U.S. Gets Tougher on Debt Collecting

[alp227]

The Federal Trade Commission intensified its crackdown on the booming debt-collection industry, announcing a $2.5 million settlement with a company for allegedly coercing borrowers into paying debts they no longer legally owed.

The settlement with Asset Acceptance Capital Corp., one of the nation's largest buyers of soured consumer debts, is the second-biggest penalty ever levied by the FTC against a debt collector. Officials said they are investigating other companies for alleged violations of federal law and expect to announce more enforcement actions soon.

Google the title for full article, otherwise the link (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203920204577193283804868986.html leads) to paywall - I'm including link because previous thread was locked for not including link

[christx30]

1. They'll probably

make up the difference in 6 months. I think the next time they find a company doing these kind of shady things to people, they should simply take away the company's business license. You can't do your stuff above board, then you won't get to do it at all.

edited to add: I'm not coming down on the government for working on this kind of thing. Sure glad that they are. I just think I'd be a little harder on those people than Federal prosecuters. And I think being a little more harsh toward fraud like this would stop companies from doing this stuff.