FTC Returning More Than $2.7 Million to Consumers Scammed in Debt Collection Scheme

Consumer Finance Debt Collection FTC FDCPA

On March 30, the FTC announced that it is mailing checks to 5,232 consumers who lost money as part of a debt collection scheme that cheated consumers out of more than $2.7 million. The compensation follows a 2011 complaint filed by the Commission that was settled in 2014, in which the two principal owners (Defendants) of the debt collection company were ordered to surrender more than $3.3 million worth of assets to be paid to the victims. Defendants were also permanently banned from the debt collection business and prohibited from falsely representing any financial products or services. The charges in the complaint allege Defendants (and others) violated the FTC Act and FDCPA by: (i) calling consumers and posing as process servers attempting to “deliver legal papers . . . purportedly related to a lawsuit”; (ii) threatening consumers with arrest if they did not respond to the calls; and (iii) masquerading as attorneys or law office employees demanding consumers pay legal fees where, in many instances, “consumers did not even owe the debt the defendants were trying to collect.” According to the Commission’s March 30 announcement, consumers who lost money will receive the full amount of fraudulent fees Defendants added to their debt.