On June 8, the CFPB announced it had entered into a consent order with a third-party debt collector over allegations of illegal medical debt collecting practices and unfair credit reporting. The CFPB asserted that the company attempted to collect on unsubstantiated debt in over a thousand cases.
According to the CFPB, its investigation into the debt collector found that the company sent “collection letters to consumers who had disputed the validity or accuracy of their purported debts” even though the company had failed to substantiate said debts. The CFPB alleges that this sending of unlawful debt collection letters could have pressured consumers into paying debts they did not owe. Additionally, the CFPB asserted that the debt collector also furnished debt information to consumer reporting companies after failing to conduct reasonable investigations of disputes.