AFSCME 3357-HOF'S BLOG

Allied Interstate Settles with the FTC
Agrees to Pay $1.75 Million Fine

More good stuff from collectionscreditrisk.com, Allied Interstate, Inc., one of the biggest collection agencies, agreed to pay $1.75 million, one of the biggest administrative fines for violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Specifically the fine was tied to efforts to collect debts from the wrong person, but the consent decree covers other practices as well.

I most commonly run into Allied Interstate when I have a client who has a dispute with DirecTV. After I dispute the matter with DirecTV, they send it to collections, often to Allied Interstate. Usually after a follow-up dispute and request for validation to Allied Interstate or the other collection agency, the claim goes away. Sometimes you have to pick it up again at the credit reporting level, and that gets to be a hassle. IMHO, the company the FTC should be going after is DirecTV. Their advertising, sales, billing, and collection practices are atrocious.

On the subject of debt collections: Our Video of the Day is this clip on abusive debt collections from ABC's 20-20. (By the way, if there's one thing these calls have in common it's that the consumer was smart enough to record the call and save the recordings. If you didn't tape it - they didn't say it.)