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| Jeffrey Freedman - Attorneys at Law | |||||
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DEBT COLLECTION PRACTICES (The questions
and answers below are courtesy of the NYS Consumer Protection Board at
www.consumer.state.ny.us)Q. Who is a debt
collector? A. Under federal law, a debt collector is any
person, other than the creditor, who regularly collects debts owed to others.
This also includes attorneys who collect debts on a regular basis. Q. Can a consumer stop a debt collector
from calling or sending "dunning" letters? A. You can stop a
collector from contacting you by writing a letter to the collection agency
telling them to stop. Once the debt collector receives your letter, it may not
contact you again except to say there will be no further contact. The collector
may notify you if it or the creditor intends to take some specific
action. Q. May a debt collector
contact anyone else about my debt? A. If you have an
attorney, the debt collector may not contact anyone other than your attorney. If
you do not have an attorney, a collector may contact other people, but only to
find out where you live and work. Collectors are usually prohibited from
contacting such permissible third parties more than once. In most cases, the
collector may not tell anyone other than you and your attorney that you owe
money. Q. Debt collectors have
been calling me all hours of the day and night. Can they do
this? A. It's against federal law for a bill collector who
works for a collection agency (as opposed to working in the collections
department of the creditor itself) to call a consumer before 8 a.m. or after 9
p.m. NY State law includes similar prohibitions. Q. What types of debt collection practices are
prohibited? A. Debt collectors may not harass, oppress, or
abuse anyone. For example, debt collectors may not use threats of violence or
harm against the person, property or reputation, use obscene or profane
language; repeatedly use the telephone to annoy someone, and other
violations. |
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