Debt Collector Harrassment: Craig Cunningham’s Secret Weapon
If you are being harassed by debt collectors, take a leaf out of Craig Cunningham’s book. Cunningham owes $100,000 in debt, and he’s inundated with calls from debt collectors. But he doesn’t mind: he’s earned a whopping $20,000 by answering bill collector calls: every penny of it has come from the debt collectors themselves! Most people who receive calls from debt collectors dread picking up the phone, but not Cunningham. He’s beat debt collectors at their own game by catching debt collectors violating federal law, and suing them in court.
How to Start Making Money by Answering Bill Collector Calls
Cunningham’s first money making call ($1,000) came from Equinox Financial Management Solutions, a third-party debt collector. The collection agency threatened to garnish his wages if he didn’t pay, and put a lien on his house. Luckily, Craig knew that the Texas Debt Collection Act forbids debt collectors from making those types of threats. Cunningham sued the agency, and two months later was awarded $1,000.
Cunningham’s next suit was over auto-dialed and prerecorded calls to his cellular phone (a Telephone Consumer Protection Act violation worth up to $1,500 per event). He also filed complaints that agencies were not investigating inaccurate information in his credit report that he brought to their attention ($1,000 per violation) and filed 15 other, similar law suits against debt collectors.
The Simple Technique That You Can Use to Sue Debt Collectors
Know your rights: learn everything you can about the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA), the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), and any debt collections acts that your state has enacted (like the Texas Debt Collection Act). These laws are highly technical and the schleps that work at the agencies aren’t usually that well trained (there’s a high turnaround in debt collection agencies because let’s face it, who wants to work at a job 9 hours a day where your only goal is to squeeze money out of people who can’t afford it?). Use that fact to your advantage and study the law.
Debt Collectors Will Settle With You
Know that agencies will settle, rather than fight you in court: That’s right, debt collection agencies will send you a check rather than fight the charge that they violated the act. Why? Because it’s cheaper to send you a $1,000 check (settling out of court) than it is to pay a lawyer $350 an hour to fight a charge they will probably lose anyway. Debt collection employees are not highly trained people, and they routinely make mistakes.
How to Sue Debt Collectors
Not sure how to file a lawsuit against a debt collector? It’s simple: read this article on How To Sue Debt Collectors The Easy Way (and Win).
Reference: The Dallas Observer:Better off Deadbeat
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