Regulation For The Use Of Social Media In Debt Collection
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will be examining potential regulation of social media and online sites, as they are used to collect debt. This news comes from a recent Bloomberg articles. Both agencies are considering new legislation for social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc), when they are employed to collect debts. The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) suggested guidelines on the way banks use social media—this is an agency that works to create uniform standards for banks, across federal agencies.Federal regulators are examining financial institutions’ use of social media in the collection of debt as part of a larger effort to better regulate and scrutinize the debt collection industry, through the entire chain of business events: loan made at a bank, customer defaults, bank sells debt to collection agency, collection agency harasses customer. Many stories have surfaced in the last few years of debt collectors stalking people on Facebook and other social media sites, which is illegal under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.Besides looking at debt collectors and social media, the CFPB is setting up a complaint system for problems with third party debt collectors; this is scheduled to launch in the late spring. Additionally, the Bureau will begin closely watching debt collection businesses with more than $10 million in annual profits. All of these steps are welcome news to consumers, and especially to people being pursued by debt collection agencies.If a collection agency has harassed you, you may be entitled to money damages up to $1,000.00, based on the FDCPA, which has been around for almost 35 years. The FDCPA is a federal law that applies to every state. In other words, everyone is protected by the FDCPA. The FDCPA is essentially a laundry list of what debt collectors can and cannot do while collecting a debt, as well as things debt collectors must do while collecting a debt. Plus, the FDCPA has a fee-shift provision. This means, the collection agency pays your attorney’s fees and costs. Founding attorney, Michael Agruss, has settled over 1,500 debt collection harassment cases. We want to help you, too.
