If you are called by a collection agency (debt collector, junk debt buyer) it is never a good idea to give them any information over the phone. Anything they need to convey to you should be in writing whether it is your debt or whether they are making a mistake which happens a lot. In any event they must inform you of your right to request written validation of the debt within 5 days of calling you. If this is not done they are in violation of the Fair Collection Practices Act. If you have caller id and do not recognize the number (“private name, private number or some 800# )don’t even answer the phone. The only purpose of these phone calls is to convince you to agree to make payments or to give personal information which under no circumstances should you ever do over the phone.
It is advisable to keep a written log of calls you receive if they become incessant or take on the nature of harassment, i.e/ many calls during the day, made to neighbors or relatives, to your place of work or directly to your employer. Additionally you should transpose the audio of these calls from your answering machine to a more secure or permanent location such as a computer hard drive or a flash drive. You can email me for specifics(stopthecallsfast at gmail.com). If you are receiving more than 2 phone calls a day from a debt collector and even if they are between 8:00 AM and 9:00PM the conduct of the debt collector just might be in violation of the FDCPA and if they are to your cellphone then also Telephone Consumer’s Protection Act which I will get to in a bit.
The following explanation of the relationship of the Telephone Consumer’s Protection Act to debt collector abuses is through the courtesy of PRweb:
Phoenix, AZ (PRWEB) June 07, 2011
Receiving repeated invasive phone calls from a debt collector on your cell phone can be a major nuisance. But even more annoying is the cell phone collection call from an auto-dialer or robocall, featuring a pre-recorded, computer generated voice, attempting to collect a debt. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act(TCPA) was enacted primarily to protect consumers from telemarketing calls, or unwanted telephone solicitation, which led to the creation of the “Do not call” registry list. According to consumer protection law firm Weisberg & Meyers, LLC, many consumers are not aware that this same act now offers protection from predictive or auto-dialer calls to your cell phone without your consent
In the past, debt collectors would manually dial a phone number. Now, “thanks to modern technology” and increased efforts for greater time efficiency in the debt collection industry, collectors are using computers, aka “auto” or “predictive” dialers to make the calls on their behalf. Debt collection calls from an auto-dialer have a specific format and script. “Please hold for the next available representative” is usually the opening line followed by a short delay. The delay or pause, whether at the beginning of the call or after the opening line is typically the marker of an auto-dialer. A recent Federal Study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the percentage of cell phone only homes in the US has doubled over the last three years. Thus contact from debt collectors has begun to turn toward debtors cell phones rather than home phones in an effort to collect overdue bills.
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act states that the requirement for debt collection calls is the same as it is for auto dialed calls from solicitors – if you did not give consent for contact via your cell phone then these calls could be a violation of the TCPA. If this occurs you could be entitled to $500 damages per call if it’s determined that the calls are a violation of the TCPA. You could potentially receive triple damages if you can prove that the phone calls were made knowingly and with intent.
According to a complaint filed in the United States District Court, Eastern District of New York (Civil Action File No.1:10-cv-00173- JBW-MDG) consumer Marco Rafala was receiving calls from a debt collector from collection agency Nelson, Watson & Associates on his cell phone, attempting to collect a debt for a female that he did not know or has never been familiar with. Since the cell phone number belonged to Mr. Rafala for 4+ years, he informed the collector calling that the party they were attempting to reach was not at this number He added that the female they were attempting to contact could not have had this number for 4 or more years. The calls allegedly continued in spite of Mr. Rafala’s documented verbal request to “stop calling me” and Mr. Rafala was allegedly informed that this number would not be removed from the auto-dialer rotation.
According to Weisberg and Meyers consumer advocate Dennis Kurz, “A seemingly endless barrage of phone calls from a debt collector to your cell phone can be annoying, but the fact that the calls to Mr. Rafala were for an alleged debt for another consumer made the situation even worse.” Kurz, who manages the New York practice for Weisberg and Meyers added, “The FDCPA and the TCPA were enacted to protect consumers from harassment and illegal procedures debt collectors may use, and if it’s determined these calls were violations, the a consumer could be entitled to compensation in addition to cessation of the calls.”
For a modest investment of less than $40.00 I teach you through my proven self help system how to deal with problems such as those discussed above and many others. Why is it proven? The answer is simple, I myself had to use it personally when my life tanked some years ago. So what you are being offered is not poppy cock or smoke and mirrors but the real thing. Please check out the tab labeled “How To Stop The Calls” at the top of this page. Thank you.
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