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Reader Poll: This FDCPA Letter -- Brilliant or Over the Top?

By Eric Lipman

Yesterday, Consumerist posted a letter from a guy named Mark George to a collection agency that claimed he owed just shy of $4,500 on an old Visa account. Collection agencies are notoriously shady, and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (.pdf) provides some decent protections for consumers who know how to properly invoke it. Mr. George seems to have done his homework, and then some. His letter asserts a statute of limitations defense (without either admitting or denying that the account in question was his) because the former address mentioned in the letter was someplace he says he lived almost 20 years ago. He also copied the New York Office of the Attorney General, asking for "confirmation" that the statute of limitations had run (query how the AG would know that without any details as to when the debt was allegedly incurred). And, for good measure, another cc to . . . Nina Pineda, the "7 On Your Side" problem-solving reporter on the local ABC station. Consumerist seems to be touting this letter as a shining example of consumer empowerment. But some commenters think he's just a) showing off, b) asking for trouble by sticking in more than the bare...

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on May 06, 2010 (boomark / email).