ID Theft Victims Are Often Victimized Twice By Banks Violating TCPA With Robo Calls
ID Theft Victims Are Often Victimized Twice By Banks Violating TCPA With Robo Calls
ID Theft Victims Are Often Victimized Twice By Banks Violating TCPA With Robo Calls
You’ve heard the phrase “adding insult to injury” — here is a great example.
You find out to your horror that you are the victim of Identity Theft.
You call the credit card company (Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citi, Discover, etc) and tell them what happened.
They ask for your phone number and you give them your cell.
Now the bank is blowing up your cell phone with robo calls (auto dialed calls) in violation of the TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act).
So not only have you been victimized by the ID theft — the security measures on opening credit cards are very lax — but now the bank is calling you multiple times a day with pre-recorded messages or auto dialed messages.
So, what can you do to stop these robo calls?
Invoke your rights under the TCPA.
Sue the bank for the illegal calls to your cell phone.
The bank, if guilty, will owe you $500 to $1500 per call.
We have had cases involving hundreds of calls.
When you send a settlement demand to the bank — after filing suit — that is six figures . . . this gets their attention like nothing else will!
But what if I gave the bank my cell phone when I called to dispute the ID theft?
Does that mean I gave them permission to blow up my cell phone with robo calls?
No.
The test under the TCPA is did you give your cell phone to the bank when you opened up the transaction.
In ID theft, you did not open up any transaction — the ID thief did.
Besides that, you only gave your cell phone number in the context of disputing the debt — not doing business with the bank.
What if the bank says it has determined that I owe the debt?
Is it legal for the bank to robo dial my phone every day?
The banks normally decide that you do owe the debt.
Especially if you know the potential ID thief.
Here’s the deal though.
Under the law, unless you knew about the account or authorized it, you do not owe it.
When the bank still reports on your credit report that you owe it, this normally violates the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
I’m assuming you filed a police report and submitted an ID Theft Affidavit which you gave to the bank and the credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) when you disputed owing the debt.
(If you did not, please get with a consumer lawyer in your state to help you do this).
Don’t be victimized twice.
Stand up for you rights.
Hold the bank liable for illegal calls to your cell phone and false credit reporting.
Normally in these situations the bank (or the credit reporting agencies) will get the false information off of your credit report.
This is because they know it is illegal to keep accounts on there that are not your accounts.
But the banks don’t like to give up — they want their money from you even though you have been abused by them. They want you to pay the debt even though you don’t owe it.
So they will send letters.
They will send you to collection agencies.
If they do, then take the appropriate action. Normally this means to sue.
But the new tactic is to keep the account at the bank and attack you through your phone. They blow up your cell phone.
When you sue, under the appropriate circumstances, the TCPA is a powerful way to fight back and stop this as well as getting you damages.
Contact Us.
If you are in this situation, feel free to get in touch with us and we will be happy to help.
You can reach us by phone at 205-879-2447.
You can also fill out our “contact us” form which will get a message to us immediately.
Thanks for reading, and have a great day!