Fight Back Against Unfair Debt Collection Practices: Know Your Rights and Protect Yourself from Threats, Lies, and Intimidation

6. PIF Means Payment in Full

Once I went to work as a collector, my perspective on debt began to swing around on its axis. I found myself leaning toward the creditor’s point of view. Despite having heard consumers’ horror stories about unfair and abusive collections, like the seizure of Adam Wisniewski’s account, my inclination to take the side of the consumer began to weaken. No wonder, given how rarely I now encountered honest consumers who had truly been wronged. In my daily work as a collector trainee, calling people with debts that had gone unpaid for a year or more, innocent victims of the collection system like Adam were few and far between—and they were mixed in among many people who would simply prefer not to pay.

Over one weekend, ...