Top Debt Collector Now Owes Record $3.2M Penalty for Harassing Consumers, FTC Says

The world?s largest debt collection outfit, Expert Global Solutions and its subsidiaries, has agreed to pay a $3.2 million civil penalty, the largest ever obtained by the Federal Trade Commission against a third-party debt collector.

The FTC also said Tuesday that Expert Global Solutions has ?agreed to stop harassing consumers with allegedly illegal debt collection calls.?

In its complaint, the FTC charged that the debt collection operation violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the FTC Act by using tactics such as

?? calling consumers multiple times per day,

?? calling even after being asked to stop,

?? calling early in the morning or late at night,

?? calling consumers? workplaces despite knowing that the employers prohibited such calls,

?? leaving phone messages that disclosed the debtor?s name, and the existence of the debt, to third parties.

With more than 32,000 employees and revenues in 2011 of more than $1.2 billion, the Texas-based Expert Global Solutions and its subsidiaries ? ALW Sourcing; NCO Financial Systems; and Transworld Systems, which also does business as North Shore Agency ? collectively are the largest debt collector in the world.

In addition to their U.S. offices, the companies operate in Canada, Barbados, India, the Philippines, and Panama.

According to the FTC?s complaint, the companies also continued collection efforts without verifying the debt, even after consumers said they did not owe it.

Under the proposed FTC order, whenever a consumer disputes the validity or the amount of the debt, the Expert Global Solutions companies must either close the account and end collection efforts, or suspend collection until they have conducted a reasonable investigation and verified that their information about the debt is accurate and complete.

The proposed order also restricts situations in which the debt collectors can leave voicemails that disclose the alleged debtor?s name and the fact that he or she may owe a debt.

Also under the proposed order, the debt collectors must:

• stop falsely representing that they will not call a number to collect a debt;
• not harass, oppress, or abuse a consumer while attempting to collect a debt;
• not communicate with third parties about a consumer?s debt;
• not communicate with a consumer at his or her workplace if it is clearly inconvenient or prohibited by the consumer?s employer;
• except in limited circumstances, cease communications if a consumer has requested no further contact or if a consumer refuses to pay a debt;
• and not violate any provision of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

The Expert Global operation is required to record at least 75 percent of all their debt collection calls beginning one year after the date of the order, and retain the recordings for 90 days after they are made, the FTC said.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ecreditdailycom/~3/DjstocduUkc/

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