A powerful story from one man who refused to be bullied to one of the devious debt collectors:
Millions Are Hounded for Debt They Don’t Owe. One Victim Fought Back, With a Vengeance
Article by Zeke Faux, Bloomberg Business week.Andrew Therrien wanted payback. He got it—and uncovered a conspiracy. “It begins when someone scoops up troves of personal information that are available cheaply online—old loan applications, long-expired obligations, data from hacked accounts—and reformats it to look like a list of debts. Then they make deals with unscrupulous collectors who will demand repayment of the fictitious bills. Their targets are often poor and likely to already be getting confusing calls about other loans. The harassment usually doesn’t work, but some marks are convinced that because the collectors know so much, the debt must be real.
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The problem is as simple as it is intractable. In 2012 a call center in India was busted for making 8 million calls in eight months to collect made-up bills. The Federal Trade Commission has since broken up at least 13 similar scams. In most cases, regulators weren’t able to identify the original perpetrators because the data files had been sold and repackaged so many times. Victims have essentially no recourse to do anything but take the abuse.”
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This article goes on in detail about the years that Therrien spent tracking down the frauds and international schemes. In May 2016, Therrien emailed his discoveries to the FTC. A lawyer replied right away: “Andrew, we need to talk about this.” Therrien also gave his intel to some private lawyers who were going after Tucker in Texas. They contacted Harsh, and in August 2016 he submitted an affidavit to the court. Harsh, who declined to comment for this story, testified that Tucker had asked him to manipulate a database of almost 8 million payday-loan applications, writing in a made-up lender and adding an amount owed of $300 for each person.
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MUSINGS BY DIANE:
If you read the article above you will see it took one man years to expose this on-going conspiracy of mass fraud on our friends, relatives, and, perhaps, ourselves. Tucker (the founder of this scam) is a sorry human being. He whines that he is tired of being attacked, yet he never takes ownership that he caused this mess. He hurt thousands of others who did not have the energy to do what Therrien did for the rest of us. We should all send our thanks to Andrew Therrien for looking out for us and bringing a few bad guys to justice.
– Diane L. Drain
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About the Author: Diane Drain, attorney and retired law professor
Diane is a well respected Arizona bankruptcy and foreclosure attorney. As a retired law professor, she believes in offering everyone, not just her clients, advice about bankruptcy and Arizona foreclosure laws. Diane is also a mentor to hundreds of Arizona attorneys. *Important Note from Diane: Everything on this web site is offered for educational purposes only and not intended to provide legal advice, nor create an attorney client relationship between you, me, or the author of any article. Information in this web site should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from an attorney familiar with your personal circumstances and licensed to practice law in your state. Make sure to check out their reviews.*