Smacking Down Bill Collectors

The ever readable Kevin Funnell at Bank Lawyer's Blog puts his own inimitable stamp on the growing number of consumer complaints about bill collection services:

While it's always risky (although often fun) to make broad generalizations about any group, I think I'll make one: too many debt collectors are scum, and the scum are tarring the segment of the business that tries to operate within the limits of the law. A recent run-in with a national bill collection firm on behalf of a pro bono client makes me lose that warm and fuzzy feeling I used to get whenever the term "debt collector" was uttered. Some of these losers deliberately flaunt the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act and seem to believe that paying civil fines for violating it (and its state counterparts) are simply a cost of doing business. They should be slapped down and slapped down hard.