Nationwide Collections admits violating the FDCPA

ABC News blog, The Blotter, picked up on my post about the “Dear SHIT FACE” letter sent by Nationwide Collections. Blotter blogger Joseph Rhee apparently called up Nationwide Collections and spoke with its President, Phil McGarvey, who said:

The president of Nationwide Collections, Phil McGarvey, told the Blotter on ABCNews.com that the account in question contained the offensive name when Nationwide purchased it from another company. McGarvey said the profanity wasn’t caught by his employees because collection letters are sent through an automated system.

McGarvey said the threat of a lawsuit contained in the letter was also an oversight and that his company typically doesn’t sue customers over such low amounts of money.

McGarvey said the company plans to apologize to the customer.

“We regret the offense caused, but it was unwitting,” he said.

In other words, Nationwide Collections admits that it (a) does not bother to check whether it is actually collecting from real people, much less people who may actually owe the debts, and (b) threatens lawsuits even though it does not intend to file them, which was therefore a (c) lie. That’s the start of a small list of FDCPA violations.

And whatever McGarvey may say, I agree with Kenneth Hiller, Mr. Face’s lawyer: “These kinds of abusive practices by debt collectors are common.”

(As an aside, I consider it rather rude of The Blotter to link to my copy of the letter and use my post as the foundation for its story without linking back to my post.)