http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2007/03/fyi07227.htm "The Commission has authorized the staff to release publicly the 29th Annual Report to Congress on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). This report, which is available now on the FTCâ??s Web site, summarizes the Commissionâ??s administration and enforcement of the FDCPA during 2006. It presents an overview of the types of consumer complaints received by the Commission, descriptions of the Commissionâ??s debt-collection law enforcement actions, and a summary of the Commissionâ??s consumer and industry education initiatives. The FDCPA prohibits deceptive, unfair, and abusive practices by third-party debt collectors. Section 815 of the FDCPA requires the Commission to submit annual reports to Congress. The Commission vote to issue the report was 5-0. (FTC File No. P074803; the staff contact is Thomas E. Kane, Bureau of Consumer Protection, 202-326-3224.) "
http://www.ftc.gov/reports/fdcpa07/P0748032007FDCPAReport.pdf "The Commission receives most of its information about how debt collectors are complying with the Act directly from consumers through complaints that consumers file with the Commission.3 Last year, consumer complaints to the Commission about third-party debt collectors (â??FDCPA complaintsâ?) increased both in absolute terms and as a percentage of all complaints that consumers filed with the Commission during the course of the year.4 The FTC received 69,204 FDCPA complaints in 2006, more complaints than the FTC received against any other specific industry.5 The FDCPA complaints represented 19.9% of all complaints the Commission received in 2006. By comparison, in 2005, 6 the FTC received 66,672 FDCPA complaints, representing 19.1% of all complaints received that year.7 The Commission recognizes that third-party collectors contact millions of consumers each year and, thus, the number of consumer complaints the Commission receives about such collectors is but a small percentage of the overall number of consumer contacts. At the same time, the Commission believes that the number of consumers who complain to the agency represents a relatively small percentage of the total number of consumers who actually encounter problems with debt collectors.8"
