ARS National Services Sent Info to Letter Vendor New Jersey FDCPA Class Action

ARS National Services, Inc. collects consumer debts for other parties. The complaint for this class action alleges that ARS violates the privacy of the consumers by disclosing their financial information to third parties. How does it do this? By using a letter vendor to produce and mail its debt-collection letters, says the complaint for this class action. It bring suit under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).

A class and a subclass have been defined for this action:

• The Class is all natural persons living in New Jersey whose information was disclosed by ARS to a third-party on or after December 22, 2015, in an attempt to collect a Citibank, NA account.
• The FDCPA Subclass is all natural persons living in New Jersey to whom ARS sent a collection letter which (1) was dated between December 22, 2020 and December 22, 2021, (2) was trying to collect a consumer debt allegedly originating with Citibank, NA, and (3) was sent using a third-party letter vendor.

To avoid identity theft and invasions of privacy, the complaint alleges, the FDCPA forbids the disclosure of information to third parties.

The complaint quotes from the findings of an earlier court case about disclosures of a consumer debtor’s account number by a company called Convergent: “The account number is a core piece of information pertaining to [the consumer’s] status as a debtor and Convergent’s debt collection effort. Disclosed to the public, it could be used to expose her financial predicament. Because Convergent’s disclosure implicates core privacy concerns, it cannot be deemed benign.”

In this case, plaintiff Natalie Okten allegedly owed a debt, from transactions for personal, family, or household purposes. At some point, ARS was assigned to collect that debt.

In trying to collect that debt, ARS sent Okten two collection letters, one on February 3, 2021 and the other on March 31, 2021.

The complaint alleges, “Upon information and belief, the ARS Letters were mailed using a third-party letter vendor.”

This would require the transmission of information on Okten’s alleged debt to the third-party letter vendor, the complaint contends. It also claims, “Okten never provided consent to [ARS] to communicate third parties regarding her debt.”

The complaint quotes from the FDCPA to allege that debt collectors are prohibited from communicating with third parties “without the prior consent of the consumer given directly to the debt collector … in connection with the collection of any debt, with any person other than the consumer, his attorney, a consumer reporting agency if otherwise prohibited by law, the creditor, the attorney of the creditor, or the attorney of the debt collector.”

According to the complaint, the law also prohibits “[t]he publication of a list of consumers who allegedly refuse to pay debts…” The complaint implies that the communication of ARS to the letter vendor may involve such a list.

The complaint therefore alleges, “Unlawfully communicating with a third[-] party letter vendor regarding [Okten’s] Debt violates the FDCPA because it is impermissible communication under” that law.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Consumer
Tags: FDCPA, Sharing Personal Information with Third Parties, Unlawful Debt Collection