Fair Debt Collection
Practices Act (Section 812)
Section 12 of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
prohibits any party, (i.e., debt collector, creditor, etc.)
from designing and furnishing forms, knowing they are or will
be used to deceive a consumer to believe that someone other
than the creditor is collecting the debt. This debt collection
trick has been used for ages and in some cases is still being
used when rogue debt collectors know they can get away with it.
With the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, this illegal act
comes with a civil liability on parties who supply such
forms.
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SECTION 812 -- Furnishing
Certain Deceptive
Forms
Section
812 prohibits any
party from designing and
furnishing forms, knowing they
are or will be used to deceive
a consumer to believe that
someone other than his creditor
is collecting the debt, and
imposes FDCPA civil liability
on parties who supply such
forms.
1.
Practice
prohibited. This
section prohibits the
practice of selling to
creditors dunning letters
that falsely imply that a
debt collector is
participating in collection
of the debt, when in fact
only the creditor is
collecting.
2.
Coverage.
This section applies to
anyone who designs,
complies, or furnishes the
forms prohibited by this
section.
3.
Pre-collection
letters. A form
seller may not furnish a
creditor with (1) a letter
on a collector's letterhead
to be used when the
collector is not involved
in collecting the
creditor's debts, or (2) a
letter indicating "copy to
(the collector)" if the
collector is not
participating in collecting
the creditor's debt. A form
seller may not avoid
liability by including a
statement in the text of a
form letter that the sender
has not yet been assigned
the account for collection,
if the communication as a
whole, using the
collector's letterhead,
represents
otherwise.
4.
Knowledge
required. A
party does not violate this
provision unless he knows
or should have known that
his form letter will be
used to mislead consumers
into believing that someone
other than the creditor is
involved in collecting the
debt.
5.
Participation by debt
collector. A
debt collector that uses
letters as his only
collection tool does not
violate this section,
merely because he charges a
flat rate per letter, if he
is meaningfully
"participating in the
collection of a debt." The
consumer is not misled in
such cases, as he would be
in the case of a party who
supplied the creditor with
form letters and provided
little or no additional
service in the collection
process. The performance of
other tasks associated with
collection (e.g., handling
verification requests,
negotiating payment
arrangements, keeping
individual records) is
evidence that such a party
is "participating in the
collection."
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- Fair Debt
Collection Practices Act - 801
Remember, I told that the Fair Debt Collection Practices
Act was a short read. Well Section 801, called the Short
Title is barely one paragraph. However, it sets the stage
for how debt collectors can and cannot contact you and
starts the process to help you properly deal with your
debts.
- Fair Debt
Collection Practices Act - 802
Section 2 of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act focuses
on putting a stop to abusive, deceptive, and unfair debt
collection practices and tactics used by many debt
collectors. You should NEVER bow down or cower under to
pressure from any debt collector! You have rights, learn
how to enforce them.
- Fair Debt
Collection Practices Act - 803
Section 3 of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act focuses
on defining terms and clarifying definitions such as debt,
debtor, creditor, overdue obligations, debt collector and
more. This step is critically important especially when you
are talking about paying and collecting debts.
- Fair Debt
Collection Practices Act - 804
Section 4 of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act focuses
on how debt collectors are governed by law concerning how
they acquire information on a debtor’s whereabouts. Prior
to this law, (and even after it was signed into
legislation) many debt collectors would set about to
embarrass, scare, coerce, browbeat and harass...
- Fair Debt
Collection Practices Act - 805
Section 5 of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act deals
with the parameters of how debt collectors can and cannot
contact debtors. Without this vital section of law in
place, rest assured - debt collectors would be calling you
24 hours a day, at home, on your job, and even at the homes
of your family members, friends and relatives.
- Fair Debt
Collection Practices Act - 806
Section 6 of the Fair
Debt Collection Practices Act deals putting a stop to
abusive and harassing tactics used debt collectors and debt
collection companies. Prior to this section of the Fair
Debt Collection Practices Act, debt collectors would use
obscene, profane, or abusive language in an attempt to
collect on past due bills.
- Fair Debt
Collection Practices Act - 807
Section 7 of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
addresses the tactic of using false and misleading
information to collect debts. Debt collectors still use
deceptive schemes such as falsely persuading debtors into
believing their wages are about to be garnished or their
assets are about to be repossessed in order to coerce them
into making payments.
- Fair Debt
Collection Practices Act - 808
Section 8 of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
addresses unconscionable acts by debt collectors designed
to embarrass and shame people who owe money. These mean
spirited debt collectors use embarrassing tricks such as
mailing transparent envelopes and postcards with account
information about the debtor in plain view to any and
everyone who sees the mailing.
- Fair Debt
Collection Practices Act - 809
Section 9 of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
addresses the issue of confirming if the debtor in question
actually owes the alleged debt. If the step wasn’t in place
we would literally fall back in time to the days of the
wild wild west, when people were falsely accused of a
crime, arrested tried and convicted based solely upon
suspicion/intuition.
- Fair Debt
Collection Practices Act - 810
Section 10 of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
eliminates a tremendous amount of debt collection smoke
screens, subterfuge and bait and switch tactics. Let’s say
a debt collector contacts a person who has multiple
accounts assigned to them by the debt collection
company.
- Fair Debt
Collection Practices Act - 811
Section 11 of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
directly impacts how debt collectors can and cannot take
legal action against an alleged debtor. This provision of
the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is extremely crucial
because debt collection companies would file a lawsuit
against you in the next state and force you to appear three
hundred miles from your residence, if the law allowed
it.
- Fair Debt
Collection Practices Act - 812
Section 12 of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
prohibits any party, (i.e., debt collector, creditor, etc.)
from designing and furnishing forms, knowing they are or
will be used to deceive a consumer to believe that someone
other than the creditor is collecting the debt.
- Fair Debt
Collection Practices Act - 813
Section 13 of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act sets
the parameters for placing debt collectors and debt
collection companies on notice. That means if they violate
any portion of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, they
have just subjected themselves to civil liability.
- Fair Debt
Collection Practices Act - 814
Section 14 of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act pretty
much details who is responsible for enforcing the FDCPA. No
debt collection company or debt collector wants to find
themselves on the opposite end of this stick.
- Fair Debt
Collection Practices Act - 815
Section 15 of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
actually deals with reporting and assessing the
effectiveness of the FDCPA and how debt collection
companies are complying with the rules set forth by the
FDCPA.
- Fair Debt
Collection Practices Act - 816
Section 16 of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act makes
a very great consideration for the consumer/debtor. When a
particular state has laws enforce to protect debtors and
those laws are equal to or greater than the Fair Debt
Collection Practices Act, those laws preempt the
FDCPA.
- Fair Debt
Collection Practices Act - 817
Section 17 of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act gives
the states with debt collection laws enforce the right to
enforce those laws. But that provision is only available if
that state’s laws are similar to or better than the Fair
Debt Collection Practices Act. If not, the FDCPA takes
effect.
- Fair Debt
Collection Practices Act - 818
Section 18 of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act pretty
much acknowledges the day FDCPA officially became an
enforceable law. That was the day debt collectors across
the nation all took a collective gasp for air.
Joel Marks has been helping people get out of
debt and avoid both bankruptcy and foreclosure for over fifteen
years. Utilizing savvy debt counseling, debt management
programs, Federal laws and a team of attorneys, debt
counselors and advisors, he has quietly assisted thousands come
from under the heavy burden debt.
For more information on this topic or any other issue
related to getting out of debt, living debt free, debt
management, debt relief, the Fair
Debt Collection Practices Act and stopping debt collectors in
their tracks, please visit www.DebtErasure.com
Source: http://debterasure.com/
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