Bad times for banks are also bad times for their customers. Now that the body count of dead banks has zipped past 100 (with a bullet), vermin are crawling out of the sewers to take advantage of the bad news. The FDIC issued a warning yesterday of a fraudulent e-mail that purports to be from the FDIC, states that the customer's bank has failed, and attempts to get the recipient to divulge account information so that the crooks can loot the customer's account. Beware of bottom feeders.
Another charming result of the current economic woes is one highlighted by Alain Sherter at BNet: rough tactics by collection agencies.
Complaints about debt collection rose 34 percent from 2004 to 2008, according to a new FTC report.
The agency last year received roughly 79,000 complaints regarding those third-party debt collection services everyone loves so much. That amounted to nearly one-fifth of all consumer complaints to the FTC.
The most common complaints about debt collectors involved, in order of prevalence: (1) misrepresentation of the amount or legal status of a debt; (2) excessive telephone calls; (3) telephone calls from collectors looking for other individuals; (4) use of obscene, profane or abusive language; and (5) threatening to sue if payment was not made.
While it's always risky (although often fun) to make broad generalizations about any group, I think I'll make one: too many debt collectors are scum, and the scum are tarring the segment of the business that tries to operate within the limits of the law. A recent run-in with a national bill collection firm on behalf of a pro bono client makes me lose that warm and fuzzy feeling I used to get whenever the term "debt collector" was uttered. Some of these losers deliberately flaunt the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act and seem to believe that paying civil fines for violating it (and its state counterparts) are simply a cost of doing business. They should be slapped down and slapped down hard.
