The phone rings and there is a recorded message from a debt collector on the other end. Typically the recording will tell you that they are attempting to collect a debt and ask you to call back and reference a case number. You know you have perfect credit. You have no missed credit card payments and your loans are current. Why is a collection agency calling you?
Last month, Manuel and Luz Fausto won one of the biggest collection awards documented in the last couple of years under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) against Credigy Services Corporation. A California jury awarded the Faustos $500,000 in damages derived from harassment by Credigy collectors. Of the sum, granted $100,000 was for actual damages the Faustos experienced, while $400,000 was in punitive damages, granted for malicious and reckless disregard of the couples rights. According to one of the Faustos lawyers, David Humphreys of Humphreys Wallace Humphreys, P.C., and the case derived from a debt on a Wells Fargo charge card opened in 1992.