In West Virginia, an unusual turn of events has allowed one woman to collect money from a collection agency. Normally, the collection agencies are the ones to do the collecting, but not in this case. D. Mey, a resident of Wheeling, West Virginia has just won the largest judgment against an abusive debt collection company in history. When all is said and done, Ms. Mey stands to collect more than ten million dollars.
Ms. Mey's activism began two years ago when a debt collector working for Reliant Financial Associates (RFA) left a message for the mother and housewife indicating that her house was in danger of being foreclosed upon if she did not immediately pay her debt. Reportedly, the message included threatening statements implying that Mey's home would be seized if her debt failed to be paid. The message was shocking in more ways than one, as not only are agencies strictly forbidden by law to threaten a lawsuit or home seizure, but Mey was seemingly debt free at the time she received the message.
Mey was the victim in a case of mistaken debtor identity, which was partially brought on by a new type of debt collector that has been appropriately dubbed as a "debt buyer." Debt buyers, such as the ones that made contact with Mey, are in the practice of purchasing old debts that creditors have essentially given up on (at very little cost to the buyer) and then making their own attempts to collect on the debt for much more profit. Enacting outrageous tactics to obtain the money that others have failed to get themselves, debt buyers such as RFA are willing to act scrupulously in order to acquire the money they think they are rightfully due.
To stop the solicitous behaviors being made against her, Mey took legal action, writing RFA a cease and desist letter advising the company to stop contact with her. After the letter was received via certified mail by RFA, Mey almost immediately began receiving anonymous phone calls (literally only 23 minutes after her letter was signed for by an employee at the company). For two days, the house wife endured hang-up calls where no one was on the other end of the line. After two days of such harassment, Mey then received a call in which the man on the other end of the line proceeded to call here vulgar names relating to the female anatomy, also describing sexual acts he wished her to be subjected to and even asking her sarcastically if she would like to be gang-banged. Mey's two-minute long verbal assault was recorded on tape and reported to local police officers.
A former victim of intrusive phone calls, Mey was accustomed to recording all of her calls – a decision that proved to be quite helpful in her most recent battle with such unscrupulous acts of solicitation. After a year-long search for an attorney that would take on her case, Mey was able to file a harassment and illegal collection practices lawsuit against RFA last May. After the company's lawyer failed to report to court, the judge described the creditor's acts as malicious and ruled all of Mey's allegations to be true. A judgment for $10,860,000 was awarded to the victim.
Mey has made peace with the fact that she may never be able to fully collect on the settlement amount awarded to her. However, she is much less concerned with the money and much more focused on making sure that her victimization is not felt by any others. We too are committed to helping victims of such mistreatment recover accordingly. With years of experience in the field, our knowledge and skills when it comes to debt collection defense cannot be rivaled by any other law firm in the area. Therefore, we encourage you to call
The Law Offices of Michael P. Forbes, PC today to learn more about how we can be of service if you were unfairly victimized in any way by a debt collector whose actions were out of line. Whether you owe money or not, your rights are not meant to be abused and we will actively work to make sure that you are treated according to the stipulations of the
Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Therefore, we encourage you to
contact an attorney from our firm today.
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