Bankruptcy

How Debt Settlement Companies Plan to Get Around New Consumer Protection Rules

By info

In February of this year, President Obama signed into law the new Credit Card Act, which reglulates how banks and other collections agencies can market and promote credit cards.  In addition, the Federal Trade Commission has enacted several laws that protect consumers from fraudulent and deceptive practices of creditors as well as shaddy companies that pray on consumers.  Finally, many states have enacted laws such as the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act, MGL 93A, that provide additional protection against unfair and deceptive commerical activity.

With all of this in place, some debt settlement companies who may have engaged in conduct that is now unlawful under the many state and federal laws have proclaimed that they will take their operations overseas and to the Caribbean in order to continue to operate their business in the same way and to avoid the protection of the United States laws. 

Steve Rhode drafted a very telling article, Here?s How Debt Settlement Companies Plan to Get Around New Consumer Protection Rules ? Go Offshore! detailing inforamtion generated at a trade association presentation from The Association of Settlement Companies (TASC) that appears to suggest to TASC members to consider circumventing new consumer protection rules to come from the FTC by avoiding traditional phone lines, moving operations offshore like gambling and payday operations, and selling discounted medical & health products with the debt settlement sale.

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Full post as published by Bankruptcy Articles & Blog on April 15, 2010 (boomark / email).