Newspaper Faces Down Collection Agency And Lets Them Off The Hook

Every day innocent consumers victimized by fraudulent collection agencies contact local TV stations and newspapers for help. Like cockroaches fleeing the sunlight, the bill collectors predictably shut down their scam, close the account and flee.

But they slink off with a smile, because they are exposed without consequence. The media fires blanks.

Dorothy Archambeau contacted a Minnesota media outlet when she began receiving unexplained and threatening collections letters from American Accounts & Advisers (AAA) collection agency. As described in the article, the bill collectors violated a raft of Fair Debt Collection Practices Act provisions such as not being able to explain the alleged debt, making threats to take action they had no intention of taking (they were going to sue over a debt they couldn't explain?) and intimidation, by expressing regret for the "action now being taken" without telling Archambeau what that action was.

Yet, at no time did anybody, including the Minnesota media outlet, refer Archambeau to the FDCPA which provides consumers $1000 statutory damages plus legal fees from the fraudulent and threatening bill collectors. Nobody at the paper knows a lawyer in Minnesota?

Holding fraudulent and threatening bill collectors at least accountable in civil court, if not criminal court, not only compensates the victim, it sends a message to the perpetrator about the acceptability of their actions. And if the community is fortunate enough to have an aggressive consumer attorney, the fraudulent and threatening bill collector can be faced with a class action claim so all victims can be compensated and the community can express its disgust with a single voice.

Apparently the consumer "watchdogs" at the Pioneer Press, however, think business as usual down at the AAA is just fine.