Debt Validation

• The FDCPA gives all debtors the right to request that a collection agency "validate" any debt it claims they owe. Debt validation protects debtors from con artists posing as collection agencies. A debtor must request a debt validation in writing within 30 days of the day he was initially contacted by the collection agency. Likewise, a collection agency must provide proof of the debt in writing. Although debt collectors are not bound by a legal time frame in which they must validate an individual's debt, collection activity cannot resume until the company provides the debtor with the requested validation.
  
  

Collection Agency Harassment

• Consumers have the right not to suffer abuse from debt collectors. According to the FDCPA, abuse occurs when a debt collector threatens a consumer with violence, uses profanity or telephones the individual repeatedly with the sole purpose of frustrating her into making a payment. Debt collectors also may not include or threaten to include the individual's name on any public list of consumers with unpaid debts.
  
  

Ceasing Communications

• Debt collectors primarily use collection letters and telephone calls when recovering debts. If an individual does not wish to receive any further contact from a collection agency, he has the right to demand that the company cease all attempts to contact him. The FDCPA requires that debtors place their cease of communication requests in writing. Once a collection agency receives a written order that the telephone calls and letters must stop, it may only contact the debtor further to either notify her that it received, and intends to comply with, the request, or intends to take a specific action--such as a lawsuit--to recover the account balance.
  
  

Lawsuit Limitations

• Collection agencies have the right to collect unpaid debts through a lawsuit, but debtors have the right not to be sued after the statute of limitations for debt collection passes in their state. Each state's laws differ concerning how long debt collectors have to sue consumers. Filing a lawsuit against a debtor after the statute of limitations expires in his state is a violation of the FDCPA and the individual may then sue the collection agency for violating federal consumer protection rights.