• harass or abuse you in any way
• lie to you or mislead you
• use unfair business practices to collect a debt

What actions constitute harassment or abuse?

A debt collector may not engage in any conduct with the purpose to harass, oppress, or abuse any person in connection with the collection of a debt, including:

• Use or threaten to use violence or other criminal means to harm the physical person, reputation, or property of any person
• Threats to contact third parties
• Use obscene or profane language to abuse the hearer or reader
• Use intimidating, belittling, insulting, or criminal language or behavior
• Publish a list of consumers who allegedly refuse to pay debts, except to a consumer reporting agency
• Advertise the sale of any debt to coerce the payment of a debt
• Make telephone calls without disclosing the caller’s identity
• Calling the consumer at his or her place of employment to collect on the debt notwithstanding warnings on prior occasions that he or she could not talk at work or calling the consumer a large number of times after the consumer told the collector that the debt was paid and requested the debt collector to stop calling
• Cause a telephone to ring or engage any person in telephone conversation repeatedly or continuously with intent to annoy, abuse, or harass any person

. . . So how many is too many phone calls?

The point at which telephone calls become so frequent as to violate FDCPA § 806 depends on the circumstances.

• A debt collector is entitled to call the debtor more than once, unless the next call is immediately after the consumer demands no more calls and hangs up.
• The FTC has suggested that a call on the day before and the day after a promised payment was due would not violate the FDCPA, but six phone calls in a hour would.

Keeping a Collection Call Log is crucial to preserve evidence of harassment or abuse by a debt collector.  You will want to have the Collection Call Log available at all times so you can immediately record the: date, time, length of call, debt collector’s name, agency, and call-back number, type of call a (voicemail, live conversation, dial and hang up), and the content of the communication.  Remember to keep all voicemails and written communication received from a debt collector.

What are false or misleading representations?

A debt collector may not use any false, deceptive, or misleading representations or means in connection with the collection of any debt, such as:

• Falsely claim he or she is a government representative or a member of law enforcement
• Send a consumer written communication that simulates or is falsely represented to be an official document from a court or government agency
• Misrepresent the amount of debt owed, the legal status of the debt, or the compensation the debt collector may lawfully receive for the collection of a debt
• Falsely claim he or she is an attorney or that any communication is from an attorney
• Represent that he or she will seize, garnish, attach or sell your property or wages unless the debt collector is allowed to take such actions by law and intends to do so
• Threaten to take any legal action against you, if doing so would be illegal or if the debt collector doesn’t intend to take the action
• Falsely claim that the sale, referral, or transfer of a debt will cause the consumer to lose any claim or defense to the payment of the debt or cause the consumer to become subject to any practices prohibited by the FDCPA
• Falsely claim that the consumer committed any crime in order to disgrace the consumer
• Give or threaten to give false credit information about a consumer to anyone, including the failure to communicate a debt is disputed
• Use false or deceptive means to collect or attempt to collect any debt or to obtain information concerning a consumer
• Fail to disclose in the initial communication with the consumer that the debt collector is attempting to collect a debt and any information obtained can be used for that purpose
• Fail to disclose in subsequent communications, except legal pleadings, that the  communication is from is from a debt collector
• Falsely represent that papers sent to you are legal forms if they aren’tFalsely represent that papers sent to you aren’t legal forms if they are
• Falsely represent that a debt collector is employed by a consumer reporting agency
• Use a false name or company name
• Misrepresentation of the consumer’s legal rights under the FDCPA
• Falsely stating that a search of all consumer assets had been instigated
• Collect a settled debt
• Adding authorized charges to the collector’s claim falsely implying the charges were owed
• Making confusing statements about the amount to pay off or settle the debt
• Threatening to sue or suing on a time-barred debt or the same debt multiple times

What are unfair or deceptive practices?

The FDCPA states that a debt collector may not use unfair or unconscionable means to collect or attempt to collect any debt.

• Collect any interest, fee, charge, or expense on top of the amount you owe (the principle obligation) unless it is expressly authorized in the contract that created the debt or by state law
• Examples of potentially illegal charges include:
  
  • Noncontractural collection charges;
  • Interest charges;
  • Dishonored check charges;
  • Service charges;
  • Attorney fees;
  • Litigation fees;
  • Collection agency fees;
  • Late fees;
  • Prepayment fees;
  • Charges under dispute;
  • Taxes.
• Accept a check or other payment instrument that has been posted dated by more than five days unless the debt collector 1) notifies the consumer in writing that he or she intends to deposit the payment and 2) sends the written notification 10-3 days before the debt collector makes the deposit
• Deposit or threaten to deposit a post-dated check or other post-dated payment instrument early
• Conceal how he or she is contacting a consumer and then charge the consumer for the communication

Examples: fees from collect telephone calls or telegrams

• Contact a consumer by post card
• Take or threaten to take a consumer’s property unless it can be done legally.

This means that if . . .

• there is no present right to possession of the property claimed through an enforceable security interest;
• there is no present intention to take the property; or
• the property is exempt by law

. . .  the debt collector can’t take or threaten to take it.

• Use any language or symbol, other than the debt collector’s address, on any envelope when communicating with a consumer. A debt collector may use his business name if the name does not indicate that he or she is in the debt collection business.
• Threatening to contact unobligated third parties;
• Threatening to advise a creditor to sue, when such counseling by a collector constituted unauthorized practice of law under state law;
• Serving a consumer with a summons for a judgment debtor examination to be conducted in an improper venue under the FDCPA;
• Dunning letters, sent by a collector on law office stationary but actually from an in-house attorney, or signed by an outside attorney or other collector who had know knowledge of the debt.