By The Collections Agitator
Are you aware of the recent happenings at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau?
As a parting gift to U.S. citizens and residents, the administration has given debt collectors increased access to you! Lisa L Gills, Consumer Reports (Oct. 30) article outlines, Starting October 30, 2021, debt collectors can start contacting you via email and text, or direct message you on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, etc. This seemingly works around current communication protections of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), The Telephone Consumer Protection Act and other consumer protection initiatives. So, you may want to update your social media settings so as not to broadcast possible delinquencies owed to Macy’s, ConEd, Big-O Tires, Belk’s, or whomever.
Tribe, this increased access does not correlate to enhanced collection due diligence requirements-but exactly the opposite. DC would be empowered to initiate legal action against you without needing to prove the debt is yours, confirm the consumer’s identity, or verify the amount owed. That is not all. They can also contact you up to seven times per week per account. If you have multiple real or alleged delinquent debts and can be contacted up to 7 times a week per account— do the math. Yeah! Handling the avalanche of calls, emails, text, and social media contacts becomes your side hustle. If you weren’t tech-savvy before, the new provision is your master course.
I just want to be left alone!
This new rule puts the oneness on the consumer to purposely opt-out of the new communication pathways. Tell me Tribe, how many of you know people that follow government publications on rulings and updates and those sorts of communiqués–exactly. The new rules document exceeds six hundred pages. The average person will not be aware of their rights nor the steps to constrain this new intrusion in their lives. The new rules are “insanity” for consumes says Tampa’s Consumer Protection Firm founder Bill Howard, Esq. quoted in the Consumer Reports article.
There are some consumer “gifts,” including debt collectors’ three-year record retention requirements. Debt that’s been settled, discharged or already paid may not be transferred or sold for consideration. Also, where a debt results from identity theft and the debt collector is on notice, they are prohibited from pursuing collection, selling or transferring that debt for consideration.
Some presents you want to return
Note these are not the final parting shots. The CFPB’s additional final rulings are due next month; what those will entail is uncertain. As I said last time, let’s see where President Biden lands because candidate Biden shared a bold vision for heightened consumer protections.
Your immediate Tasks: Contact your federal congressional representatives and tell them to bar implementation and rewrite CFPB rulings to protect consumers as chartered rather than give corporations munitions against their voting constituents.