The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau yesterday announced that has initiated enforcement action against a nationwide debt collector National Corrective Group and its chief executive officer for using deceptive threats of criminal prosecution and jail time to intimidate consumers into paying debts for bounced checks. The company also misled consumers into believing that they must enroll in a costly financial education program to avoid criminal charges.
The CFPB's proposed order, if approved by a federal district court, would require the company to halt its illegal activities, impose a penalty of $50,000, and require new consumer disclosures and stronger oversight of the bounced check program.
The CFPB's press statement is here.
Forced arbitration is a way to use fine print to cheat the consumer and steal the consumers rights…
The politicians who support this extortion should be publicized and publicly shamed for allowing and even encouraging this mob-style loan sharking that exploits the same people that they shame and villify for needing the meager public safety net programs designed to prevent the poor from having to use these “loan” services in the first place. When did our country become so mean and heartless that we allow this blatant exploitation to be legal? Instead of offering a hand up to the unlucky and disadvantaged who are struggling to get on level ground we now kick them in the teeth and throw them in debtors prison if they fall too far behind! Sad and disgusting.
Debt collectors are cruel scrooge types who prey on defenseless unemployed.