Susan Greenberg  |  May 12, 2021

Category: Legal News

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Fifth Third Bank Harassed Woman With Debt Collection Calls, lawsuit claims.
(Photo Credit: jetcityimage2/DepositPhotos.com)

A lawsuit filed this week in North Carolina court claims Fifth Third Bank harassed a woman “by calling her relentlessly” in an attempt to collect debt.

The lawsuit alleges the popular bank violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which protects consumers from telemarketers and other unsolicited marketing calls, as well as North Carolina’s Debt Collection Act.

Nancy Mercer claims Fifth Third Bank first called her about a debt she owed in May 2020. When she answered, she noted a “short pause” before she was connected to a representative, “consistent with the use of an automatic dialing system.”

In her lawsuit, Mercer, who is 83, said she told the representative that she was on a fixed income and could not make a payment, but she requested all further communications be done by mail.

Still, the calls continued “virtually every day, multiple times per day,” with Mercer receiving roughly 140 calls between May 18, 2020 and Jan. 31, 2021, the lawsuit claims.

The TCPA was enacted in 1991 “to address a growing number of telephone marketing calls.” The act restricts calls from telemarketers and the use of automatic telephone dialing systems or prerecorded messages. This also restricts calls made to numbers listed on the National Do Not Call Registry.

In 2012, the FCC revised the rules of the act to require telemarketers to “obtain prior express written consent from consumers before robocalling them.” It also required telemarketers to provide an “opt-out” option and restricted use of so-called autodialers.

Under the act, financial institutions can be exempt if they send voice or text messages with time-sensitive financial issues surrounding a person’s account. Such institutions are, however, prohibited from using these messages for marketing purposes.

Still, Fifth Third Bank, along with several other banks, have been named in previous TCPA lawsuits in recent years. 

Separately, the North Carolina Debt Collection Act states that “no debt collector shall use any conduct, the natural consequence of which is to oppress, harass, or abuse any person in connection with the attempt to collect any debt.” Harassment under the act is defined as “causing a telephone to ring or engaging any person in telephone conversation with such frequency as to be unreasonable.”

Fifth Third Bank has not directly addressed Mercer’s lawsuit but states on its website “as a failsafe, the bank begins making calls to customers when a payment is not received by the due date in an effort to help them avoid late charges and negative credit bureau reporting.”

Mercer is seeking monetary damages of $500 to $4,000 for each alleged violation.

If you received a telemarketing call, a prerecorded message, or a text message from a company and you did NOT provide that company consent to do so, you may have a claim against that company for violating the TCPA. Attorneys are prepared to investigate your case and see if you have a claim.

Have you received an unwanted debt collection call from Fifth Third Bank? Let us know in the comments below.

Mercer is represented by Dawn M. McCraw, Price Law Group, APC. 

The Fifth Third Bank Debt Collection Calls Lawsuit is Mercer v. Fifth Third Bank, N.A., Case No.  1:21-cv-00367 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.


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