Shutting down abusive debt collectors

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says some hard-ball debt collectors owe a debt to society.

Debt collector recorded phone call: "That was pretty ignorant, but I would not expect anything less from you because you are totally ghetto!"

That is how the attorney general says abusive debt collectors typically intimidated consumers from an office on Bailey Avenue in Buffalo, terrorizing people like Springville mom Michelle Minton.

Minton said, "The man on the phone identified himself as a lawyer. He said I owed a debt. He said he would have a warrant issued for me, and have me arrested the next day if I did not pay $2100 immediately."

But Attorney General Cuomo says, the man was neither a lawyer, nor did he have the authority to arrest anyone. Now Cuomo has set his sights on shutting down some abusive western New York collectors, 13 companies known collectively as the "Smith-Benning Group."

Cuomo said, "Pose as a law enforcement officer - if you do not give me the credit card right now, I am going to come and arrest you. I am going to arrest you in front of your kids. I am going to let the neighbors see me pull you out in handcuffs. They terrorize people."

It was Cuomo's second time coming to Buffalo to warn abusive debt collectors to clean up their act. Back in June, Attorney General investigators and the sheriff's office raided the home and offices of a Harvard Place collector,  and arrested him.

Cuomo says the 13 Smith-Benning companies formerly used a Bailey Avenue address, and are using offices in Amherst, but under different names. It's a typical tactic of fly-by-night debt collectors, says a New York City-based lawyer, who sues them.

Attorney Amir Goldstein said, "They simply close the doors, then they move on, but then they re-open another corporate name. They keep on recycling their accounts, then they keep on doing what they are doing."

If debt collectors are beating you down illegally, you can file a complaint on the Attorney General's Consumer Hotline at 853-8404, or online.

Some people have been harassed into paying money they didn't even owe.