November 2018 saw the addition of yet another word to English-language dictionaries: “overbiffing.” It sounds gross, and one hesitates to ask what just “biffing” is, but the best thing that can be said about overbiffing is that it’s a debt-collector crime and not a vulgarity. It simply means inflating the amount of debt consumers owe and demanding they pay it. Specifically, the “BIF” is the “balance in full,” and overbiffing is anything more than that. New York bankruptcy is a lot better than paying a debt collector engaged in overbiffing. Here’s where the idea came from.
The New York Attorney General’s Office along with the Federal Trade Commission sued a debt collector operating in Buffalo, N.Y., for overbiffing debtors it contacted. The governments allege that Robert Heidenreich (aka “Bobby Rich”) instructed his underlings to scare debtors by claiming they owed more money than they actually did. Often the amounts differed by hundreds or thousands of dollars from their actual balances.
In truth, the debt collectors engaged in worse behavior, such as claiming they were law enforcement or process servers, threatening debtors with legal action (including arrest), and directing debtors to call “attorneys,” who just happened to be other debt collectors working with the business. They also called debtors relatives and employers, and unsurprisingly, used abusive language.
These actions all violate the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA), which regulates how debt collectors can interact with consumer debtors to convince them to repay their debts. A debt collector must send a “validation notice” within five days of first contacting debtors that identifies the creditor, correctly lists the amount of debt owed, and offers options to debtors for how to dispute the debts. Collectors cannot use abusive language, lie about material facts relating to the debt, or engage in unfair practices like charging fees, interest, or charges beyond what the debt contract originally allowed.
More information on the FDCPA and how to deal with abusive debt collectors can be found at the FTC’s Web site. An article by FTC on this overbiffing case is here.
Unlike many of the newer scams and debt-collection tactics that have arisen over the years, “overbiffing” is just a new term for something that the FDCPA has squarely covered for decades. Importantly, although the FDCPA offers some remedies for debtors who are hounded by debt collectors, their debts don’t go away. If a debt collector is pursuing you, then a step towards a permanent solution is consulting with an experienced New York bankruptcy lawyer.
For answers to more questions about bankruptcy, the automatic stay, effective strategies for dealing with foreclosure, and protecting your assets in bankruptcy please feel free to contact experienced bankruptcy attorney Brooklyn NY Bruce Weiner for a free initial consultation.