the new york times is reporting that uh... local district attorney attorneys
are teaming up with that collectors in order to intimidate consumers into
came back money that they owed to merchants
but also paying extra fees that they don't need to pay for financial
budgeting classes
now this is a fascinating story because what they're doing the debt collectors
is
they will take a letterhead from the district attorney's
and they will make the letter to the cut consumers appear to be
from the district attorney
themselves right antenatal say that they are going to face prosecution unless
they pay back the money that they owed of merchants now this only has to do
with bounce checks and a lot of times
you know consumers will write checks without realizing that they had in
savannah insufficient funds and as a result of the checkpoint outside a lot
of times people don't even know that that happened right
and this is happening
throughout the country there are hundreds of district attorneys offices
that have done this
these classes on budgeting
between a hundred fifty to two hundred fifty dollars so they'll pay that money
back they will pay a late fees and things like that and in addition to that
they will pay for the class
that money for the class goes to the district attorney's office which is why
the district attorney's will agree to allow the debt collectors to use their
letterhead this story makes my blood boil
because this is so many different things going on in the country caps within one
story
first of all the films with the fees
they cut taxes on the top right this and then they got to get the money somewhere
writes what are they do the on top of the
went right by the state of the show party
now traffic israelis have been used for regular speeding
four hundred dollars five hundred dollars it fits
who can pay that it's insanity you know when you can take
they said the deck likes it collectors after you and now were bringing debtors
prisoners at the prisons back all you need to some sort of connection of the
government u_k_
you owe me money i can send you to present although they're trying to
challenge that in some places fred because the corporations
one across your spirit
and you want to get every dollar they kapadia so hey listen
if they can use the harm of a
of the loft they'd love to do that
we did a story about how they were trying to that in vegas for somebody
owed money to the casinos the senate
they find an excuse to use a government so that they could threaten to arrest
you
so they can ruin your life which are behind bars unless you pay up
and so these big corporations who decide on the collect on the stat
whether it's money you're owed a walmart or whoever else
undercut the government in a
so they'll have an incentive to play ball where you know what
don't worry d_a_'s office you know what to do anything and i'll get you two
hundred fifty dollars in the bisbee az coeducation camps are one of the health
they're sending them to right
ought not let me give you some more details of the story because it is
illegal to knowingly write a check when you know that it's gonna baths right
however are it's very very difficult to prosecute those individuals because how
do you prove that that individual knowingly did that a lot of time that
happens on accident
for instance at the new york times profiles the story of enjoying arts
and as she wrote eight forty seven dollar check to wal-mart
she didn't realize that it bounced and then months later she got contacted by
the d_a_'s office which was really the debt collectors using a letterhead from
the d_a_'s office and it said you will be prosecuted unless you pay the fees
and unless you take this class right
keep in mind that in this country you're supposed to be innocent till proven
guilty but this isn't that you're guilty and you have to prove that you're
innocent
um... so you know their pain hundreds of dollars for these classes that they
don't need
they don't really face prosecution
and they're being lied to you
yahoo look at you take an original forty seven dollars and ninety five cents
union unless you know
dire times she finds out what's going on they said the now you owe us to a
tornado
but when i went out of a forty eight dollars well i added my fears the
government out of their freeze and if you don't pay out we're gonna threaten
arrested
now look vendor crushing us they really are a definitely are and by the way the
district attorney's love this because it means that they don't have to deal with
uh... handling these cases usually when there's a bounced check
the merchants will contact the d_a_'s office but in this case i had the d_a_'s
don't have to do anything they just let that debt collectors do the work for
that in fact the former district attorney says the following
it was ate way to deal with a fairly serious non violent crime going on in
the business community but not overburden the court system or the
resources of the district attorney's
their outsourcing
one ml government tax to private corporations and companies
sonar some small
who profit
off of imprisoning house
or at least in this case threatening to prisoners and i guarantee you as those
people actually didn't go to prison
evident play ball the debt collectors
you can't do that
if you do that as the government
they have a financial motive
to threaten us and present us said no at
what i suppose sadness prisons were going back to a time with the rich and
powerful ruled everything in the rest of us had no rights
and its sick it's grotesque and they do it in sometimes large ways but they also
do it is so small ways like this and
most the media doesn't talk about it all credit for the new york times for a very
good story
but oftentimes
people up in c_n_n_ i'll use them as an example but in a lot of this office
immediately
i don't know anybody notables wal-mart forty eight dollars
i don't know anyone who is getting hammered by the debt collectors
because everybody there has been a lot of money
right so they don't buy the reporting this
so it happens to have so many of us and by the way
you think you're alone
if it was must just be happening to me that you're not alone it's having to a
lot of people in the country it's just not being reported very much
you know we got a new gotta fight back