"Chad" wrote in message
...
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/201...fl-fight-back-
on-debt-calls-20110910_1_debt-collectors-consumer-debt-first-
cellphone

South Florida consumers aggravated by annoying "robo calls" on
their cellphones from debt collectors are fighting back - suing
the companies that make the calls and often collecting cash
settlements from the lenders.

Fort Lauderdale lawyer Scott D. Owens has filed dozens of civil
lawsuits against lenders and debt collection agencies. He says
they have been violating the federal Telephone Consumer
Protection Act by using "autodialers" - services that
automatically store and call phone numbers, then play a pre-
recorded message that says something like "This is Debt
Collector X calling for John Jones. If this is John Jones,
please press 1, if not, press 2."

If the companies don't play by the rules, the law says they can
be forced to pay the consumer $500 in damages per call or $1,500
per call for "knowing or willful" violations.

"One young female client was getting calls from a major credit
card company and they settled [her lawsuit] in the six-figure
range. They called her 180 times," Owens said. "People just put
up with it because they figure 'it's a bank, they must know what
they're doing.'"

The law prohibits any auto-dialed or pre-recorded message made
to a cellphone caller without prior permission. Federal
lawmakers said such calls are a nuisance and unfair because they
can cost consumers money - people with limited minutes in their
cellphone plans could end up paying extra charges for the
received calls or voicemails and people with unlimited calls
often pay premium rates for that service.

Different, and much more complicated, rules apply to calls to
land lines and lawsuits there are less common.

Among the South Floridians who have filed court cases is a 15-
year-old boy from Aventura who received dozens of calls from a
major bank trying to collect on an alleged consumer debt.

Owens said the teen, identified in the lawsuit only as "R.B."
had no debt -- or any relationship at all - with the bank. The
family figures the boy was unlucky when he got his first
cellphone and inherited a phone number from the real debtor.

The boy, an A-student, received numerous phone calls to his
cellphone while he was trying to do his homework and study
assignments. His parents said he eventually changed his phone
number because the calls became a "constant annoyance and
frustration."

Another of Owens' clients, Christine Suarez, 26, a teacher who
lives in southern Palm Beach County, said she settled some
credit card debts from her student days but was still being
pursued for a debt that she said was cleared and no longer
legally collectable. She thinks the company got her phone number
when she provided it to another organization when applying for a
debit card.

"I got calls to my cellphone every day for many, many years for
money that I don't owe," Suarez said. "I think people should
know they don't have to put up with it."

Owens filed two federal lawsuits on her behalf against two
companies. In the lawsuits, he wrote that the companies were
trying to collect alleged debts totaling $2,000. If Suarez wins,
the allegations could reap damages of about $51,000. "It's
totally ironic if they end up having to pay me," Suarez said. "I
guess it serves them right."

Most lawyers, including Owens, file the lawsuits on contingency,
which means they pay the initial costs and receive a percentage
of the settlement only if they win.

Barbara Fernandez, a Miami lawyer who represents lenders or
collection callers in many of these cases, said the law has
created a "cottage industry" of plaintiffs' lawyers filing suit
because the damages can add up to a lot of money very quickly.

"One of the main issues that comes up in these cases is - at the
end of the day, there's not a lot of actual damages. They might
be frustrated but no one was physically hurt," Fernandez said.

In many cases, she said, lawsuits are filed by people who
provided their cellphone number and express consent to call it -
often the best defense for the caller.

Not surprisingly, the debt collection industry thinks the
legislation is outdated and is lobbying for change, arguing that
it's unfair to let people who owe money avoid attempts to
contact them by cellphone.

Some 40 percent of U.S. households now rely primarily on
cellphones, a number that's growing every year, and consumers
play less per minute for mobile phone services than they did in
1991, when the first version of the law was enacted, said Mark
Schiffman, a spokesman for ACA International, the Association of
Credit and Collection Professionals.

"Wireless phones are now ubiquitous . consumers are including
this number as their preferred contact information," said
Schiffman.

The industry association wants lawmakers to consider "the
increasing evidence that repeat plaintiffs and class action
counsel are abusing the private rights of action that the [law]
establishes for violations."

The rules covering cellphone calls and spam texts evolved from
earlier versions of the law that were intended to stop old-
fashioned "fax blasts" where companies used to send unsolicited
advertisements to fax machines.

Owens said he doesn't have much sympathy for the collection
industry because it has other options. It is perfectly legal for
a human to manually dial a debtor's cellphone number and have a
conversation, he said, or for the company to write to the person
who owes them money. One major debt collector has acknowledged
it places more than a million automated calls a month, many of
which go to cellphones.

Simply providing a cellphone number when applying for a loan or
opening an account implies the lender has permission to call it,
but Owens said he advises clients to revoke that permission in
writing by certified mail - an action some courts agree is
valid, and others have said has no effect.

The law also applies to other kinds of unwanted cellphone
contact from companies - including spam text messages from a gym
trying to recruit members or sales calls from a night club using
a cellphone number gleaned from a contest entry.

"The value of the cellphone [to these callers] is it's the one
piece of technology you have in arm's reach at all times - it's
of extreme value to them to be able to bother you on it," Owens
said.

I'VE GOT BILLIONS COMING!