Legal Question in Consumer Law in Wisconsin
i was recently solocited by a collections agency to pay a bill that does not belong to me. they sent me a "settlement offer" in the mail. they had no accurate information about me, other than my address, to substantiate that this was my bill. the debt originated in a state that i had never lived in and the ss# did not match. this company has a proven track record of deceptive practices such as this, including numerous lawsuits dating back a decade. can i sue them for attempting to collect a debt without doing the proper research before sending the bill to me?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Yes, of course you can always sue, but a better question is whether or not such a suit is worth the time and money you will spend. If there was any fraudulent activity by the collector, it should be reported to law enforcement. The other possibility that the caller was not a real collector at all but instead a scammer pretending to be one in order to steal your identity based upon knowing nothing more than your address; an even better reason to go to law enforcement. Finally, if you really do have problems with legitimate collectors, you should probably consider bankruptcy relief, which is surprisingly successful in getting rid of even the most unprofessional collectors, due ot the severity of the sanctions they face for any violations. My comments here are not legal advice, nor do they create an attorney client relationship between us. However, you are welcome to contact my office to discuss retaining me or to set up a free initial consultation at my office in Racine. I also can sometimes arrange to travel outside of Racine for initial consultations.
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