After allegedly misleading consumers into paying unnecessary fees and falsely threatening consumers with lawsuits, defendants in a debt collection operation have agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges. The FTC alleged in its complaint that the defendants – a debt buyer and a debt collection law firm, both based in Mississippi – violated the FTC…
Before announcing its acquisition today of Asset Acceptance, Encore Capital Group (aka “Midland Funding”, “Midland Credit Management” and “MCM”) boasted that it has one out of every nine collection “accounts”. In the $200 million purchase of Asset Acceptance, Encore is adding millions more in receivables to its portfolio, claimed from financially distressed consumers. Encore Capital,…
Payday Lenders Using Rent-A-Tribe Scam Enjoy Sovereign Protection from Law Suits and State Oversight
A report by the Center for Public Integrity, says that Internet-based payday lenders operating in California, New Mexico, West Virginia and Colorado are claiming to be “tribal enterprises” of Native Americans, providing them certain benefits of sovereignty, including immunity from lawsuits and state oversight. But one sensational case in Kansas is gaining media attention and…
Action News Reports Palisades Collections Waged War on United States Military Veteran with Impeccable Credit Score CreditLaw.com attorney, Amy Bennecoff, sat down with Action News’ Nydia Han to talk about the case of Frank Stack v. Palisades Collections, warning viewers about the deceptive practices of the New Jersey-based debt collector and advising consumers of their…
With 12.5 million Americans unemployed and many facing inevitable debt harassment, consumers are turning to online payday loans, often with obscene interest rates in excess of 500 percent, to make ends meet. To the financially strapped, worrying about today has displaced planning for tomorrow, virtually assuring future financial problems, ruinous effects to their credit report…
Residents of Minnesota are turning to high-interest payday loans and other services outside the mainstream banking system, controversial enterprises that operate through a loophole to dodge state restrictions. The demand for these types of loans more than doubled in recent years, from 170,000 loans in 2007 to 350,000 in 2011, the highest reported to the…
FTC Takes Action in Pay Day Loan Scam, Financially Vulnerable Consumers Should Be Vigilant Of Others
On February 20th, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced victory, at least temporarily, in halting unauthorized credit card transactions involving thousands of consumers. The scammers charged credit cards for non-existent goods and services totaling more than $25 million, targeting financially vulnerable consumers who had at some point prior to the transaction, applied for a pay…
At the Federal Trade Commission’ request, a federal court has temporarily halted an operation that allegedly used an intricate web of concealment to debit hundreds of thousands of consumers’ bank accounts and bill their credit cards more than $25 million without their consent. The court also froze the defendants’ assets and appointed a receiver to…
Check Your Credit Report for Free Using AnnualCreditReport.com & Dispute Suspicious Activity A recent congressionally-mandated study of the U.S. credit reporting industry, by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), found that five percent of consumers had errors on one of their three major credit reports. The results make it clear that consumers should check their reports…
NBC News recently exposed credit reporting agency Equifax’s practice of selling 190 million employment and salary records, covering more than one-third of U.S. adults, to debt collectors, financial service companies and other entities under its subsidiary, The Work Number. Odds are you are among the unsuspecting victims, which can result in debt harassment. Here is…