Debt collector to Oakland woman: 'You can't win the case because you're not a lawyer'

[Liberal_in_LA]

Debt collector to Oakland woman: 'You can't win the case because you're not a lawyer'

Debt collectors are at it again, coming up with new tactics to get paid. While some agencies use threats or psychology, others are taking the litigious route. Experts say agencies are buying debt and then suing the poor and the elderly -- targeting the very people who are likely to have less resources to put up a legal fight. Elisa Della Piana East Bay Community Law Center explained to the East Bay Express:


"... they get flustered and they're not able to get a lawyer and they're not answering the lawsuit, and the collection agency wins a judgment by default. These companies count on getting default judgments."

Take the case of 81-year-old Willie M. of Oakland. Not the savviest cardholder, she accumulated $6,000 in debt. According to the Express, a collector from the agency that's suing her allegedly told her:


"You can't win the case because you're not a lawyer; I'm a lawyer and the judge will believe me."


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/scavenger/detail?blogid=111&entry_id=53728#ixzz0a03nWPJK

[slackmaster]

1. Obvious violation of both the California Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the federal FDCPA

:nuke:

[roamer65]

2. I'd like to quote Shakespeare at this point.

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."

[no_hypocrisy]

3. A little off point, but in my personal experience sometimes it doesn't help that you're a lawyer.

At my firm we get calls from HSBC for one of our attorneys several times a day. I got fed up, spoke to the caller and demanded that I speak to her supervisor. I made it plain that their debtor/our attorney was in court all day and NOT to call anymore for the rest of the day. Exactly five minutes later, another call from HSBC. I blew up and yelled at another supervisor. And we got three more calls that day after I made it clear their target wasn't around. I threatened to draft a harassment cause of action with treble damages if they kept calling and it made no difference to them.

[baldguy]

4. The ironic thing is

The debt collections reps are probably one or two paychecks away from being delinquent themselves.

[VermeerLives]

5. Debt collectors are scumbags

We've been harrassed for several years now by debt collectors who are looking for ANOTHER person. That's right -- they are looking for someone who USED TO have our phone number. I changed my phone number in the early 1990's (!) and got a number that was used by the individual whom the collectors are after. It doesn't matter how many times we tell these creeps that they have they wrong number, they keep calling us every few months. The last time they called (just the other day, in fact( the idiot on the other end told my husband that it wasn't their repsonsibility to track these people down!! I am going to write a letter to the BBB and report these companies, because there is more than one.

[notadmblnd]

6. I just pick up the phone and laugh at them

I'm beyond intimidation.

[LibertyLover]

7. A few months ago I got a phone message from some company

telling me that I owed them money and that I had better call back immediately. Well, I knew I didn't owe them anything - heck, I'd never even heard of them. When I got into work there was an e-mail from a friend of mine telling me that I needed to call Mr. X immediately. I googled the company and found that it was a major scam - they had even been the subject of an announcement from the West Virginia attorney general's office. Apparently one of their scams is to tell whomever they are talking to if they are being told to go stuff themselves is that now only God can help you. When I spoke with my friend she told me that the guy had told her that. I explained about the scam and sent her information about it so she wouldn't worry. Then I got my call from them and it went the way the messages on Google had said it would. I played along for a couple of minutes and then just cut the guy off with "I know you are a scam. I don't owe you any money, so f off." He ended with the typical "only god can help you now". I told him She would. I got 2 more calls from people claiming to be supervisors and I did the same thing - told them I was on to their scam and if they called back again I would file complaints with the appropriate authorities. Oddly enough I didn't get any more calls.