Fair Debt Collection Practices Act annual report 2012
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is pleased to submit to Congress its first annual report summarizing its activities to administer the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, during the past year. These activities represent the Bureau’s inaugural effort to curtail deceptive, unfair, and abusive debt collection practices in the marketplace prohibited by the FDCPA. Illegal collection practices cause substantial harm to consumers, who may pay amounts not owed, unintentionally waive their rights, suffer emotional distress, and experience invasions of privacy. Such practices can even place consumers deeper in debt.