The Vicious New Bank Shakedown That Could Seriously Ruin Your Life

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/vicious-new-bank-shakedown-could-seriously-ruin-your-life



It’s hard to imagine a more loathsome figure than the mob debt collector, a.k.a the “hired muscle.” It was this bruiser’s job to get the money owed to the Boss, by whatever methods he saw fit. That might include coming to your house in the dead of night to break your kneecaps. Whatever it took. The collector was promised a cut of that money, and he was going to get it.

Gangsta-style big banks have taken up where this character left off. They may not send a guy to break your kneecaps, but they are working in the shadows, chasing down debts from credit cards using methods that are both fraudulent and unlawful. They do this whether you actually owe the money or not.

Here’s the skinny: After widespread outrage over the big banks’ last crime wave against the American consumer – the “robo-signing” scam in which homeowners were hustled out of their houses by banks that sent fraudulent paperwork through the courts, they are at it again. This time, banksters are accused of helping debt collectors pursue faulty judgments against credit card customers by various dirty tricks that include – surprise! – robo-signing.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who filed suit against JPMorgan Chase last Thursday, says that from January 2008 to April 2011 -- just as people were reeling from the Wall Street-driven financial crisis -- the megabank unleashed over 100,000 lawsuits against consumers over uncollected credit-card debt in the state of California alone. That includes 469 lawsuits in a single day. Now, it usually takes time and money to pursue lawsuits through the court system. So how in the world did Chase keep up this breakneck pace? The lawsuit claims that the bank took a number of little shortcuts, like robo-signing, in which bank employees produce sworn documents and other legal filings without bothering to check bank records or examine cases for accuracy.

[Laelth]

1. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[marmar]

2. The fact that they need to engage in fraud and employ such tactics to exist.......

....... shows that they don't need to exist.

[xchrom]

3. +1

[hobbit709]

4. One of the few advantages of living in TX.

They can't touch your house, your car, and the tools of your trade.
And the only thing your wages can be garnished for is nonpayment of child support, unpaid taxes, and student loan debt.

[mountain grammy]

10. It is one of the few things Texas does right, regulate banks.

[tpsbmam]

13. Isn't that the way it should be? It's "unsecured debt," so none of that was

part of the deal to begin with. "Unsecured" should damn well mean something! The others are understandable, although the way higher education is going and the bankster scams being forced through on student loans (thank you, Elizabeth Warren!), I don't think those should be secured either!

I have more mixed feelings about that last one, though -- we need to get educations paid for somehow and can't just have graduates defaulting willy-nilly. There would, I assume, be a natural mix of grads who are really trying, maybe can't find a job after graduation (more likely these days than in other times in the past) or is paid worse than past grads so can't live up to the loan agreement....there are all kinds of legit reasons. But there would also be the more unscrupulous grads who simply stopped paying despite the fact they could. So I guess you do have to keep that one but Sen. Warren is right -- we need to protect students better, give far better student loan deals that benefit the schools & students & don't charge usurious rates.

We seem to have totally embraced usurious rates being charged by "legit" sources, as opposed to loan-sharks who in the past charged pretty damn close to what banks are getting away with now! Unacceptable in general IMO but certainly in the case of student loans! It says our country values deals that advantage banks in ways that have gotten totally out of hand vs. education, among other things, in this country. And the ability of students from wide varieties of backgrounds and financial statuses ability to gain that education and, yep, education being an important step in social mobility. Seems like neither our government and most certainly corporations that are benefitting give a damn about that anymore.

Living in NC, I'm saddened and pretty horrified at the changes our newly ReTHUG dominant state are forcing through on all kinds of levels, almost all of which advantage corporations, banks & the wealthy and hurt (e.g., getting rid of NC state individual income taxes and increasing the sales tax + adding sales tax to currently untaxed purchases, like groceries) -- I can now truly empathize with living in a state where there are more disadvantages than there are advantages! I'm also pleased that I'm slowly but I think assuredly converting some Republicans who will be hurt BIG TIME by those changes. Those changes would actually be great for me.....I get hit with an appx $500 NC tax bill every year (which is paid for by my federal refund) and, because of my medical situation I'm stuck at home most of the time and shopping is tough for me so I do most of my shopping online at, e.g., Amazon & drugstore.com and I don't pay NC taxes with those and, as a single adult, my food bills aren't all that high so I'd be advantaged like the actual rich people. I explain that AND inform them that I'm 100% against the Republican plan because it would be so hurtful to so many people, including the Republicans I know who are part of working poor, on Medicaid, etc. (One would have been eligible for Medicaid if the NC had gone with the expanded Medicaid, which they rejected.) I think I'm FINALLY getting through to them!

[DiverDave]

30. I have a student loan

went through the 'school' to get a 'certificate'
Didnt learn a god danged thing.
I equate it to a 1 acre pond 10 feet deep ( of knowledge needed to get work in the field)
I would guess they taught 1 inch deep over some places in the pond.
I worked for 1 year, at contract positions, the last being 12/hr for 3 days.
I got high grades too.
Just a scam, they changed their name a few years ago...so cant sue.
I still owe 12K, and pay as much as I can
No one can help, the company is gone, but my bill remains,
I'm just glad I kept my CDL. I almost didnt pay the renewal fee...I would have been in a real bad place if I would have let it lapse.

[tpsbmam]

31. Wow, a great example of why these need to be looked into closely and you're one of those people

I was referring to when I said too many students these days get the education and then can't get work once they graduate. And there are just too many scams allowed to get through and screw Americans seeking an education. I'm so sorry you're one of the people who was hit by one of these scams. Sadly, they're becoming more prevalent and hard to avoid whether it's a small company that screws you or one of the mega-banks.

And experiences like yours becoming so prevalent as student loans become part of the picture of Americans getting screwed by the corporate ownership of our government is why we need to look closely at student loans, follow Elizabeth Warren's lead and make it impossible to include student loans in our corporate overlords' scheme to get richer by coming up with more and more ways to screw the 99%. You definitely are one of the people who buttresses the student loans should never be subject to the kind of tactics that secured debts are subject to.

[another_liberal]

6. The mega-bankers' credo . . .

Like it says in the mega-bankers' credo:

"You can never be too rich or too unethical."

[iemitsu]

7. Its time to take these people and their industry and boot them from

our society. They should not be a private business and they should not be able to create money out of thin air. The government should be responsible for these things.

[Hotler]

8. Time to start following them into the men's room and......

kick their ass and leave them laying on the floor.

[iemitsu]

20. They have certainly earned such a response from the community

and they ought be made aware of how others feel about them.
We should do everything we can to insure that they don't get to enjoy our wealth that they stole.

[jwirr]

33. The big problem with that is that we know our local banker - or think we do - and

still place our trust in them way too much. We do not see that the local banker is often one small link in the chain of what we call big banks. There are a few exceptions but not well known. Until the American people begin to realize that it starts on our level we are never going to be able to let them see how angry we really are at the income traps they have set for us. In my case I am the victim of the two (three) income trap and too old to be able to do anything about it.

[iemitsu]

34. A lot of time, effort and money have been spent

to insure that we, the rabble, are divided against each other and that we blame each other for problems caused by the uber-classes. There is strength in unity and strength in knowledge and Americans are short on both these days.

[WillyT]

9. HUGE K & R !!!

[Egalitarian Thug]

11. Having no rear-view mirror has consequences, just like refusing to enforce the law. K&R

[pa28]

12. The mortgage settlement rewarded bad behavior and opened the floodgates.

Bankers have established the fact they can engage in reckless or criminal behavior and settle for pennies on the dollar later on. So, why not illegally collect previously settled credit card debt?

To do otherwise would be bad business from their perspective.

[MNBrewer]

14. Sometimes I AM in favor of the death penalty.

It would serve as a good deterrent in this case, I think.

[lindysalsagal]

15. Wow. I almost moved my $ into chase.

Glad I didn't. I decided it was a bad decision when I read they were constantly targeted by hackers.

[glinda]

16. K & R n/t

[Rex]

17. Well they have a Golden Ticket and the right to pillage

on a whim, so I am not surprised they are going to kill us all off for money. No, not a shock in the least bit.

[quakerboy]

18. Its funny

The bank has time to go after debt they are not owned.

But not my neighbor, who has been delinquent for several years, despite renting her property out for significantly more than her mortgage payment the whole time. They cant seem to foreclose on her.

And I'm hearing this is the new thing. Despite the number of homes still being foreclosed on, plus all the new construction I am seeing kick in again, people are having trouble finding properties for sale. Anything hitting the market is getting snapped up in days.

To me it looks like the banks are siting on properties, not foreclosing, so that they can drive up demand, and therefore prices.

[defacto7]

26. very possible. n/t

[LooseWilly]

36. Actually I think a bunch of hedgefunds are scooping up properties before banks can fully foreclose

One of the steps in the foreclosure process (before the properties actually become "bank owned&quot is a "trustee sale", and there are a number of hedgefunds that are setting up subsidiaries all around the country, apparently, and buying up properties at these auctions to rent for the short term and eventually flip when the market has sufficiently recovered (according to my conversations with some of those working for those subsidiaries).

Same general principle, I just mention that it's not just the banks doing this...

[quakerboy]

37. Interesting

Not surprizing. It would help explain all the instant cash buys that seem to be happening, as well.

[flvegan]

19. Four words:

Prove up your claim.

[BrotherIvan]

22. One word: ICELAND

[RB TexLa]

24. With credit card debt the signatures on the transactions prove it pretty well

[quakerboy]

32. Not if youve already paid off that debt

And the articles note that they are sometimes going after debts that have already been paid off.

Basically, if you put it together, they can conveniently forget that you paid off your CC, toss the court notice in the sewer, get a default judgment, and begin taking your money before you ever knew there was an issue.

[DirkGently]

21. JPMorgan Chase caught being evil? Inconceivable! (nt)

[Dawson Leery]

23. People such as Bernie Sanders and David Stockman were right,

the 2008 TARP bailout was a scam.

If these TBTF banks were in trouble, they needed to go extinct.

[defacto7]

27. Absolutely

The worst that could have happened.. they would be split up and under new management. The best that would have happened.. they would be split up and under new management.

[Sherman A1]

29. Precisely

[SwankyXomb]

25. Go, Kamala! Liquidate them!

Then break up the bank!

[Sherman A1]

28. K&R

[Quantess]

35. K & R

[Chisox08]

38. Who is going to jail over this?

Those Wall-street assholes won't stop until they are arrested, prosecuted and jailed for a long time. We need to treat them worst then we treat drug users because they do a lot more damage to our country then some one smoking weed.