Consumer Finance Protection Bureau Won’t Chase Underground Debt Collectors

Consumer Finance Protection Bureau Announces They Don’t Chase Underground Debt Collectors

“We are unable to send your complaint to the company for a response.” That’s what the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau told Chuck Sterling. “The company is not in our complaint system.”

Chuck, a former client, received an email today, threatening to “take him into custody” and “transfer to prison” unless he paid a non-existent payday loan of $2471.15. Threatening jail for failure to pay an honest debt–much less a fake one–violates federal law.  The Federal Trade Commission has authority to sue debt collection companies who violate the law, ban them from the business and impose steep financial penalties.  The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau has a complaint form on their website and claims to follow up on each one.

The follow up to Chuck was, we’re not doing anything because we don’t know who these people are. Apparently they don’t chase debt collection scammers who are hiding out.

That kind of slack enforcement of consumer protection laws by the CFPB has become more common in the last few years.