Are You Being Called By Commercial Auditors Corporation?*

When a debt collector contacts you by phone or letter, they will demand immediate payment and often either hint at or directly threaten consequences when you refuse and dispute the debt. When they act in this manner, they are counting on the likelihood that you don’t know your rights as an indebted consumer.

Your Rights Under the FDCPA

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, or FDCPA, gives indebted consumers the right to dispute a debt and makes it illegal for third-party debt collectors to use tactics like those below to bully or harass you into paying.

• Calling you before 8:00 a.m. and after 9:00 p.m. in your time zone
• Maliciously reporting inaccurate information to the credit bureaus
• Discussing the debt with anyone except you, your spouse, and/or your attorney
• Trying to collect an amount that is not authorized by law or the original creditor agreement
• Using profane and obscene language
• Pretending to be lawyers or members of law enforcement

Company Profile: Commercial Auditors Corporation

If you are being called by Commercial Auditors Corporation, information about the company is below.

Commercial Auditors Corporation, which is also known as National Auditing Bureau, is a debt collection company located in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. It was established in 1992, has 20 to 49 employees, and is managed by its President, Kenneth Maltby. Civil litigation files at the PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) website indicate that consumers who believed they were being harassed by Commercial Auditors Corporation filed lawsuits demanding compensation.

Alleged Violations Against Commercial Auditors Corporation

According to PACER, on or about March 20, 2013, Commercial Auditors Corporation sent a Tennessee resident a collection letter seeking payment for a debt allegedly owed to Neiman Marcus. Another letter followed on April 1. Although Commercial Auditors Corporation originally advised the plaintiff that she had 30 days to dispute or demand verification of the debt, this letter allegedly chastised her failure to respond. She also subsequently discovered that the company was not licensed to collect debts in Tennessee.

Feeling harassed by Commercial Auditors Corporation, the plaintiff hired a consumer attorney and sued the company for allegedly violating the FDCPA in the following ways:

• Using harassing and abusive means to collect a debt
• Failing to identify themselves as debt collectors in all communications
• Using false, deceptive and misleading means to collect a debt
• Misrepresenting the character, amount and legal status of a debt
• Taking actions they were not legally entitled to take
• Failing to inform her that each communication was an attempt to collect a debt
• Using unfair and unconscionable means to collect a debt, such as contacting a third party

The matter was later settled.

Hire an Attorney

The phone numbers for this collection agency are:

• 1-763-783-9085
• 1-800-866-9889

If you see either of these numbers on your caller ID when the phone rings, it means that you are being called by Commercial Auditors Corporation. If they threaten actions they cannot legally take and try to bully you into forgetting your dispute rights, hire a consumer attorney.

If you file a claim against Commercial Auditors Corporation and win, you could potentially be awarded $1,000 per violation as well as attorney’s fees, court costs, and any actual damages, so never let shame or embarrassment over owing a debt make you back down.

*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 Commercial Auditors Corporation, or any other third-party collection agency, you may not be entitled to any compensation.

**Case taken from PACER (www.pacer.gov). File number is Case 3:13-cv-00397 from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, Nashville Division.