Posted on 12/14/2014 7:54:57 AM PST by Brother Cracker
A Federal judge has ordered the Bank of America to pay a Florida couple $1 million for a slew of automated calls that occurred over a four-year period. According to the order, the relentless calls violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and as such the bank must pay the couple $1,500 for every prerecorded message received.
In a statement, Joyce and Nelson Coniglio said they were harassed by telephone calls repeatedly after telling the bank on multiple occasions to stop. The calls started after the Coniglio’s began having problems with their mortgage payments.
The couple’s son, Jason, said that the Bank of America called constantly. His mother received phone calls on her cellphone during dinner, his father’s cell phone was called time after time, and then after arriving home after being out, there would be additional messages on the answering machine.
A spokesperson for the Bank of America said the calls were not meant as harassment but rather an attempt to keep the couple from going into foreclosure. However, after the judge reviewed the case and saw that in four years the couple had received a minimum of 700 calls and had been advised to stop calling, it was obvious that both Acts had been violated.
The Florida couple is in their late 60’s and after getting behind in their mortgage payments back in 2009, the massive phone call campaign began. The couple also confirmed that it was common for them to receive up to five calls in a single day.
They added that the calls were not only harassing but actually abusive and showed clear patterns of outrageous behavior. In addition to the calls, the couple received demanding letters for collection that included misleading and false information. Along with telling the Bank of America to stop calling they sent several cease-and-desist letters but to no avail.
Finally reaching a breaking point, the couple filed a formal complaint last July in Federal court. Because the Bank of America failed to meet the mandated deadline set by the court, the couple won their claim by default. In addition, non-action from the bank resulted in the normal cost of $500 per call being increased to $1,500 per call.
As expected, the Bank of America asked the Federal judge to reconsider but with such strong evidence against them, all pleas were rejected. One of the couple’s attorneys, Billy Howard, said the decision of the court was an epic win not just for his clients but consumers throughout the United States.
When approached for comment, Dan Frahm, senior vice president at the Bank of America said they were simply trying to help the couple. Following the Coniglio’s case, three other couples are taking action.
In one case, an older couple from California received more than 2,000 calls, an Indiana family 600 calls, and a family from Arkansas 350 times, all from the Bank of America.
I constantly get calls from collection agencies for the former owner of that number. Perhaps I should start keeping records of those calls.
Oh, I ended Rachel using a call blocker. Unfortunately, every couple weeks now, she has a new phone number to spam from. I have to block each one as she gets it.
I think it was more about the homeowners insurance that B of A demanded doubling the monthly payment.
I have no phone number, no harassing phone spam.
#26 I used to have a BofA credit card many years ago. I was a few days late on a payment and they raised the interest rate to 29+%.
I cancelled the card and got one of those 0% for 1 year cards from some other company and transfer my amount to it. I have never been dinged like that from any credit card company before. Many offers http://www.creditcards.com
Find out your credit score. It is free. Check once a month. https://www.credit.com
Be careful if you want to check all 3 with their 7 day trial. If you do not cancel they will bill you $24.95 a month. I remember when Experian would not let you cancel except by mail so they would get the monthly amount (scam).
I throw any BofA credit card offers in the trash.
I wish I could collect on the annoying calls that I recieve daily about my credit card debt. No matter how many times I tell them I have no credit card debt. Lately most of the calls say they are from Oil Trough OK, but they come from many other places as well. Ggggrrrrrrrrr
Your Panasonic house phone can block Credit Card Services! how?
When the telemarketer calls, the phone captures their number, which I later retrieve and move to the call blocking memory, which has room for 60 different phone numbers. When a new call comes in, that caller’s number is compared to what is in block memory, and if the caller’s number is there, the phone doesn’t even ring. The first ring of all calls is suppressed to allow the unit to do its work so that if the number is not blocked, the caller’s name is announced and there are three more rings before going to voicemail.
I presently have just over thirty numbers blocked after a couple of months use.
LOL! Definitely a retirement strategy to consider...
Credit Card scammers won’t leave your phone alone? Ok, the solution is simple, but will take a concerted effort by all the public. You break their stones when you tie up their operators for long periods of time, say 10-12 minutes or so- they don’t make any money during that time and they still pay the operator. You do this as follows:
Get to their operator. Pretend to be a senile senior citizen. I usually sound befuddled and ask questions like “is my card being cancelled?” or “am I late on my payment”? Then give them a long story about your lousy children and how they usually pay your bills. Then tell them bizarre stories about your dead relatives, admit paying 22% interest on your cards, but act like you are happy to be talking to them and tease them that you are eventually going to do business.
Then they’ll press you for a card #. Tell them you have to go get your purse and then take about 2 minutes (not too long!) to get back on the phone. Then start giving them the wrong card number (make sure the first 6-8 numbers are correct, otherwise they know right away its a fake). You get the idea: WASTE THEIR TIME!!! If they chase their tail enough they’ll be motivated to take you off their list. If 50-60 people chewed up at least 5 minutes of each operators time, you’ve taken over almost the entire day from the scammer and the business model will die!
I have done that to scammers. I. Have acted drunk or stoned, asked them to wait a minute and left them till they hang up on me. Some times I have put the phone down in front of the radio and let them listen to Rush Limbaugh. Guess I need to try harder.
I can do a great impression of a barely English speaking Indian (Asian Indian).
That’s the dialect I use for those folks.
If you ever got behind on a payment, you will know. The calls start at 8:30 AM and don’t stop till 9 PM-7 days a week.
I was there in the 1990’s and I would get over 70 calls a day from various bill collectors a day!
Finally got smart and changed my phone number. Its the FIRST thing I tell anyone who gets behind and are working on paying off the debts. Unless you want to be called literally non-stop.
Get a burner phone for calls to bill collectors and turn it off unless you are ready to talk to them.
My sister in law is mentally handicapped and loves to take on the phone. One time I gave her the phone and went and took a long shower and when I got out they were still on the line. HA HA!
Belching loudly and asking them for sex usually works.
Well, I was there, too, but I never got behind so I didn’t get the calls.
It would be interesting to know exactly what type of loan this was for a second home. Reports here indicate that BoA was charging exorbitant PMI. To me this suggests a very high loan to actual equity in the house - maybe one of those 110% loans?
I have a landline I keep because of the alarm system. Bare bones no caller ID, wire maintenance, etc.
When I get a call, I say “Hello”...if someone doesn’t answer within 1 second I hang up. It is a boiler room call and these operations can’t transfer to a human in a second.
On others where they do answer within the time frame, I just say “I don’t give over the phone” and hang up, or “Not interested” and hang up.
My only enjoyment was for a few days a month or so ago I got one of these Indian boiler room calls from “IT Department at Microsoft” saying my computer had a virus, blah blah blah.
I first asked them “If you know my computer - tell me its IP address”. They couldn’t and hung up. The next day got the same call but this time she knew it - it was the default router setting every manufacturer uses. I told her no, I changed mine - “what is it?” Hangup....this went on for about a week and they gave up.
I sound like a cross between that and Cousin IT. Drives them nuts LOL. I used to use an irate Iranian voice. Evidently they hear lots of those. LOL
I didn’t say my case was the same. I was referencing only repeated violations of federal law governing annoying and harassing telephone calls. Goes on all the time and it seems the law is rarely enforced.
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