Possible Nationwide Scam Brought to Light by FDCPA Violations Lawsuit

A possible nationwide debt collection scam has been brought to light by a recent FDCPA violations lawsuit.

What is the FDCPA?

The FDCPA, or Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, is a federal law enacted in 1977. The FDCPA was an amendment to the Consumer Credit Protection Act and seeks to establish protection from abusive debt collectors and their practices. Its purpose is three-fold:

• Eliminate the abusive practices often practiced by debt collectors,
• Promote fair debt collection, and
• Allow consumers the ability to dispute debt collection by obtaining the validation of the debts that are owed.

The FDCPA protects consumers from many practices including abusive or profane language when collecting a debt, threatening legal action or arrest and seeking unjustified amounts. The Fair Debt Collection Protection Act also governs when consumers may be called (between 8:00am and 9:00 pm), where they may be contacted (not at their place of employment) and intention of the calls (a debt collector may not continually call with the intent to annoy or harass).

Additionally, under the FDCPA, a consumer may not be called after they have asked the collector not to call any longer, the debt collector may not publish the information of the debtor on a “bad debt” list, the debt collector may not call a consumer if they are legally represented and they may not deceitfully misrepresent the debt owed.

Indeed, this misrepresentation of an owed debt is the subject of this recent FDCPA violations lawsuit.

FDCPA Violations Lawsuit

Two different plaintiffs in an FDCPA violations lawsuit have claimed that a certain medical debt collector has sought to recover double the amount of a debt owed. This “double billing” may constitute a possible nationwide scam by debt collection company, NRA Group, LLC.

NRA Group, a Pennsylvania-based medical debt collection agency, works with medical professionals to take on debt that patients and consumers have not paid. As is common with debt collection agencies, NRA Group stood to receive a hefty cut of the monies recovered. In this case, the cut was upward of 40%.

According to this particular FDCPA violations lawsuit, NRA Group did not simply request that consumers pay their medical debt — they allegedly asked consumers to pay double what was owed. The plaintiffs in this FDCPA violations lawsuit claim that this practice was done with at least 12,500 residents of New York, but also assume that this practice extends to consumers who live elsewhere in the United States.

The first plaintiff owed Peconic Bay Medical Center $1,285.52 for hospital services. However, NRA Group told her that she owed $2,571.o4, exactly double what her original bill was. A second plaintiff owed the same medical center $1,254.93 yet was allegedly charged $2,509.86 by the defendant.

Misrepresentation of a debt owed is in direct violation of the FDCPA. The defendants in this FDCPA violations lawsuit claimed that this double billing was a clerical error and an isolated incident. But later, after being ordered to provide additional information by the court, NRA Group admitted to doing this same thing with almost 12,500 other consumers living in New York.

Plaintiffs argue that because NRA Group has been in the debt collection business since 1976, the potential amount of consumers that have been overbilled could be vast.

This NRA Group FDCPA Violations Lawsuit is Case No. 2:16-cv-05210, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Join a Free Unfair Debt Collection Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If a lender or debt collector engaged in unfair debt collection practices, you may have a legal claim and could be owed compensation for violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).

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DISCLAIMER: Debt collection itself is not illegal. However, debt collection firms collecting on consumer debts must adhere to the FDCPA. Even though debt attorneys are investigating these companies, their debt collection practices may be legal.