I’m fortunate enough at this time not to have to deal with debt collectors, but I do get calls all the time from a collection agency looking for someone else who has the same last name as I do and who used to live in this area.  They are just randomly calling anyone they think can lead them to the person they are looking for and I get sick of the calls.  I  just may have to check out the laws on them doing that.

This is a long read but an interesting one.  Mr. Cunningham has armed himself with the law and decided to hold collection agencies to the law through law suits.  The problem is, of course, that at some point in time the collection agencies’ lobby will get the law changed to favor them.

Unlike his neighbors’ homes, Craig Cunningham’s house in Northeast Dallas looks abandoned. The grass is dried out. The concrete slab under the front door is lopsided and cracked. The green exterior has faded to a toxic-looking shade. Yellow Pages pile up near the front door, and the black mailbox is stuffed full. Maybe the home has been foreclosed on. That wouldn’t be a surprise in this economy.

But no, that’s not the case. Inside, the 29-year-old Cunningham hunkers his 6-foot-2-inch frame on a dumpy couch. His heavy arms extend from his sides, palms up, so two Chihuahuas, Angel and Chuay, can curl under them. Although it’s 10 a.m. on a weekday, he’s wearing slippers.

[snip]

While most Americans with unpaid bills dread the collector’s call, Cunningham sees them as lucrative opportunities. Many collection and credit card companies, intentionally or not, violate little-known consumer rights laws, and Cunningham’s favorite pastime is catching them doing so and then suing them. In fact, it’s a profitable side job.

[snp]

His new online friends pointed him to a number of federal and state statutes protecting consumers like him against overly aggressive and abusive debt collectors and a credit system stacked against the little guy. If you knew your rights, he learned on the message boards, you were very likely to catch a collector violating them. Then you could sue.

Cunningham armed himself with this knowledge, and the next time a debt collector called, the trap was set.

It didn’t take long. Cunningham had canceled a home alarm service with ADT Security after two months, and the company had billed him a $450 early termination fee, which he disputed. ADT sent his account to Equinox Financial Management Solutions, a third-party debt collector. The collection agency sent him a letter asking that he call back immediately. He dialed, armed with a voice recorder.

“Can you garnish my wages if I don’t pay?” he asked.

“Yes,” the voice on the other end of the line said.

“Can you put a lien on my house?”

“Yes.”

Wrong answers. Turns out, Texas consumer rights laws are some of the most consumer-friendly in the country. And according to a federal consumer protection law, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), debt collectors are prohibited from threatening legal action that would violate state laws. In this case, garnishing wages or putting a lien on Cunningham’s house would violate the Texas Debt Collection Act.

Cunningham knew he had a good enough case to file a lawsuit against the debt collection agency, and for his first lawsuit, he decided to enlist the help of a lawyer. Two months later, he had a check in his hand for $1,000.

[snip]

“The standard line from collection agencies is always, ‘Oh, gosh, no, we never violate.’…For the most part, the reality of it is you can sit down and find violation in almost every collection attempt made in America.”

Cunningham insists that the court system ignores lawsuits over frivolous violations. His cases, he claims, are built on true screw-ups. Cunningham won his first lawsuit, after all, after a collection company threatened to garnish his wages and put a lien on his house, both violations of Texas law.

[snip]

Up until now, everything was about making easy money for Cunningham. Now, it’s about justice—or at least what he sees as justice.

“When you or I make a mistake, they say, ‘Hey, tough nuts, be smarter next time, you know, bad luck, didn’t work out for ya,” he says. “When the fat cats on Wall Street make a mistake, they say, ‘Oh, national emergency! We’ve got to bail these guys out.”

REST OF ARTICLE

Thanks to Alisilver for the link and heads up on the article.