is made in 6 years, the debt is unenforceable in the UK.
had an in-law that had the same name as another person who was highly in debt and being chased by debt collectors. they were in the same town with nearly the same name and the information was being reported to the wrong person
I once had a debt collection company call me over an $85 debt with a waste disposal company. However, I didn't owe them $85 they owed ME $85. So I asked the debt collector when they were sending me a check for the debt they bought. I never heard from them again.
I used to get frequent calls/letters from debt collectors. They don't really do much "research"/investigation--they just shotgun out letters/calls, hoping to get a response. Haven't gotten letters/calls within the past couple of years--the FTC/Consumer Protection Agency must have tightened up enforcement.
If they can’t pay, what a joy it would be to hear the debt collection call to them 😂😂😂
How is this not a criminal fraud case where defendants are sent to jail? Im reading about an instance in this case where somebody owed 80 bucks for a copay but this company placed a $1500 debt on their credit and demanded payment?
I think they call these cases "Piercing the corporate veil". They need to look at payments (dividends, bonuses, etc.) from the company to shareholders, executives, etc. and "claw back" those payments if possible.
Hi Steve. Thank you for yet another great video.
Is there a reason why the company owner is not facing any criminal chargers?
This seems complex, all you need to do is send a letter to someone saying you owe under $100 from a debt 12 years ago, please pay it here. Some fraction of people will just pay it. My mother got a letter like that one time and was going to pay the $75 until I pointed out that she never lived at the address the debt had been billed to.
This is part of the reason I refuse to deal with any debt collector. I deal only with the original creditor, or the current owner of the debt, and I demand written letters stating the exact amount owed, on company letterhead, before I pay anyone who isn’t the original owner of the debt, I also confirm the original creditor sold them the debt and that they have no valid claim before I pay someone other than the original creditor.
I check my credit report monthly using a couple of the free online services. Debt collectors usually hate me, because I refuse to play their game, and have the owner of the debt fire them.
Hardly a slap on the wrist. Disgusting. Where is the fraud charges and jail time? A bank of phones and their back in business.
I'm glad you mentioned me in this. Now if we could only do the same for false IRS claims...lol
I wonder if this action will be made retroactive?
You never mentioned whether or not you get your attorney fees reimbursed if you have to go after one of these credit companies have taken off your credit report
Why was there no referral to the DOJ for a criminal prosecution?
Should discuss it with the officers of this companies families.
The commission should have also removed all of the principals from ever working in any financial institution for life.
I have found all sorts of errors in mine. They won't change it.
Hello Steve, I had an old debt from 2005. It was bought and sold around and the intial amount that was owed ballooned to about 2-3x the amount. I was just recently contacted by a company trying to collect on that debt last week, any advice for me here? Thank You
There is a time limit on old debts. Check your state's laws on how long. I don't know of any state that it is 15 years.
Hi Mike! I can give you some general advice. Do you know when you defaulted and what type of debt it was?
@@roxcyn Hello Roxcyn, it was a credit card debt.
@@mikedahmongboy - and when did stop paying? 2005?
@@roxcyn yes
The ironing is perfect ☺️
and delicious!
I hate ironing.
Was the false item on your credit report for a second cable modem you didn't return? 🤔
I was leading an investigation into debt collection practices when with the US Senate. There are a lot of violations of the FDCPA that are ignored because it was left to the state Attorney generals to take action.
Had a debt collector contact me for my mother's credit card debts after she died. He told me I should pay them "because it was my obligation as her son" . I asked if my name was on the card; he said "no". I told him to pound sand.
It is amazing how many people and companies have direct access to a consumers credit report. Anything can be assigned to a credit rating with no over sight. And you will play hell getting something removed.
Once I owed $60 to a hospital that I didn't even know I owed and it went to a collection agency. When they contacted me I told them to send me the original or confirm that I owed the hospital the money. They simply didn't call me again but they put a $6,000 debt on my credit report that I found when I went to buy a car.
none of this matters unless the owners, managers and employees of these companies get criminally prosecuted and sent to jail if found guilty. even a low level employee can be guilty if they see thousands of complaints every month with no resolution. only if they are held accountable will they speak up and/or quit and by that stop those schemes.
I had to file a chapter 7 BK about 2 years ago. At the time I owned my own home and had a rental property. The Federal Judge allowed me to retain both properties. However, my mortgage company (for my owner occupied house) has reported on my credit report that I actually filed the chapter 7 BK against that mortgage in effect seriously damaging my credit score even further than it normally would have. This is a blatant lie being perpetrated against me for no reason at all. Especially, since I did not file against either mortgage. I am currently having it looked into by an attorney and if I find they have put this on my credit report illegally I will sue the mortgage company for every dime I can get out of them. This is pure 100% bull shit that a mortgage company can publish an out right lie about someone on their credit report.
I put a reminder on my calendar to check my credit report every four months. Since there are three credit reporting agencies, this works out to once a year per agency.
Thank You!
Bless Ms. Heather!
A day late & a dollar sort.
Posting on Facebook...
I have been a victim of this. A bad merchant on ebay with a 28% positive rating and out of business / sold to another person was trying to collect a bogus core charge / replacement cylinder head on some auto parts from over 5 years ago. The collection agency demanded hundreds of dollars even had the other owner on the phone. Unable to prove the case due to tracking numbers going stale in the UPS tracking system they still dinged my credit report even when I warned them what they were doing was illegal ! Company was in California.
Steve, Over the last 8 months I've been getting letters from a debt collections company for a debt with a well know telecommunications company that I have never done business with. The letters that they have been sending are addressed to a name that is "similar" to my first name. Please note I go by my middle name and have used it in 99% of all my business dealings over the years (I am currently 65). When the first notice of the debt was received I sent a letter back stating that this debt was not mine but they have ignored that and continue to send me statements. The last statement I received they offered a reduced amount (half of the original amount) and said everything would be settled if I would just send them the payment for the reduced amount lol. These folks are obviously fishing and I have no idea if what they are doing is legal or not. I've kept all of the statements just in case but otherwise I'm just ignoring them and just living my life lol.
I know someone who received a bill from a debt collection agency.Debt wasn't their's. Asked be a copy of the bill to show it was there's. Agency refused to do this. The following might help you: www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/are-there-laws-that-limit-what-debt-collectors-can-say-or-do-en-329/
My daughter got a letter that said if she didn’t respond within 30 days. Then wanted her PII to verify she was the target person. We responded with denial and questioned their privacy practices and complained about their processes. The hospital was 6 hours away and the charge was for an MRI that I’m sure belonged to the 83 year old woman who lives nearby with the same name. We never heard back.
A while ago (over 20 years), I was approached to invest in a company that bought "stale debt", that was beyond the statue of limitations. These were bought for $.25 for $100 of debt (yes, a quarter for $100). Their idea was to get someone to pay a little bit to "restart" the debt and make it good again. Needless to say, I didn't invest.
They're called "zombie debts" (because if you acknowledge them, they become "reanimated", i.e. the statute of limitations begins anew) and a lot of people will just pay them instead of fighting with collections because they're afraid of getting sued and/or can't afford a lawyer to look over the situation and send a C&D.
We had a bunch of debt collectors sending us letters and calling us multiple times per day for a lady we didn't know. We kept telling them that they didn't live there and had never lived there. One threatened to show up with the police... We said sure we were home and would be waiting, they never showed. We eventually sent a signed and notarized letter stating that we did not know this person listing our address, our phone number and that if they continued calling us we would pursue legal action.
What was going on is this lady was putting our address and phone number down as hers when she would rack up some debt, when we threatened the collection agency they investigated and had her arrested for fraud. We haven't had a contact from a single collection agent since.
If the FTC is getting that many complaints a month and 80-90% of the debts are invalid it sounds like the credit agency should be held accountable for allowing this to happen.
Another example of why laws regarding liability and corporations need reform. The principle operators of corporations know it relatively easy to avoid the penalties for their actions since a judgement is against the corporation; all they have to do is liquidate and migrate to rerun the same malfeasance under a different corporate name.
who are these people and why aren't these people in JAIL
the same one that put that law in force....
At least part of this problem is the credit reporting agencies. They're rather criminal enterprises themselves...
I had a debt collector try to collect a debt that I paid when I sold my condo.
Would love to know the dissenting commisioners rationale.
They were paid off.
Probably owns stock in the company.
From the NYT article: Rohit Chopra, one of the trade commission’s five members, voted against the settlement and criticized it as inadequate. In a statement, he said he disagreed with the terms because the defendants were not barred from working in the debt collection industry and consumers “will receive almost no help whatsoever.”
Mr. Chopra said he would like to see the F.T.C. work closely with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on such cases because that could help victims qualify for compensation from the bureau’s civil penalty fund.
Also, he said, a “systemic fix” for debt parking probably requires the major credit-reporting bureaus - Equifax, Experian and TransUnion - to take action to cut off debts submitted by problem collection firms.
@@markwhi1 Thanks for the info. Not agreeing with a vote by others doesn't always mean you're against what they're doing. Whether it's something like this, or even legislative action, sometimes the vote is against doing something inadequate.
There are so many issues with companies having unfettered incentive to mess with credit scores that it should be changed to only allow debts to be registered by a court judgment.