809 B) b) If the consumer notifies the debt collector in writing within the thirty-day period described in subsection (a) that the debt, or any portion thereof, is disputed, or that the consumer requests the name and address of the original creditor, the debt collector shall cease collection of the debt, or any disputed portion thereof, until the debt collector obtains verification of the debt or any copy of a judgment, or the name and address of the original creditor, and a copy of such verification or judgment, or name and address of the original creditor, is MAILED TO THE CONSUMER by the debt collector. This section here in FDCPA, It says it must be MAILED TO THE CONSUMER. Does it mean AFTER you have RECIEVED the mail, or just the Date that it was MAILED even though you HAVE NOT recieved it yet?? I would think that a debt collector would cease all collection activity UNTIL a consumer has RECIEVED it and NOT just when they mailed it. That way we can confirm the 'proper validation' Please answer.
FDCPA does not require that the consumer confirm the verification before collection continues, or even that the consumer receive it. It doesn't even define verification. I believe there is case law that the initial 5 day letter must be sent, but no requirement that it is received. That said, there are CAs (or more often JDBs) who claim their initial letter requirement was met years ago (sent to some other address, if at all), so they have no obligation to validate, or an affidavit by their own employee meets the requirement for verification. If you want the safe harbor protections of the law, you have to follow it in good faith if you expect to claim bona fide error. The above parties apparently don't care, and consider the law toothless since most consumers believe their BS. CAMCO was one of them. If you do believe their BS, the law is toothless. Bluffs should be called. There must be a price on lying.
