Nope that's actually illegal

Most of the rich people in this thread probably don't even realize that half of America lives paycheck to paycheck. When they're struggling to feed themselves and their families their first priority probably isn't the 700 credit card debt they still owe

A debt collector is someone who collects a debt usually on someone else's behalf. Meaning technically the debt wasn't owed to them (it may now have been purchased by them or the company they act on behalf of).

Not sure why you are arguing about it.

I never said anything about legality just simply discussed the standard definition.

DEFINITION of 'Debt Collector'

A company or agency that is in the business of recovering money that is owed on delinquent accounts. Many debt collectors are hired by companies to which money is owed by debtors, operating for a fee or for a percentage of the total amount collected. Some debt collectors are debt buyers; these companies purchase debt at a fraction of its face value and then attempt to recover the full amount of the debt.

But keep going with your pointless arguments if you like even though they bear no relevance to anything I said

I'm 99% sure this guy was one of the fish on "Poker Night in America" for a few weeks when they played in Philly or Atlantic City

Great, sounds like more laws to protect scumbags who spend more then they can afford to. IMO, these guys didn't do anything wrong. Kind of like smoking weed, it's illegal most places, but is it wrong?

It's called the law. You give credit you have limitations on what you can do to collect the money. Hence, interest, fees, etc.

You're equating illegal with wrong - he isn't.

Ha yep, it was him.

Its typical internet "journalism". Take a subject, make a clickbait title, and twist the contents of your source to read as something much more sensational.

meh, read through the release a little. They were contacting debtors and telling them they had committed a check fraud to get them to make immediate payments. Not sure that the defendant is being charged with fraud, unless its for lying. A lot of the notes talk about "victims" with serious health problems like that clears them of their debt. Seems like pretty typical scummy collections stuff.

So what's your limit for where scummy collections becomes criminal?

You think it's okay to say "I know people in the DA's office and I'm going to get you arrested if you don't pay me."

Is it okay to say "I'm going to come and beat you up if you don't pay me."

Is it okay to send a man to your kids' schoolhouse and tell you "Your children will be in danger if you don't pay me."

Is it okay to hold a loaded gun to your head and say "I'm going to shoot you if you don't pay me."

The point is, whatever your opinion is about people who run up debts, there has to be a limit to what is an acceptable method of collections. Those limits are stipulated in the law and if you are in the collections business your obligation is to know what you are permitted to do.

I think there is a difference between unfortunate things that cause debt like health issues or death in the family etc (would even include school loans) and people making mistakes with money that cause them to end up in debt. In the first case there should be forgiveness for and in the second case people should be accountable for their actions. Stereotyping all debt as frivolous and noncollectable is pretty dangerous.

The sad fact is the system is set up so that debt that is caused by frivolous expenses can be forgiven and those caused by meaningful sources are unforgivable. So in actuality the system is causing the problem. Hence why people are bitter toward the situation.

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hahaha

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This.

The reason we have laws in America like the Fair Debt Collections Practice Act is to keep debt collectors from acting like loan sharks.

For the record, it is not difficult to discharge medical debt in Chapter 7 (liquidation bankruptcy). Federal student loans are still very difficult to get rid of, however. But the bankruptcy bill that Wall St and the banks pushed through Congress in 2005 actually made it harder to discharge credit card debt than it is to discharge money owed to medical providers. Another example of Washington bending us all over for the big banks.

They were representing themselves as part of a government agency at times. They also lied and said they were collecting on debts for some companies when they really weren't. One company had contacted them and told them to stop claiming they were collecting on debts for them when they really weren't. So they were sometimes just trying to collect and keep it when they hadn't even bought up the debt. Everything they were doing was fraud.

From the article: "The indictment alleges that between 2010 and February 2015, the defendants tricked thousands of victims into paying millions by stating that they were affiliated with local government and law enforcement agencies."

That right there is a surefire way to get the attention of local/state/federal law enforcement.

You're posting on a poker forum and don't realize that most people aren't good with money?

I think a very small percentage of people in debt are your idea of people wantonly spending on luxuries they know they can't afford. A lot of it is probably poor financial planning but some of the blame for that has to be on society's lack of financial education and predatory lending such as payday loans and rent-to-own. If you're living paycheck to paycheck as many Americans do, one sudden unexpected expense is all it takes to end up in permanent debt.

Only from the story about the total scumbag move he pulled flipping over his opponent's cards to see what he had.

Joke as usual, another "poker pro" that goes rogue

can't wait to see the story on American Greed. love that show.

Just to clarify, he flipped the cards over in a poker tournament, not on PNA where bad etiquette seems to be tolerated.

Also, someone said he was the fish on PNA but most of the players on that show are fish.

Telling people they are going to jail unless they pay a bill and other falsehoods to that effect qualifies as doing something wrong.

My guess is this guy was running a fake debt collection agency. Google the term "fake debt collection agency" and you will see how predatory this business is. It's disgusting how they take advantage of the elderly and less educated saying they owe a phantom debt that has more than likely paid off.

They buy customers information from out of business shady payday loan companies that sell their information.

Here is an article from the FTC about what shady business this is: http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/sta...ebt-collectors

What a goon.