N.Y. GBS Law § 601 — New York Code / Act GBS / Article 29-H / Section 601
Prohibited practices
Status: in_force

§ 601. Prohibited practices. No principal creditor, as defined by this\narticle, or his agent shall:\n  1. Simulate in any manner a law enforcement officer, or a\nrepresentative of any governmental agency of the state of New York or\nany of its political subdivisions; or\n  2. Knowingly collect, attempt to collect, or assert a right to any\ncollection fee, attorney's fee, court cost or expense unless such\nchanges are justly due and legally chargeable against the debtor; or\n  3. Disclose or threaten to disclose information affecting the debtor's\nreputation for credit worthiness with knowledge or reason to know that\nthe information is false; or\n  4. Communicate or threaten to communicate the nature of a consumer\nclaim to the debtor's employer prior to obtaining final judgment against\nthe debtor.  The provisions of this subdivision shall not prohibit a\nprincipal creditor from communicating with the debtor's employer to\nexecute a wage assignment agreement if the debtor has consented to such\nan agreement; or\n  5. Disclose or threaten to disclose information concerning the\nexistence of a debt known to be disputed by the debtor without\ndisclosing that fact; or\n  6. Communicate with the debtor or any member of his family or\nhousehold with such frequency or at such unusual hours or in such a\nmanner as can reasonably be expected to abuse or harass the debtor; or\n  7. Threaten any action which the principal creditor in the usual\ncourse of his business does not in fact take; or\n  8. Claim, or attempt or threaten to enforce a right with knowledge or\nreason to know that the right does not exist; or\n  9. Use a communication which simulates in any manner legal or judicial\nprocess or which gives the appearance of being authorized, issued or\napproved by a government, governmental agency, or attorney at law when\nit is not; or\n  10. Remotely disable a vehicle using a payment assurance device\ndefined in paragraph sixty-a of subsection (a) of section 9-102 of the\nuniform commercial code or by any other means in order to repossess a\ndebtor's vehicle without first having given written notice of the\npossible remote disabling of a vehicle in the method and timetable\nagreed upon by the consumer and the creditor in the initial contract for\nservices. The notice shall be mailed by registered or certified mail to\nthe address at which the debtor will be residing on the expected date of\nthe remote disabling of the vehicle. The notice shall be postmarked no\nlater than ten days prior to the date on which the principal creditor or\nhis agent obtains the right to remotely disable the vehicle; or\n  11. If such principal creditor or agent sends more than fifty\ninformation subpoenas per month, fail to keep complete records\nconcerning all information subpoenas sent by such principal creditor or\nagent. Such records shall be maintained for five years. Contemporaneous\nrecords shall be kept that set forth with specificity the grounds for\nsuch principal creditor or agent's reasonable belief, which must be\ncertified and accompany each information subpoena pursuant to rule\nfifty-two hundred twenty-four of the civil practice law and rules, that\nthe party receiving the subpoena has in its possession information about\nthe debtor that will assist the creditor in collecting his or her\njudgement. In addition to any other penalty that may be imposed, failure\nto maintain records in accordance with this subdivision shall subject\nsuch principal creditor or agent to a civil penalty of not more than\nfifty dollars per subpoena, up to a maximum of five thousand dollars per\nviolation, in an action brought by the attorney general; or\n  12. Use a social media platform as a means to collect on a consumer\nclaim from a debtor. For purposes of this subdivision, "social media\nplatform" means a public or semi-public internet-based service or\napplication that has users in New York state that meets the following\ncriteria:\n  (a) a substantial function of the service or application is to connect\nusers in order to allow users to interact socially with each other\nwithin the service or application. A service or application that\nprovides e-mail or direct messaging services shall not be considered to\nmeet this criterion on the basis of that function alone; and\n  (b) the service or application allows individuals to: (i) construct a\npublic or semi-public profile for purposes of signing up and using the\nservice or application; (ii) create a list of other users with whom they\nshare a connection within the system; and (iii) create or post content\nviewable or audible by other users, including, but not limited to,\nlivestreams, on message boards, in chat rooms, or through a landing page\nor main feed that presents the user with content generated by other\nusers.\n