Debt collector Merchants Retail Credit Association to pay $854,389.81 for FDCPA violations

Dolores Maddux owed a credit card debt to CitiFinancial. CitiFinancial sold the debt, and Merchants Retail Credit Association (MRCA) eventually bought it.

MRCA tried to collect the debt from Gilbert Maddux, Dolores Maddux’s spouse, and Jeni Maddux, her daughter. MRCA treated the Madduxes like dirt.

MRCA demanded $10,000 from Dolores Maddux when they finally called her after first contacting her daughter. $10,000 was more than Dolores Maddux thought she owed, so she disputed the amount.

When she disputed the amount, MRCA debt collectors called her lazy, fat, black, inbred, pathetic, and stupid. The MRCA debt collector threatened to tell everyone Dolores Maddux knew that she was a deadbeat. The debt collectors from MRCA laughed at her and threatened to ruin her life and Gilbert Maddux’s life. They called her a liar, a thief, and verbally abused her and her husband, daughter, and others, telling the people they called that Dolores Maddux was a deadbeat, a thief, a liar, etc.

They continued to call Gilbert Maddux at work and on his cellular phone, even though Gilbert Maddux had no liability for the debt. A MRCA debt collector “stated that if Gilbert did not pay the debt, he would ‘bring four guys down from Topeka to take care of the situation’ . . . .” They called Jeni Maddux and her roommates, accused them of being Dolores Maddux, and called one roommate a “stupid n[----]r” and an inbreed.

MRCA called incessantly and threatened the Madduxes repeatedly, using threats, abusive language, and profanity–even after the Madduxes hired an attorney–that the Jackson County, Missouri, district court took over 100 paragraphs to catalog. The court awarded $616,970.87 to the Madduxes and $237,418.94 in attorney fees and costs to the Madduxes’ attorneys.

While MRCA’s behavior may not be typical in the debt collection industry, it is not unusual. So few consumers ever call an attorney that debt collectors can almost get away with murder in collecting debts.