Relief from abusive debt collection
No doubt debt collectors are busy these days, with the alarming increase in home foreclosures.
It's never fun being chased by a collector for money owed. But some people have inflicted this trauma upon themselves by abandoning personal responsibility and getting in over their heads with mortgages they suddenly can't afford. They should have known better, and they can't just walk away from such financial recklessness. In these cases, debt collectors are only doing their jobs in recovering money that lenders are rightfully owed.
But there are times when the debt collectors can be reckless, too. Particularly when they are harassing consumers who do not have debt claimed. This can occur when consumers are victims of identify theft. They can hardly be behind on bills owed by con artists.
Illinois consumers who have had their identities stolen shouldn't have this stress compounded by being hounded by collection agencies. Fortunately, the state is coming to their rescue.
A new law pushed by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, and sponsored by state Sen. Don Harmon, an Oak Park Democrat, as well as state Rep. Marlow Colvin, a Chicago Democrat, would forbid debt collectors from pressuring consumers to make good on debt they do not owe.
It requires debt collection activities to cease when there is a confirmed case of identity theft.
Also, credit bureaus must be notified so that inaccurate information is removed from a consumer's record of creditworthiness.
We would hope managers of collection agencies would, as a good business practice, make their own efforts to determine whether there is a bona-fide case of identity theft in a collection case and act accordingly. But if they don't, there is the lasso of the law to pull them back from abusive collection tactics.
The law, which takes effect Jan. 1, would also come at a time when Illinois veterans might need it most.
The federal government continues to pitifully flounder in protecting them from identity theft. More than a year after the Veterans Affairs Department pledged to close a huge security breach that has put millions of veterans at risk of identity theft, the department has yet to fully implement procedures to secure access to veterans' personal information, according to a story by the Associated Press.
A report by the federal Government Accountability Office concludes that "unnecessary risk exists that the personal information of veterans and others, such as medical providers, will be exposed to data tampering, fraud and inappropriate disclosure."
It would seem the only sense of urgency in this matter is on the part of ID thieves scrambling to criminally profit from veterans before the agency set up to help veterans finally shakes awake the sloths who are supposed to be securing personal information. What a shame.