Re: CA letter - Violation?
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Posted by lawguy
(216.30.212.58) on April 11, 2003 at 09:27:22:
In Reply to: Re: CA letter - Violation? posted by LadynRed on April 10, 2003 at 18:22:33:
Yes, I think that CREDIT BERAUE NOTIFICATION PENDING, in caps or bold like that, would definitely be a violation of the FDCPA. According to the 9th Circuit's interpretation of the FDCPA, a debt collector cannot threaten to take an action that they cannot legally take. The 9th Circuit went on to say that whether a threat violates the FDCPA will be determined using a "least sophisticated consumer" standard. Not that everybody is an idiot, just that they are going to analyze whether a statement is a threat in violation of the Act based upon what a very unsophisticated and unknowledgeable consumer would think if they received the threat. I think that most certainly, "CREDIT BERAEU NOTIFICATION PENDING" would be interpreted under this least sophisticated consumer standard to be a threat to report the alleged debt to the CRA's, thereby harming the recipients credit. (I think even a sophisticated consumer would draw this conclusion.) As this is not something that the debt collector can legally do, the threat to do so is a violation of the FDCPA. That is quite similiar to the letter dealt with by the 9th Circuit. The case is the one Scott mentioned yesterday Swanson(?) v. Oregon Credit or something like that.
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