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June's Top Ethics Complaint: Wrong Contacts

Published: Friday, July 14, 2006

The top complaint received by ACA's Ethics Department in June concerned debt collectors allegedly continuing to contact the wrong person and continuing to contact the consumer at her place of employment after being told not to.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) requires that within five days of an initial communication with a consumer in connection with the collection of a debt, the debt collector must send the consumer a written notice, known as a validation notice. One of the primary purposes of the validation notice is to prevent a collector from collecting a debt from the wrong individual. This notice contains information regarding the debt and provides that the debt will be assumed to be valid by the debt collector unless the consumer disputes the validity of the debt within 30 days of receipt of the validation notice.

It further notifies the consumer that if she disputes the debt in writing, the collector will cease collection activities until verification is sent to the consumer. Upon receipt of such a request, the debt collector must cease all collection activity until he obtains verification from the creditor that the amount demanded is the amount owed by the consumer from whom the collector is attempting to collect and provides this information to the consumer. If no verification is available, the collector must cease all attempts to collect the debt.

Collectors must obey a consumer's oral request not to be contacted at certain times or not to receive calls at work; there is no requirement that such requests be made in writing. Therefore, if a consumer notifies a collector verbally that telephone calls are inconvenient, the collector should cease communicating with the consumer via telephone. The FDCPA also explicitly prohibits contacting a consumer at her place of employment if the debt collector has knowledge that such calls would be inherently inconvenient or if the collector has reason to know the employer prohibits such communication. Thus, if a consumer informs a debt collector that calls at her place of employment are inconvenient or prohibited, the debt collector may not continue to contact the consumer at work.

State law may further restrict a debt collector's ability to contact a consumer at her place of employment. For state regulations concerning communication with consumers via telephone and at the place of employment, please see "State Laws Governing Oral Communication with a Consumer,"