Stop Debt Collectors Harassment

Many people have fallen behind on credit card payments or have otherwise been unable to make payments against their revolving accounts due to the current recession. Debt collection activity is at a record high.

Debtors are not the only ones affected by this. Debt collection companies often employ automated computerized dialers (otherwise known as “robo calls” or “robo calling”). This means that many people find themselves receiving automated calls from debt collection companies that are simply dialing the wrong number!

You usually know when a call is a debt collection call when the caller or message stated that it is a “personal business matter” or “call for John Doe regarding a personal business matter.” Other times the call message will state that it is a call for “John Doe, if you are not John Doe, please terminate this call, if you are John Doe please hold for an important message regarding a personal business matter.”

Regardless whether you owe a debt or not, if you are receiving calls from a collection company, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act or FDCPA applies. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act or FDCPA is a set of federal statutes that regulates what a debt collection company can and cannot do to collect a debt. For example, if you receive a call for someone that you don’t know or even someone that you do know, but you tell the debt collection company not to call anymore, that the person they are trying to reach is not there or you will not assist them in locating that person, giving them their number, etc. – the debt collection company CANNOT CALL BACK.

If they call back even once, under most circumstances they have violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act or FDCPA! What is the result? You are entitled to recover up to $1,000.00! Most people would think that they just don’t know how to collect such money and certainly aren’t going to pay a lawyer for help. When enacting the law, the federal government realized this too! So the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act provides that a debt collection company found in violation must pay the plaintiff’s attorney’s fees! As a result, many attorneys will take such cases on a contingency-fee basis. This means that you can hire an attorney without paying anything out of pocket regardless whether they are successful in collecting the statutory damages up to $1,000 for you or not!

Other common violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act or FDCPA include receiving repeated calls from a debt collection company that a reasonable person would find to be harassing. You can collection up to $1,000 in damages. One gentleman collected $4,000 from a combined four debt collectors in the course of single year after installing a new phone line. The violating companies called his number up to 5-6 times per week! He had no obligation to answer the phone and try to inform them they had the wrong number. It is up to the debt collection company to be responsible in dialing the correct number and not making excessive calls.