Consumer complaint received 2024-09-06
Product: Debt collection — Other debt
Issue: Communication tactics — Used obscene, profane, or other abusive language
Company: Fairway Capital Recovery, LLC (NY)

A week ago, I received a call from Fairway Capital which I believe was in violation of CFPB regulations. 

At XXXX XXXX XXXX time on XX/XX/year>, I received a call from a woman who stated my full name, asked if she was speaking to that person, and said she was calling from Fairway Capital in connection with Alpha Tau Omega. I can not recall what first name she provided, although I believe it began with the sound of XXXX or XXXX. I confirmed she was speaking to the person she had named. Without providing any reason for the call, she said that she needed my date of birth to provide additional information. I said that I needed to know who she was and what she was calling about before I could answer. She responded that under federal law she could not provide me additional information without my date of birth. I said that I would not provide additional information without knowing who she and her company were and why she was calling. She again claimed that because of federal law she could not tell me anything about who she was or why she was calling without my date of birth. 

I realized that the call might be from a debt collection agency, and I asked whether she was calling from a debt collection agency. The caller refused to answer and again responded that federal law required me to provide my date of birth to get an answer to that question. I again declined, and at no point did the caller provide me the chance to provide alternative consumer identity verification information. 

When it became clear that I would not provide my date of birth without an explanation of the callers identity or the purpose of the call, the caller abruptly said she would call me again later and hung up. And indeed XXXX called again on XX/XX/XXXX, during which I informed them that I intend to dispute the debt. 

I believe Fairways XX/XX/XXXX call violated XXXX XXXX regulations interpreting the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. 

First is 12 C.F.R. 1006.14 ( g ), which prohibits a debt collector from placing a call [ i ] XXXX connection with the collection of a debt without meaningfully disclosing the callers identity. The caller barely disclosed her identity and certainly did not do so meaningfully. She provided only a first name, which she did not spell, and said that she was calling from Fairway Capital, also not spelled. This made it harder to identify via XXXX search which debt collection agency had called me. She did not provide a callback phone number, address, or most crucially, explain what the purpose of the call was or how her call related to XXXX XXXX XXXX. To the contrary, in response to my multiple requests for clarification, the debt collector insisted she could not provide me any information about her identity, her companys identity, or the reason for the call on the excuse that federal law prohibited her from providing that information without a date of birth, when in fact, federal law required her to provide the very information she withheld. 

And lest Fairway Capital should claim that their employee believed she was talking to a non-consumer for the purpose of confirming or correcting [ a ] consumers location information under 12 C.F.R. 1006.10 ( b ) ( 1 ), the content of the callers questions made it clear that she thought she was talking to a consumer since she stated my first and last name, immediately asked me for my date of birth, and did not ask me for the contact information of another consumer. 

Second is 12 C.F.R. 1006.18 ( e ) ( 1 ), the regulation which requires debt collectors to provide a so-called mini-XXXX  warning which tells the consumer that the debt collector is attempting to collect a debt and that any information obtained will be used for that purpose. As should be clear, the caller did not disclose that she was trying to collect a debt, much less that any information I gave her would be used for that purpose. Had I ( or another consumer ) been less savvy, I could have easily provided information that could have been used against me in a future debt collection proceeding without any knowledge that I was speaking to a debt collector. 

Third, under 12 C.F.R. 1006.18 ( d ), a debt collector may not use a false representation to obtain information concerning a consumer. The debt collector did just that when she falsely represented that federal law required me to provide my date of birth before she could identify herself.

I would like an explanation of why Fairway Capitals employee refused to meaningfully identify herself or to provide me my mini-XXXX warning. Moreover, I would like any recordings of the XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX calls to be provided to me and preserved so that they may be reviewed for compliance with the foregoing regulations.