Today I got a call from "Action Collection Service" of Boise. Had I known who they were, I probably would have let it go to voicemail - but alas, they spoofed their caller ID as just '208'.
In the past, I've had friends call me using calling cards and such, which sometimes show weird caller IDs. So, being the worried person I am, I answered the call.
They spent quite a bit of time trying to tell me what they were doing wasn't a obvious violation of the FDCPA. So, I did some digging, and we've got two levels of action available. The first, is federal.
If you take a look at the FDCPA document here, on page 9, § 807 (10), it specifically states:
Now, I find it hard to believe that this debt collector would have any other justification to spoof their caller ID other then to ensure that consumers do not know who's calling. Hell, they even admitted they used spoofed caller ID information.
The second way, and I'm not sure if this has been enacted as law yet (but it did pass from what I can tell), but S1051 in the first session of 2009 states:
Lines 28/29
Lines 35/36
Here's where we've got the slam dunk.
Line 37/38
(a) Any blocking of caller identi?cation information?
If they had just blocked their caller ID rather then messing with it, there would be no issue here. But, because they tampered with outgoing caller ID information, they've lost that protection.
This law was originally intended to combat the car warranty scams and swatting, but in this case, it would also cover debt collectors fooling with their caller ID to prevent consumers from knowing who's calling them.
Payback's a bitch.
