If you’re afraid to answer your phone, expecting another round of verbal abuse from a debt collector, you’re not the only one. Thousands of people across the country have a debt in collections, and judging by the complaints to the Federal Trade Commission each year, collectors aren’t always civil when pursuing it.
Your Rights Under the FDCPA
The U.S. Congress passed the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, or FDCPA, in September 1977. It regulates what these debt collectors can say or do while attempting to collect payment for a debt, and provides consumers with a way to protect themselves when confronted with an unethical and abusive collection agency.
- Swearing and calling you names
- Calling you at work when your employer does not allow such calls
- Telling you that you will arrested if you don’t pay
- Persisting in trying to collect a disputed debt
- Calling at inconvenient times
- Calling your family and telling them that you owe money
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Company Profile: Ability Recovery Services
If you are being called by Ability Recovery Services, here are some additional details about the agency.
Ability Recovery Services is a debt collection agency located in Moosic, Pennsylvania. It opened for business in 2005, has less than 10 employees, and is managed by its owner, Audrey Conflitti.
The company has been the subject of 207 complaints made to the Better Business Bureau in the last three years. Files indexed by the PACER website indicate that consumers who believed they were being harassed by Ability Recovery Services consulted an attorney before filing a lawsuit.
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Alleged Violations against Ability Recovery Services
According to PACER, in or around July 2015, Ability Recovery Services started contacting a Pennsylvania consumer to collect a debt. She complained that the messages on her voicemail did not identify the callers as debt collectors. Instead, they simply said they were with ‘ARS’.
Feeling harassed by Ability Recovery Services, she hired consumer lawyer and sued the company for:
- Failing to identify itself as a debt collector in all communications
- Using false, deceptive, and misleading means to collect a debt
The matter was later resolved.
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Hire a Consumer Lawyer
The phone numbers for Ability Recovery Services are:
If either number appears on your caller ID when the phone rings, it means that you are being called by Ability Recovery Services. If they leave voice messages that conceal their identity and the fact that they are trying to collect a debt from you, hire consumer lawyer and file a claim against Ability Recovery Services.
You could be awarded $1,000 per FDCPA incident plus the costs of filing your claim. Every so often debt collectors need reminders that the law is in place for a reason, and there are consequences for breaking it.
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Additional Resources
Case taken from PACER (pacer.gov). File number is Case 2:16-cv-02439-AB from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
*Disclaimer: The content of this article serves only to provide information and should not be constructed as legal advice. If you file a claim against Ability Recovery Services or any other third-party collection agency, you may not be entitled to any compensation.