If a debt collector is harassing you over a debt that you thought was dead and buried, you may be dealing with a “zombie debt.”

What usually happens is that you’ll get an unexpected phone call or letter asking for payment on an old debt that you haven’t thought about in years. The collector may even offer a “special deal” like a 75% discount if you’ll make immediate payment.

What the collector won’t tell you is that the debt is legally noncollectable – meaning it is unenforceable in a court of law. The fact of the matter is that the debt is either outside the statute of limitations (too old to be legally collectible) or is in some other way legally noncollectible (such as having been discharged in bankruptcy). Since the debt is not legally enforceable, guilt and scare tactics are all the collector has to coerce you to make a payment.

Zombie debt collection is a very profitable business. Zombie debt collectors buy old debts for pennies on the dollar, then try to collect as much as possible. If the zombie debt collector buys an old $1,000 credit card debt for $20, and one phone call settles the debt for $100, the zombie debt collector makes a BIG profit.

Most zombie debt collectors are violating federal law just by calling you and attempting to collect an noncollectable debt. For instance, trying to collect a debt that was discharged in bankruptcy is a serious violation of the federal bankruptcy laws. Threatening a lawsuit for a debt that is past the statute of limitations is a violation of the federal Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA). Zombie collectors not only rely on consumers’ ignorance of the law, they thrive on it!

Some individuals want to pay these debts. While admirable in intention, the result may be extremely harmful. Unpaid debts that have dropped off a credit report may be reported for another seven years after the payment date. That dead and gone debt may reappear as an entirely new (and legal) negative item on your credit report – and substantially harm your credit score.

If you are contacted by a zombie debt collector, here’s what you should and shouldn’t do:

• Do not give any personal information to the debt collector.
• Do not make any payments on the old debt until you learn what your rights are.
• Get advice from a knowledgeable attorney.

Remember, zombie debt collectors are the bottom feeders of the collection industry. They’ll do whatever they can get away with including lying, cheating and stealing just to make a buck.

How ironic.

A former debt collector finds himself on the receiving end of collection activity. Don’t you just love the irony of it all?

Jay Jones, former executive vice president of defunct debt buyer Commercial Financial Services Inc. (CFS), owes approximately $2.6 million to the state of Oklahoma, according to the Oklahoma Tax Commission (OTC) which recently began posting outstanding tax warrants online.

CFS, which was based in Tulsa, filed bankruptcy in 1998, putting 3,600 employees out of work. Quite a few of those employees were friends and acquaintances of mine.

The circumstances surrounding CFS’s implosion led to a federal grand jury indictment of Jones and Bill Bartmann, the company’s CEO. The men were accused of creating a shell company, Dimat Corp., to inflate the performance of CFS.

Bartmann was acquitted but Jones pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge and was sentenced to five years in prison. Federal Bureau of Prisons records show he was released in 2007.

In 2008, the OTC – with a hint of irony – hired a collection agency to get the unpaid taxes from Jones.

Jones is listed as one of Oklahoma’s top ten delinquent taxpayers. All have had tax liens filed against them according to a spokesperson with the OTC.

Unlike other tax information, tax liens are public record. Individuals and businesses who can not or do not pay are given many opportunities to work out agreements with the OTC. Often, the unpaid taxes are turned over to collectors. After attempts at settling the debts fail, the OTC will file a tax lien in the county where the business or individual resides.

The OTC sends out a letter 90 days before the information goes online. Penalties depend on the type of debt and interest accrues at a rate of 15% annually according to Paula Ross, spokesperson for the OTC.

Source: PaymentsSource.com

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) prohibits third-party debt collectors from using abusive, unfair, or deceptive practices to collect debts such as:

Harassment. Debt collectors may not harass, oppress, or abuse you or any third parties they contact. For example, they may not:

• use threats of violence or harm;
• publish a list of names of people who refuse to pay their debts (but they can give this information to the credit reporting companies);
• use obscene or profane language; or
• repeatedly use the phone to annoy someone.

False statements. Debt collectors may not lie when they are trying to collect a debt. For example, they may not:

• falsely claim that they are attorneys or government representatives;
• falsely claim that you have committed a crime;
• falsely represent that they operate or work for a credit reporting company;
• misrepresent the amount you owe;
• indicate that papers they send you are legal forms if they aren’t; or
• indicate that papers they send to you aren’t legal forms if they are.

Debt collectors also are prohibited from saying that:

• you will be arrested if you don’t pay your debt;
• they’ll seize, garnish, attach, or sell your property or wages unless they are permitted by law to take the action and intend to do so; or
• legal action will be taken against you, if doing so would be illegal or if they don’t intend to take the action.

Debt collectors may not:

• give false credit information about you to anyone, including a credit reporting company;
• send you anything that looks like an official document from a court or government agency if it isn’t; or
• use a false company name.

Unfair practices. Debt collectors may not engage in unfair practices when they try to collect a debt. For example, they may not:

• try to collect any interest, fee, or other charge on top of the amount you owe unless the contract that created your debt – or your state law – allows the charge;
• deposit a post-dated check early;
• take or threaten to take your property unless it can be done legally; or
• contact you by postcard.

If debt collectors are driving you crazy and you’re wondering how bankruptcy might help, I’d be happy to talk with you and answer your questions. Just fill out the Contact Dan form on the right side of this page, click on the Submit button, and I’ll get back with you as soon as I can. Or just pick up the phone and give me a call at 918-615-8260. I look forward to hearing from you.

If you’re behind in paying your bills, a debt collector is probably calling you.

If a debt collector contacts you about a past-due bill, you may want to talk to them at least once to see if you can resolve the matter.

Then if you decide that you don’t want the debt collector to contact you again, tell them – in writing – to stop contacting you.

Write the debt collector a letter in which you advise that they are no longer to contact you regarding the debt. Make a copy of your letter. Send the original by certified mail, and pay for a “return receipt” so you’ll be able to document when the collector received your letter.

Sending such a letter to a debt collector you owe money to does not get rid of the debt, but it should stop the contact.

Once the debt collector receives your letter, they may not contact you again, except in two instances:

1. to tell you there will be no further contact, or
2. to tell you that they or the creditor intend to take a specific action, like filing a lawsuit. The creditor or the debt collector still can sue you to collect the debt.

If an attorney is representing you about the debt, the debt collector must contact the attorney, rather than you.

If you don’t have an attorney, a debt collector may contact other people – but only to find out your address, your home phone number, and where you work. Debt collectors usually are prohibited from contacting third parties more than once. Other than to obtain this location information about you, a debt collector generally is not permitted to discuss your debt with anyone other than you or your attorney.

If you’re stressed out because debt collectors are filling your mailbox with collection letters and are calling you non-stop from morning ’til evening, fill out the “Contact Dan” form on the right side of this page and tell me about your situation. Or just pick up the phone and give me a call. I’ll be happy to listen to you explain your financial situation to me, and then I’ll share with you how filing bankruptcy would affect your specific situation. If you’re like most of the good people I work with, filing bankruptcy will stop the debt collectors, greatly reduce your stress and restore your peace-of-mind.

Yes. However, if the caller is a third-party debt collector attempting to collect a debt owed to another individual or company, then the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) applies and the bill collector must stop calling once you tell him/her that your employer does not allow you to receive collection calls at work.

If the caller is trying collect it’s own overdue account, then the FDCPA does not apply.

If debt collectors are driving you crazy and you’re wondering how bankruptcy may be able to help, I’d be happy to answer your questions. Just fill out the Contact Dan form on the right side of this page, click on the Submit button, and I’ll get back with you as soon as I can. Or just pick up the phone and give me a call at 918-615-8260. I look forward to hearing from you.

It’s against federal law for a bill collector who works for a collection agency (as opposed to working in the collections department of the creditor itself) to call you at an unreasonable time.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act says that before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. are considered unreasonable times, but other hours may be unreasonable too, such as daytime hours for a person who works nights.

If debt collectors are driving you crazy and you’re wondering how bankruptcy might help, I’d be happy to talk with you and answer your questions. Just fill out the Contact Dan form on the right side of this page, click on the Submit button, and I’ll get back with you as soon as I can. Or just pick up the phone and give me a call at 918-615-8260. I look forward to hearing from you.

As a bankruptcy lawyer, I deal with people every day who are stressed out because debt collectors are calling non-stop from 8:00 in the morning until 9:00 at night. I tell these stressed out people that the debt collectors have the right to call and call and call again as long as they stay within the bounds of what the law allows them to do. (Although if and when I am hired to represent the debtor, I can make the telephone calls stop.)

However, there are some debt collectors who seem to have never been taught the difference between legal and illegal methods of debt collection. Or maybe they’ve been taught yet they just don’t care. I say this because for some debt collectors there seems to be no line that they won’t cross.

I have a couple of good lawyer friends who make a very good living by suing unscrupulous debt collectors who routinely use collection methods that are simply abusive and illegal.

A simple Internet search will reveal example upon example of outrageous, despicable actions committed by unethical debt collectors as they seek to make debtors feel ashamed, guilty, scared and intimidated. Not too long ago, one of my lawyer friends was featured on a Dateline NBC story about the seamy side of debt collection.

Here is a current story about a widow who is suing a debt collection agency for knowingly and willfully exacerbating her husband’s poor health condition and ultimately causing his death.

Several people have contacted me recently asking whether they could be sent to jail for not paying their debts or for filing bankruptcy.

Apparently, creditors or bill collectors have told these people that they could be criminally charged and face jail time for not paying their bills or for filing bankruptcy.

Lies, lies, lies. Nothing but lies and scare tactics.

The Oklahoma Constitution provides that “Imprisonment for debt is prohibited, except for the non-payment of fines and penalties imposed for the violation of law.” Okla.Const. art. 2, § 13.

Failing to pay a civil debt is not a crime. However, failing to pay alimony or child support can result in incarceration. As can committing fraud to avoid paying debts.

And filing bankruptcy isn’t a crime either. Actually it’s a legal right provided by federal law.

Lastly, the only crime being committed here is by the creditor or bill collector who is using unfair, deceptive and illegal methods to collect a debt.  Each day seems to bring another story of a state Attorney General’s office investigating or suing a collection agency because it threatened consumers with arrest if they didn’t pay their overdue bills. Some debt collectors have even been convicted of routinely impersonating attorneys and police officers as a part of their illegal collection activity.

If you’re struggling with debt problems and would like to know more about how bankruptcy may be able to help you, contact Dan Nunley today by completing the “Contact Dan” form on the right side of this page. I’ll get back in touch with you as soon as I can to schedule a FREE initial telephone consultation. I would count it a privilege to be able to visit with you in a relaxed and confidential environment where I’ll answer all of your questions in plain English and give you the straight scoop on the pros and cons of bankruptcy as related to your specific situation.

Here’s another reason that debt collectors are hated so much.

Used to be that when you died, the debt collectors would stop calling and write off the account. But not anymore.

Collecting from the dead is a new and fast-growing trend in the debt collection industry. Believe it not, a debt collection company called DCM Services spends 3 weeks training its debt collectors how to manipulate a dead person’s widow and children into paying off the deceased’s account balance.

This low-class behavior ranks right alongside those news reporters who push a microphone into the face of a grieving person and say “now tell us how you feel.”

And you can be certain that the debt collectors don’t tell the grieving relatives that they generally aren’t legally responsible to pay the deceased’s bill.

For more information on this topic and DCM Services, read “Your Dead? That Won’t Stop the Debt Collector.”

Source: New York Times

Here is another outrageous story about the abusive tactics used by many unscrupulous debt collectors. The lack of common decency just makes my blood boil.

Source: FoxNews.com