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 … Read more
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. … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more