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But while learning FDCPA rules isn't overly difficult, it's also beyond the wherewithal of the most distressed debtors (and people falsely accused of being debtors). McKenzie recounts that many of the people he helped were living under chaotic circumstances that put seemingly simple things "like writing letters and counting to 30 days" beyond their needs.

Cory Doctorow 2y ago

This means the people best able to defend themselves against illegal shakedowns are less likely to be targeted. Instead, collectors husband their resources so they can use them "to do abusive and frequently illegal shakedowns of the people the legislation was meant to benefit."

Here's how the market works. If you become delinquent in meeting your credit card payments ("delinquent" has a flexible meaning, varying with each issuer), then your debt will be sold to a collector.

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Cory Doctorow 2y ago

It is packaged in part of a large spreadsheet - a CSV file - and likely sold to one of 10 large firms that control 75% of the industry.

The "mom and pops" who have the other quarter of the industry might also get your debt, but it's more likely that they'll buy it as a kind of tailings from one of the big guys, who package up the debts they couldn't collect on and sell them at even deeper discounts.

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