Telephone calls have no legal weight since there is no record of what was said on a call. Knowing this, credit card debt collectors will say threatening things on the phone and get away with telling their lies. That is why consumer debt collectors choose to use the phone over mail. Debt collectors lose their power when communications are reduced to writing.
What matters in court are the written communications, or the lack of them, between a consumer and a credit card debt collector. Mail sent certified return receipt requested further helps the consumer put the debt collector on the defensive.
There is a saying in online consumer forums, 100 percent of debt collectors tell lies 100 percent of the time. Here are some examples of those lies.
1. They claim you are the target of a lawsuit in your local court and that you’ll get your summons any day.
2. They threaten to have you arrested. (Debts are civil, not criminal.)
3. Debt collectors will threaten to have you arrested. No one can be arrested for a civil matter.
4. They will tell you may have your wages reduced to pay your debt, and you will get a negative listing on your credit report.
5. They might even threaten you with having your bank account seized.
Each of these lies is a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
Credit card debt collectors use the phone attempting to get personal details such as your bank account number, Social Security number, and work number, as well as getting you to confirm your credit card number and admit to the debt in question. The Credit Card Debt Survival Guide advises that you should never share any personal information with people on the telephone, as they could be anyone, and that you should always dispute and deny the debt to which they are referring and hang up the phone.
Curiosity should be the only reason for taking one of these calls. If a credit card debt collector calls out of the cold, let them tell you what debt they are calling about, then tell them you have received no written notice from them about the debt and hang up.
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act allows the consumer to instruct the debt collector in writing to stop all collection calls. After that each call is a violation of the law, and subject to a $1000 penalty. Consumers should keep logs of the phone calls and contact a consumer rights attorney, who may agree to sue the credit card debt collector over these violations on a contingency fee basis.