I sent this alleged company a letter stating that they provide me validation of the alleged claim. As I understand it, under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, available @ https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/rules/rulemaking-regulatory-reform-proceedings/fair-debt-collection-practices-act-text, they are required to provide me after I request, via writing,
Validation of debts
(a) Notice of debt; contents
Within five days after the initial communication with a consumer in connection with the collection of any debt, a debt collector shall, unless the following information is contained in the initial communication or the consumer has paid the debt, send the consumer a written notice containing --
(1) the amount of the debt;
(2) the name of the creditor to whom the debt is owed;
(3) a statement that unless the consumer, within thirty days after receipt of the notice, disputes the validity of the debt, or any portion thereof, the debt will be assumed to be valid by the debt collector;
(4) a statement that if the consumer notifies the debt collector in writing within the thirty-day period that the debt, or any portion thereof, is disputed, the debt collector will obtain verification of the debt or a copy of a judgment against the consumer and a copy of such verification or judgment will be mailed to the consumer by the debt collector; and
(5) a statement that, upon the consumer's written request within the thirty-day period, the debt collector will provide the consumer with the name and address of the original creditor, if different from the current creditor.
I maintain that they have not done so, and further, ignored the law in providing me the requested validation. I also requested that I not be contacted via phone, added my number to the do not call registry (https://www.donotcall.gov/), and still received 2 calls.
Is there anything I can do to compel CCSC to provide validation of this alleged claim? If I can prove that they are violating the law and harassing me, what kind of damages can I sue them for? Can I sue the original creditor for putting me in this situation fraudulently? How would I have to go about proving fraud?
Ross
Clarksville,#2Author of original report
Thu, July 18, 2019
Thanks for the heads up. I am anticipating some movement on this soon. If I end up winning a judgement against them, I plan on either giving it all to the attorney as a good faith payment for them to take pro bono or maybe Ill start a website detailing EXACTLY where I screwed up, how not to screw up, and how to beat CCSC/CCS/ Credit Collection Services Commercial.
Robert
Irvine,#3Consumer Comment
Tue, May 07, 2019
First of all, this is not to be considered legal advice and only as suggestions. I would recommend that you also consult an attorney but this should get you going in the right direction.
It is not illegal to not answer your Request for Validation. However, if they fail to reply in the time period then they must remove all information from your credit reports and take no further action to collect. What happens most of the time though is that they do reply, but they provide you with "questionable" proof that is very would not be considered valid, but most people wouldn't fight it after that.
If you have sent them a request to Cease Communications, then even 1 call or contact could be in violation. The exception to this is if they are contacting you to tell you that they will no longer contact you, or if the contact is making you aware that you are being sued or they are taking other legal action. The "Do Not Call" list in this case is useless and has nothing to do with them being able to contact you.
In order to prove your "paper trail" all communications should be in writing. You should also send everything by Certified mail with Return Receipt to prove not only that they did get it but who got it and when. If you want to try and prove that they contacted you the best for that would be is to somehow keep your phone logs.
As for damages, you are allowed to sue for up to $1000 in statutory damages per company not per violation, so even if they violated the regulations 20 times the most you could get is $1000. However, you are able to also claim any real monetary damages. For this you would have to prove that you had to pay a higher interest rate, or were denied something because of their "false" report. That part is generally fairly tough and unless you have a lot of paperwork to back it up is harder(not impossible) to claim. Most of the time you can handle this in Small Claims Court.