The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau yesterday announced it had filed a lawsuit against several individuals and companies involved in what it said was a robo-calling phantom debt collection operation.
The complaint targets several debt collectors that allegedly threatened consumers and tricked them into paying phantom debt by verifying consumers’ personal information. But the lawsuit also covers four payment processors, whom the bureau said “ignored numerous red flags of the debt collectors’ illegal conduct” and enabled them to access consumers’ bank accounts to withdraw money not owed. Read more. Read the complaint.