万花筒 2009-12-09&12-11 讨债公司讨出人命

Here's how debt collectors are supposed to treat you on the phone. "I want to inform you and I am obligated to inform you that this is an attempt to collect the debt."

 

This is how they're not. "Stanley McLeod, you need to call Green Tree and get your act together and make your payments on your mortgage and quit playing these games."

Diana McLeod says the call is one of hundreds his husband got before he died of heart failure.

"How many phone calls a day would you get?"

"Six, seven, it might have been more."

McLeod is now suing Green Tree Servicing LLC with using harassing¹ tactics that broke Florida law, and she claims, led to her husbands' death.

"The stress just built up within, he had trouble sleeping, not eating well, the stress was getting worse and worse for him."

The company's General Counsel told CNN, "The collection activity did not lead to his death. The claim is meritless. We deny that the content, the number or the timing² of the calls had anything to do with him dying in 2005."

After a heart attack and continuing heart problems, Stanley was on disability in 2002. The McLeods fell behind about three months on the mortgage payments. The calls began. This one after explaining to the collector he had been life-flighted to the hospital.

"Why don't you have that helicopter pick you up and bring that payment to the office?"

Scare tactics, charges McLeod's attorney Billy Howard. "That's how this mafia-like tactics result in so much money. People are scared."

Howard says this is not an isolated³ incident. He's got hundreds of cases involving other clients. Now how would you feel if you got a call like this: "When I see you, I'm going to f*** you up. I want my money and I want it now." Or this one: "You haven't heard the last of me and if it takes me a year or takes me two, believe me, I'll find you."

"We want them gone, we want all of them gone." Anna Inglett runs a debt collection agency. She says collectors breaking the law should be prosecuted⁴. "Tell you sometimes the industry is penalized⁵ for a few bad apples. We’ve tried very hard and here in our firm, we absolutely make sure that we are in compliant⁶."

With the recession, the number of people in debt is going up, as does the number of complaints against debt collection agencies. According to the Federal Trade Commission, between January and June of this year, they received 45,000 complaints, that's up more than 20% over the same period last year. But the FTC has only one case pending⁷. Referring most complaints to the state for legal action to protect consumers, attorney say if you get harassing messages, do what Stanley McLeod did: save the tapes. John Zarrella, CNN, Tampa.
 

1 harassing   

v.侵扰，骚扰( harass的现在分词 )；不断攻击（敌人）

参考例句：

• The court ordered him to stop harassing his ex-wife. 法庭命令他不得再骚扰前妻。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• It was too close to be merely harassing fire. 打得这么近，不能完全是扰乱射击。 来自辞典例句

2 timing   

n.时间安排，时间选择

参考例句：

• The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
• The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。

3 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

4 prosecuted   

a.被起诉的

参考例句：

• The editors are being prosecuted for obscenity. 编辑因刊载污秽文字而被起诉。
• The company was prosecuted for breaching the Health and Safety Act. 这家公司被控违反《卫生安全条例》。

5 penalized   

对…予以惩罚( penalize的过去式和过去分词 )； 使处于不利地位

参考例句：

• You will be penalized for poor spelling. 你拼写不好将会受到处罚。
• Team members will be penalized for lateness. 队员迟到要受处罚。

6 compliant   

adj.服从的，顺从的

参考例句：

• I don't respect people who are too compliant.我看不起那种唯命是从，唯唯诺诺的人。
• For years I had tried to be a compliant and dutiful wife.几年来，我努力做一名顺从和尽职尽职的妻子。

7 pending   

prep.直到，等待…期间；adj.待定的；迫近的

参考例句：

• The lawsuit is still pending in the state court.这案子仍在州法庭等待定夺。
• He knew my examination was pending.他知道我就要考试了。