Are You Being Called By Stanley Weinberg & Associates?*

Are you being barraged by calls, letters, and emails from debt collectors? For thousands of Americans, this is a daily reality. Collection agencies employ all manners of harassment to pressure stressed-out consumers into paying, and they often succeed because consumer rights are so little understood.

Your Rights Under the FDCPA

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) was passed in 1977 after harassment by debt collectors was connected to increasing numbers of bankruptcies.

Today the FDCPA, which is enforced by the Federal Trade Commission, will penalize a third-party collection agency that harasses indebted consumers in ways like the following:

• Calling you before 8:00 a.m. and after 9:00 p.m. in your time zone
• Claiming that you can be arrested for not paying your debts
• Swearing and calling you names
• Discussing the debt with anyone but you, your spouse, your attorney, and any debt co-signers
• Using an autodialer to leave a stream of pre-recorded messages
• Claiming to be federal agents, police officers or other law enforcement figures

Company Profile: Stanley Weinberg & Associates

If you are being called by Stanley Weinberg & Associates, we have provided some more details about the company below.

Stanley Weinberg & Associates, which also does business as Integrated Portfolio Management, Inc., is a debt collection agency in Lisle, Illinois. It was established in 2009, has an estimated 10 employees, and is managed by owner Robert Kellogg.

Files viewable at the PACER website indicates that people who believed they were being harassed by Stanley Weinberg & Associates went to court to make the agency prove its claim.

Alleged Violations against Stanley Weinberg & Associates

According to PACER, in or around mid-2009, Stanley Weinberg & Associates started trying to collect a debt from a New York consumer. She complained that debt collectors called her constantly at work, speaking to her subordinates and even talking about the debt with her supervisor.

When she sent a dispute letter and included a written request to cease contact, the calls allegedly continued. Some collectors allegedly made comments like the following:

• “Give us your debit card now.”
• “You work in a bank and you don’t know your card number by memory?”
• “You can’t keep avoiding your obligations like this!”

Feeling harassed by Stanley Weinberg & Associates, she hired a consumer attorney and sued the company for the following illegal debt collection practices:

• Calling her workplace after being asked to stop
• Discussing her debt with uninvolved third parties
• Ignoring her dispute and cease and desist letter
• Harassing her by phone
• Misrepresenting the character, amount, or legal status of the debt
• Using abusive language
• Implying that nonpayment would lead to a lawsuit

The matter was later dismissed.

Hire a Consumer Lawyer

The phone number for Stanley Weinberg & Associates is 1-630-470-6611. If it appears on your caller ID at any time of the day or night, be aware that Stanley Weinberg & Associates is trying to contact you. If they harass you by phone and use demeaning, threatening language, don’t tolerate it.

Hire a consumer lawyer who can guide you as you file a claim against Stanley Weinberg & Associates. You could be awarded statutory damages of $1000 per violation in addition to your legal fees, so taking an abusive debt collector to court may not be beyond your means.

Additional Resources

• Did a Debt Collector Notify a Third Party Regarding Your Debt?
• Has a Debt Collector Used Profane Language?

Case taken from PACER (www.pacer.gov). File number is Case 2:09-cv-02461-JFB-ARL from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

*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 Stanley Weinberg & Associates or any other third-party collection agency, you may not be entitled to any compensation.