[Leanan]

Debt collection!

[url=http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Consumer/story?id=1593149&page=1]
Some Debt Collectors Are Using Illegal Tactics[/url]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he Federal Trade Commission gets more consumer complaints about debt collectors than about any other industry. Americans report being harassed, threatened, even coerced into paying debts that aren't their own.

...Some collectors threatened jail time, Jamie said, even though being in debt isn't a crime. And if the consumer insisted it wasn't their bill, the collectors had an answer for that, too. They would tell them that they were "going to call your electric company, your phone company, your mortgage company, and I'm going to tell them that these are all fraudulent accounts," she said.

Jamie said some people were so afraid they paid the same debt over and over again.

"They honestly believed that someone was going to come and hurt them physically if they didn't pay," she said.