Oak Park Real Estate & Estate Planning Blog

When the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) files lawsuits against companies offering payday loans or other debt relief or assistance programs, do consumers in Chicago ever see any of the funds that come from the settlements? According to a recent report from Legal News Line , the FTC recently indicated that it plans to provide more than 145,000 consumers with almost $20 million in compensation from the company One Technologies LP and two of its partner companies. FTC Lawsuit for Fraudulent Debt and Credit Assistance Programs Why is the FTC returning more than $20 million to hundreds of thousands of consumers that had a connection to One Technologies LP? As the article explains, the organization and its partner companies “ran an online scheme that attempted to convince consumers that it provided ‘free’ credit score access.” The FTC indicated that the defendants not only took an initial fee from consumers who signed up for those services, but the defendants also charged consu...

Although we have entered into a new year with promises for fairer debt collection practices, dishonest and deceptive debt collectors continue to target consumers. According to a recent news release from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the federal government recently announced “four cases against debt collectors who did pretty much everything wrong.” In other words, the FTC is starting the year off by immediately targeting debt collectors who are not abiding by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). Recent FTC Focus on Dishonest Debt Collection As the news release explains, the FTC has been taking relatively large steps over the last year to eradicate deceptive debt collection practices. It announced 115 new cases against collection agencies back in November, working with “more than 70 law enforcement partners” to close down these dishonest debt collection operations. In 2015, the FTC filed cases against 52 different defendants, which was the largest n...