June 23, 2017

The FTC has charged a North Carolina debt collection operation and its owner with taking money from consumers for fake debts they did not owe. The action is part of the FTC’s crackdown on “phantom” debt collection. According to the FTC, Anthony Swatsworth, ACDI Group LLC, and Solutions to Portfolios LLC bought phony payday loan debts – loans supposedly made by “500FastCash” – from SQ Capital through a debt broker, and continued to collect on those debts even after learning the debts were fake and receiving a full refund for their purchase. Almost immediately after ACDI started collecting on the loans, consumers complained and provided evidence that they had never taken out a 500FastCash loan. Other consumers complained that they did not have an outstanding balance. When the defendants reported the complaints to the broker, the broker returned the defendants’ money and told the defendants to stop collecting on the phony debts. Yet the defendants kept collecting from consumers for at least seven more months. FTC