flacorps

I am going to confess something only my wife knows. In the GFC a little more than a decade ago, we defaulted on $250k in debt. This was a bunch of credit cards. We only kept paying on the cars and house and a couple of the bank cards. I was the only one that drew lawsuits (2) totaling about $20k. I also sued a couple of collectors who crossed some very bright lines and made about $20k. I didn't use that money to pay the judgments (they got paid far later with no accrued interest when we decided to buy a bigger house). Once the creditors weren't on my credit anymore due to their age, my score returned to the 800s. I'm not sure that "informal bankruptcy" is as viable now as it was then...all of us leave a much more obvious trail of data than we once did. But if my story gives anyone hope...

I am lukewarm on the trail of a seemingly-new collector of old junk debt. Their name hints at two more legitimate players, Portfolio Recovery and Pollack & Rosen, which I'm sure they're not. The calls are associated with 844-649-8759 and 855-854-3606. Their recording is a bit novel, designed to be ominous without triggering the FDCPA. Here's an example of it: https://www.nomorobo.com/lookup/844-649-8759 If you feel like it's worth it, report them to the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau.

Anybody here gotten calls? Name is similar to Columbus, OH outfit but they don't seem affiliated, and appear to be out of Memphis, TN (could be misdirection). They won't say, but they're definitely working out of the Buffalo, NY "we're about to sue you" playbook.

Someone came to me because they were getting toll-free calls from a collector, apparently a small fly-by-night one, on an old, old charged-off credit card. They tried mightily to get the caller to give up the "business's" (air quotes) address, but no luck. The people wanted only a credit card number and were trying to push her to go pre-load a prepaid credit card. I think she has an unused, open card or two. Do you think she could call her company and put a hold on the card (or even call her company *after* giving out the information and call the charge fraudulent) and use that to get information that would help track down the scammers?

I'm going to freeze an individual's assets at the outset, ex parte, based on the information about the effort to abscond already in hand.

I got a real live one. They already closed their business when I sent a draft complaint but I caught them reopening under a different name. Dead to rights. So now that I have an attempt to defraud me, what's the most anyone's managed to collect from the Buffalo-style small-fry?

Got a call yesterday from an unidentified but local number the CallerID read "unassigned" company that identified itself thusly. It was interesting. I pretended to be the right party after hearing a recorded message that the company was processing a "claim" for a client who had rights. The message used a debtor's name and said if I wasn't the person I should hang up. I know the person and I know the time frame when they had financial trouble and the claim had to be way out of statute. I stayed on the line and a very professional woman verified that I was the right party, told me it was a Citi account, and here's where the fun ends: she told me I didn't seem interested in resolving it and hung up on me! Mind you I wasn't giving her a hard time at all. I asked a couple of questions any debtor might ask and kept my answers short, but I evidently didn't fit their business model of a trembler and she wasn't one to waste time with me. This was not Buffalo-style high-pressure hard-sell collections by a coked-up collector. I could practically picture a sleek suburban office-building and well-trained staff. Rather than a take-no-prisoners attack, they clearly don't want any FDCPA violations, and the business model is to waste little time and pick up nickels where they can. Anybody heard of them or this talk-off playbook?

In some counties there is heavy use of post-judgment discovery less as a means of actually discovering assets than as a harassment technique and "gotcha" to get a judgment debtor jailed (if only briefly--usually) and admonished by the judge to pay up. That being said, in my neck of the woods there's a database of 20k or so active warrants and the last time I checked a single one was for failure to provide such discovery in a debt case.

No matter what "mischief" people might do, banks and government would meet in secret to undo it. You're basically asking whether unarmed people could destabilize a well-armed government. And while that is a possibility, as a practical matter the government has a lot of leverage in far too many areas of everyday life.

What is the Buffalo Shake?

This is said to be effective. Never mind that he incorrectly talks about needing a court order, I'm just wondering whether there are some cowboys operating without even an administrative fig leaf...

On Facebook, a student loan advocate alleged that collectors are initiating "garnishments" on student loans which are not real, having not gone through even the minimal process to do so. Employers were apparently nonetheless making thr deductions and remitting the momey. Has anyone encountered this? Does it seem prevalent?

11,000 suits over a 5 year period. Seems as though the area is underserved by BK mills ... or something. Anybody know why this county in Missouri might be different from aĺl the others? Any ideas how to help these victims? https://www.propublica.org/article/how-nonprofit-hospitals-are-seizing-patients-wages

Once the 11th largest card issuer, its portfolio was sold to Cardworks but Experian kept defunct bank's name on tradelines, confusing consumers. https://www.reuters.com/article/experian-errors/lawsuit-says-experians-credit-disclosures-to-consumers-faulty-idUSL1N1OF0MD

Everyone should freeze only Equifax. If enough do it, the company dies.