The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) is a Federal act designed to help protect consumers from collection agencies, debt collectors, and collection attorneys who harass, abuse, threaten, or intimidate consumers. The FDCPA applies to collection agencies, creditors using false names, creditors collecting for other creditors, collection attorneys, purchasers of old and delinquent debt, repossession companies, and suppliers or designers of deceptive collection letters (forms). It is important to keep in mind that the FDCPA typically excludes creditors collecting their own debts, which includes banks and credit card companies like Visa, MasterCard, and American Express.

The debt collection industry has historically been very abusive to the consumer. Lawmakers originally designed the FDCPA to allow consumers to have a chance to help regulate this abusive industry. Despite its abusive nature, a few debt collectors do not violate state and federal laws, but because of the sheer volume of high consumer debt, many debt collectors go unpunished and even unnoticed for violating the FDCPA. Their violations often lead to consumers paying debt that they may not have had to pay.
Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act consumers may receive $1,000.00 in statutory damages, together with actual damages, plus attorneys fees and costs.

Creditors collecting various kinds of debt including credit card debt, hospital bills, phone bills, mortgages, and leases violate the FDCPA every day, and continue to do so because many people do not know what constitutes a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

If you or someone you know has been the victim of any one of the following violations of the FDCPA: contacting consumers at inconvenient times; making repetitive phone calls; harassment and verbal abuse; threatening to harm ones person or reputation; contacting a consumer when the debt collector knows that the consumer is represented by an attorney; contacting a consumer if the debt collector knows the debt is disputed and the consumer has requested verification of the debt, please document the communication and contact HOWARD | NASSIRI LLP for a free consultation