13.4 C
New York
Thursday, February 13, 2025
HomeConsumer Ed1Common Consumer Rights Violations

Consumer rights violations are on the rise,  more and more consumers are complaining about their rights being violated. There seems to be an uptick in debt collection harassment without regards to consumer rights. In order to collect a debt many of these third party contractors resort to underhanded techniques, which in some cases border on illegal, shady, and nothing less than total harassment.

Common consumer rights violations include debt collection harassment, privacy violations, unwanted phone calls, and texts, and credit reporting violations among others. The common consumer violation is debt collection harassment. Creditors and/or debt collectors will go to extreme measures to collect payment from an individual who has defaulted on his account.

How to define Consumer Rights Violations

Violation of privacy, unwanted phone calls, texts, etc. all constitutes harassment. If a creditor continuous to do the following things, so as to get back his or money then it can be defined as harassment:

  • Contacting you many times in a single day, even at night or early in the morning
  • Pressuring you to sell off your home or even take more credit
  • Pressuring via social networking websites, like, Twitter, Facebook etc.
  • Making use of another or more debt collectors at a single time to contact you
  • Not informing you about your debt, its status or whether it has been passed on to the debt collection agency or not
  • Threatening you verbally or physically
  • Causing public embarrassment
  • Talking about your debt situation to others and maligning your image and reputation
  • Giving implication of legal action
  • Giving false claims, like, being a bailiff or working for the court etc.
  • Giving impression that action from the court has been taken against you

What Can you do?

First of all, you will have to find out more about your debt collector –

  • Collect every evidence of harassment
  • Make a complain to your creditor
  • Make a complain to a consumer lawyer

If you are harassed or a debt collector violates your rights as a consumer, you can sue him or her. It is your right to sue and take legal action against the collector in a federal or state court within a year’s duration from the date of violation. Once you win the case against your collector you can seek compensation from the collector for any damages. You will first have to prove the damages caused by the collector; it can be illegal collection practices, harassment and/or other violations. He or she might have pay up to $1000 per violation to you as a consumer.

You can report problems that you have with your debt collector to a state Attorney General’s office and also the Federal Trade Commission.

Violation of FDCPA

FDCPA or Fair Debt Collection Practices Act come with strict guidelines that define what debt collectors cannot do and can do. It is important for consumers to be aware of the FDCPA guidelines. A consumer can file a complaint with the FTC or Federal Trade Commission, against concerning collector, with the Better Business Bureau or file a civil suit in concerning federal or state court.

Individuals who have trouble to pay their mortgages and are face with harassment from their debt collectors can seek legal assistance. Through legal assistance they can avoid foreclosure or save their respective homes. Consumer lawyers can represent clients who are fixed in legal proceeding concerning foreclosure, provide advice on tax and legal implications related to foreclosures, bankruptcy or short sales or even negotiate a loan modification.

Source by Nicholas L Smith

3 COMMENTS

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

- Advertisment -spot_img

Must Read

spot_img