Midland Credit Management Debt Letter Vendors and Privacy New Jersey Class Action

Midland Credit Management (MCM) is a debt collector that pursues consumer debt. This class action brings suit against it under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), alleging that it disclosed information about consumers’ debts to third parties without the consent of the debtors, by way of using letter vendors to send out its debt collection mailings.

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

The class is all natural persons living in New Jersey whose information was revealed by MCM to a third party on or after June 23, 2016, in an attempt to collect a debt originating from Credit One Bank, NA.

The FDCPA Subclass is all natural persons living in New Jersey to whom MCM sent a collection letter, where the letter (1) was dated on or after June 23, 2021, (2) was trying to collect a consumer debt originating from Credit One Bank, NA, and (3) was sent using a third-party letter vendor.

The complaint opens with general privacy concerns in the digital age, where information can be accessed by strangers and easily duplicated and distributed.

The complaint quotes findings from an earlier court case that centers on privacy in debt collection: “The disclosure of [the consumer’s] account number raises these privacy concerns. 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.”

The plaintiff in this case, Terry Algranati allegedly incurred a debt arising from transactions for personal, family, or household purposes. At some point, the complaint alleges the debt was assigned to MCM for collection.

In attempts to collect this debt, the complaint alleges that MCM sent Algranati collection letters with various dates in 2021 and 2022.

“On information and belief,” the complaint claims, “MCM did not draft, print, address, or mail the MCM Letters but, instead, MCM entered into one or more contracts with an unrelated business firm which provides printing, addressing, and mailing services sometimes called a ‘letter vendor.’”

In order to employ the letter vendor, the complaint alleges, MCM provides information about each debt for which it wants a debt collection letter generated and mailed, including MCM’s account number for the debt, the name of the creditor, the charge-off date, the amount owed, and the debtor’s full name and address.

The complaint alleges that the FDCPA forbids debt collectors from communicating about the debt 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” or other such persons who are involved in the transaction or debt.

In using a letter vendor, the complaint alleges, MCM “recklessly disclosed” personal identifying information on Algranati and other debtors to a third party without the debtors’ consent.

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