Opinion ID: 779475
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Household's liability as a debt collector

Text: 31 Because the FDCPA defines a debt collector as a person who endeavors to collect the debts owed to another, 15 U.S.C. § 1692a(6), creditors who are attempting to collect their own debts generally are not considered debt collectors under the statute. Aubert, 137 F.3d at 978. However, pursuant to the false name exception to this exclusion, a creditor will be deemed a debt collector if in the process of collecting his own debts, [the creditor] uses any name other than his own which would indicate that a third person is collecting or attempting to collect such debts. § 1692a(6). The district court concluded that Household had used Dickerson's name and letterhead to give Household's debtors the false impression that someone other than Household—more particularly, an attorney—had become involved in the effort to collect the amounts that these debtors owed to Household. 1999 WL 754566, at . That determination, of course, rests on the court's threshold finding that Dickerson was not meaningfully involved in the collection of Household's debts. See id. Because we agree, for the reasons we note below, that Dickerson was not genuinely involved in the effort to collect Household's debts and that the letter he sent to Household's debtors was not truly from Dickerson, we also agree that Household should be treated as a debt collector for purposes of liability under section 1692e(3) and (10). 32