Global Collections

I think the problem here in America, is that people assume if you post something negative, that automatically makes it slander.

Slander is spoken.  Libel is written.

Cry me a river.

"Slander is spoken. In print it's libel."
- J. Jonah Jameson

You mean it wasn't Spiderman?

He was speaking about Spider-Man at the time.

I couldn't resist.

same thing happened to us however the local DA told us to report them to the attorney generals office as this company had violated the law on so many levels.

Lone Stranger did not have contact or a problem with this collector, so it's not at all clear what that "same thing happened" might be. If your FDCPA rights have been violated, complaints are fine, but don't wait for a rescue, as I'm about to explain.

I'm coming in nearly three years too late for Lisa's benefit, but her story has a lesson about how best to assert your rights. She went for help in what should be the right places and made a lot of sound decisions and became vigilant of this agency's bad behavior, putting the place on notice.

But the advice from her AG office was flawed and a frankly lazy response. You seek validation if you're the alleged debtor, or at least you're not too sure you can't be held liable for some debt. That wasn't Lisa's problem. Global was skip tracing for some stranger with a similar name, and making veiled threats in so doing. The proper response is still a Cert Mailed letter, but one which essentially says, "Buzz off, I can't help you!" Its politely known as "cease communication".

The agency won't and can't send validation to the wrong person without risk of a lawsuit. Validation is only required by the FDCPA when an agency gets a written dispute within a month of its first dunning letter and also wishes to continue its pursuit. Lisa would not have received that dunning letter, either, mainly because the agency was clearly not sure where to send one. All this forms a cloud over an agency's legal responsibility when a non-debtor seeks validation.

Realistically, someone with more than half a brain at Global should have seen from Lisa's letter that the wrong person was being called and stopped bugging her. Imstead they turned up the autodialer to hassle her more. The FDCPA says they can't keep hitting the same place with skip trace calls unless they think they obtained faulty "location information". Someone who spends over five dollars in USPS fees to correct their error is probably quite lucid, and the same database tools which found Lisa could also corroborate her story.

Quietly watching her complaint bounce from one desk to the next was again the wrong move. The best path would go like this: (1) Send cease-comm USPS CMRR. (2) Sue the nitwits if they disobey. It would be tempting to go straight to #2 in Lisa's case, and might have been fine if other violations had been documented. Personally I like a clear line in the sand before I start kicking it in my opponent's face.

Point being, anyway, that you cannot wait for regulators and AGs and pencil pushers to solve your personal problems. The FDCPA gives you but one year to start litigating from the date of an offense. Don't waste that time waiting for a rescue. If you want relief, the law says you can get it yourself, making the loser pay all your legal bills besides.


My longer advice for "not me" cases like Lisa is found here:
https://800notes.com/forum/ta-34af6a034ba34b6/unending-collection-calls

Official-type material on US federal collection law:
http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fdcpajump.shtm
http://www.consumerfinance.gov/askcfpb/search ... debt-collection

ya this outfit has ruined my credit.gone to equifax and i have never seen a bill go figure

if you recieve a letter from global with a lawyers name of Howard Waldman the phone number he provides only goes to voice mail his real number is 905 881 3116 extention 101 is his assistant and she gets mad that you call her so extention 101 is the best number to annoy extention 102 id howard waldmans direct extention to his personal phone they will both stop answering there phone after 10 calls or so and it takes about 45 messages to fill his voicemail. by filling his voicemail and calling back he is unable to recieve calls annoying him as much as global annoys others

Hold on there.... Global is Canadian and thus exempt from the FDCPA n'est pas?  So this database you are talking about, does it have information on Canadian citizens or is it strictly American?

More info about rules for debt collectors as they apply in Canada

https://800notes.com/forum/ta-94646df8de0df64 ... debt-collectors

Yes, the threads showing debt collector, telemarketing, call center predation. Preying on the elderly, vulnerable, and uninformed. Nondisclosure calls used for disinformation and confusion strictly to harass, abuse, and exploit those called. I'll stop there!

“Global is Canadian and thus exempt from the FDCPA...”  This is not true.  The U.S. and Canadian governments work very closely together and have formal binational cooperation when it comes to supporting each other’s fraud laws, especially those laws that may affect cross-border entities or citizens.  

Fraud law between the two countries covers a broad range of crimes and civil tort actions that address situations in which a person or entity wrongfully obtains money, property, or other benefits by deceit.  

The US and Canada collaborated on Operation Global Con a few years ago.   It resulted in the arrest of 139 individuals in the United States, and an additional 426 arrests in Canada, Costa Rica, the Netherlands, and Spain; the execution of 447 search warrants in those five countries; hundreds of convictions were made; and the filing of 20+ civil actions by the FTC against 140+ defendants.

Some of the support for existing law can be found here:
-  Canada-U.S. Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) and extradition treaty
-  North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
-  National Mass Marketing Fraud Strategy Working Group