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Debt Collectors and Your Rights:
Here is what a debt collector may NOT say or do:
Under the provisions of U.S. Federal Law, The Fair Debt Collection
Practices Act, debt collectors may not:
- use threats of violence or harm;
- publish a list of consumers who refuse to pay their debts (except to a
credit bureau);
- use obscene or profane language; or repeatedly use the telephone to
annoy someone.
- give false credit information about you to anyone, including a credit
bureau;
- send you anything that looks like an official document from a court or
government agency when it is not; or
- use a false name.
-
Imply that failure to pay the debt could result in arrest,
imprisonment, or garnishment of wages;
-
Call consumers at work when they knew the consumers'
employers prohibited such calls;
-
Talk with third parties, including neighbors, children, and
employers, for purposes other than acquiring location information about
consumers, without consumers' consent;
-
Cause the telephone to ring, or engage a person in telephone
conversations, repeatedly or continuously, with the intent to annoy, abuse,
or harass a consumer;
-
Threaten to take action -- such as filing a lawsuit -- when
they did not intend to do so;
-
Call consumers at times or places that they knew or should
have known were inconvenient;
-
Fail to notify consumers of their right to dispute and
obtain verification of their debts, and to obtain the name of the original
creditor
-
Continue to try to collect debts after consumers disputed
them in writing, and before verifying the debts.
-
Use obscene or profane language
-
collect any amount greater than your debt, unless your state law permits
such
a charge;
- deposit a post-dated check prematurely;
- use deception to make you accept collect calls or pay for telegrams;
- take or threaten to take your property unless this can be done legally;
or
- contact you by postcard.
Debt collectors
may not make false statements. Debt collectors may not
use any false or misleading statements when collecting a debt. For example, debt
collectors may not:
- falsely imply that they are attorneys or government representatives;
- falsely imply that you have committed a crime;
- falsely represent that they operate or work for a credit bureau;
- misrepresent the amount of your debt;
- indicate that papers being sent to you are legal forms when they are
not; or
- indicate that papers being sent to you are not legal forms when they
are.
Debt collectors also may not state that:
- you will be arrested if you do not pay your debt;
- they will seize, garnish, attach, or sell your property or wages, unless
the collection agency or creditor intends to do so, and it is legal to do
so; or
- actions, such as a lawsuit, will be taken against you, when such action
legally may not be taken, or when they do not intend to take such action.
More Resources
The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent,
deceptive and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide
information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a
complaint or to get
free
information on consumer issues, visit
www.ftc.gov or call
toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The FTC enters
Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into
Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to hundreds of civil
and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.
If you believe you may have fallen victim to an internet scam and wish to
report it, please file a complaint
with the U.S. government
Internet Fraud Complaints
Center
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