Under the FDCPA, debt collectors can include collection agencies, debt buyers, and attorneys. Any debt collector covered by the FDCPA who contacts you regarding a debt must provide you with certain information about it. In deciding on Tepper, the Third Circuit was the first appellate court to issue a precedent decision addressing the applicability of the Supreme Court ruling in the Henson case to the FDCPA definition of a debt collector's primary purpose. But what about a debt that is in default? According to the FTC and several federal appellate courts, if the debt was in default when the company obtained it, the company's activities to collect it are covered by the FDCPA.
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) is a federal law that limits what debt collectors can do when they attempt to collect certain types of debts. Perhaps most importantly, however, the FDCPA establishes ethical guidelines for the collection of consumer debts. It is also a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) for a debt collector to threaten to garnish your salary if your salary cannot be legally garnished. The FDCPA prohibits debt collection companies from using abusive, unfair, or misleading to collect your debts.
Section 803 (of the FDCPA) defines a “debt collector” as “any person who uses any interstate commerce instrument or the mail in any business whose primary purpose is the collection of any debt, or who regularly collects or attempts to collect, directly or indirectly, debts due or overdue or who claims to owe or owe to another. The FDCPA covers the collection of debts that are primarily intended for personal, family, or household purposes. Therefore, under the FDCPA, the term debt collector generally includes the debt collection agencies, collection attorneys, and mortgage servicing entities that obtained the account in default. The FTC has gone to court to challenge FDCPA violations committed by companies that used other names to collect their own debts.
The FDCPA provides debtors with a means to challenge payment demands and to determine the validity and accuracy of declared debts. The FDCPA imposes numerous restrictions on what debt collectors can do when collecting debts and gives consumers certain rights and remedies against those who violate any of its provisions. The FDCPA even gives debtors the right to require that the outside collector cancel all other communications, but the demand must be made in writing. Congress created the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) to prohibit collectors from using unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices when collecting consumer debts.
Under the FDCPA, a debt collector is generally a third party who regularly engages in the business of collecting or attempting to collect debts owed to another person. Therefore, in addition to the charges filed under section 5, the lawsuit charged them with FDCPA violations, such as illegally garnishing consumers' paychecks and disclosing the existence of debts to people other than debtor.
