Alamy A couple of weeks back, a debt collection agency based in Glendale, Calif., agreed to pay $1 million to settle complaints from the Federal Trade Commission over its business practices. The agency, which went by the name "National Attorney Collection Practices," had been harassing delinquent borrowers with debt collection notices bearing an illustration of Uncle Sam's fist upending some hapless soul and "shaking him down" for loose change. The harassment didn't end there. Targeting Spanish-speaking debtors and lower-income consumers who'd fallen behind on loans to payday lending operations, "National Attorney" inundated debtors with phone calls, postal mailings, and text messages to their cellphones that: falsely represented that its notices were coming from attorneys "unlawfully ... threatened legal action, arrest, imprisonment, or garnishment" if debtors didn't pay up and failed to include necessary "disclosures" advising debtors of their legal rights. In some cases, the FTC accused National Attorney of even sharing details about consumers' debts with their friends, family, and co-workers, apparently in an attempt to pressure the consumers into paying. And to top it all off, the FTC says that National Attorney "refused to provide their business address or validation letters to consumers, thereby depriving consumers of the right to send cease-and-desist letters or to dispute alleged debts." Summing up its charges, the FTC alleged that National Attorney "engaged in deceptive and unfair practices in almost every facet of their dealings with these consumers" -- and fined the company $1 million. Know Your Rights Of course, the FTC can't step in to stop every debt collector from breaking the law -- at least not in real time. So what can do to protect your rights, and prevent companies like National Attorney Collection Practices from taking advantage of you when the FTC's not looking? Well, the first step is knowing what your rights are.
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