Debt collection agency pays record civil penalty

Consistently calling consumers, often involving accounts that do not belong to them.

Repeated automated calls to the wrong number.

Unlawfully disclosing to others the amount a consumer owes.

These are just some of the allegations included in the FTC’s recent settlement with West Asset Management. West Asset Management is a debt collection agency that employs more than 1,500 debt collectors in 13 states and one offshore location. According to the FTC’s lawsuit filed in federal court in Atlanta, the company violated the FTC Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) through these illegal tactics and more. The FTC also alleges that Western Asset Management ignored consumers’ written requests that the company stop calling them and, in some cases, withdrew funds from consumers’ bank accounts or charged them to their credit cards without their consent. Deduction.

Western Asset Management is no lightweight in the industry, having collected more than 24 million accounts on behalf of clients in the healthcare, telecommunications, consumer credit and government services industries. The company’s tactics resulted in thousands of consumer complaints.

In addition to a $2.8 million civil penalty, the largest in an FTC debt collection case, the settlement with West Asset Management prohibits a range of prohibited conduct, including before 8 a.m., after 9 p.m., or Making phone calls to consumers in the workplace; harassing them with multiple phone calls; and illegally communicating to third parties that consumers owed debts.

If you are in the debt collection industry or your clients are in the debt collection industry, you know that this settlement is the latest in a series of enforcement actions taken by the Federal Trade Commission to protect the rights of financially distressed consumers. Stiff civil penalties and far-reaching injunctions remind us that now is the time FDCPA Compliance Check.