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FTC Amends Telemarketing Rule to Ban Payment Methods Used by Scammers

Following a public comment period, the Federal Trade Commission has approved final amendments to its Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), including a change that will help protect consumers from fraud by prohibiting four discrete types of payment methods favored by con artists and scammers. “Con artists like payments that are tough to trace and hard for …

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Morgan Drexen Take Over Attorneys Held in Contempt by Court

What began in 2013 as an issue between the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the debt settlement company Morgan Drexen has now turned into a widening action that has resulted in several attorneys being found to be in contempt of court and facing a $10,000 per day fine if they don’t return client money. …

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Legal Helpers Goes Out With a Whimper and Likely Bankruptcy.

The State of North Carolina has finally resolved their action against Legal Helpers Debt Resolution. It marks a depressing end to an attorney loophole case that in the day was the business model of the attorney debt settlement company. It is interesting that when LHDR was fresh out of the box, people were aggressively defending …

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Debt Relief Companies Doing Telemarketing to Face Higher Fees

The Federal Trade Commission is getting ready to announce an increase in fees for companies performing telemarketing under the Telemarketing Sales Rules The cost to access the Do-Not-Call Registry to screen telephone numbers is going to increase to $60 per area code. The maximum fee that can be charged is increasing to $16,228. I can …

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Attorney Model Debt Settlement Companies, Affiliates, and Marketers are Not Going to Like What’s Coming From the FTC

This past weekend I held a meeting titled the “Rally in Raleigh” where a number of debt relief companies, and some guest regulators got together to talk openly and honestly about the current state of the debt relief industry. We wound up focusing more on debt settlement since it is a subset of the debt …

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My Review of the New FTC 16 CFR Part 310 Telemarketing Sales Rule for Debt Relief Services

I’m just now getting an opportunity to sit down with the entire 229 page FTC document and go through it. Overall the FTC appears to have placed little to no weight or credence on the testimony or supplied facts of the debt settlements trade associations of The Association of Settlement Companies (TASC) and the United …

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FTC Wants Your Feedback on New Regulations on Debt Settlement and Debt Relief Services

In an ongoing effort to better protect financially distressed consumers, the Federal Trade Commission is seeking public comment on proposed rules to combat deceptive and abusive telemarketing of debt relief services – services that purportedly can reduce consumers’ credit card and other unsecured debt. In the Noticed of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) announced today, the Commission …

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