An Everett debt collector is being sued for allegedly harassing and threatening consumers and calling them “terrible parents” and names such as “loser,” “scum,” “blight on society,” “no good,” “lowlife,” “deadbeat” and “worthless.”
The Attorney General’s Office says the practices by representatives of Topco Financial Services Inc. are abusive and illegal.
The state filed a lawsuit against Topco on Friday in Snohomish County Superior Court, accusing the company and its top executives of violating the state’s Consumer Protection Act.
“Collections agencies as a whole tend to get a lot of complaints, which isn’t surprising because no one likes to get those calls, but there are rules in place,” said Kristin Alexander, an Attorney General’s Office spokeswoman. “Certainly calling people names, swearing at the them and threatening — that goes below the line and is illegal.”
Topco representatives allegedly told a debtor who was undergoing tests for possible cancer, “Aren’t you dead yet? I’m going to collect the money from you dead or alive,” and “Why don’t you just die from cancer because you are a low-life deadbeat?”
On the advice of an attorney, Topco Financial executives declined to comment on the lawsuit Friday.
The company’s clients include towing companies. Topco employees try to collect on the original towing or impound fees, plus 12 percent interest.
The Attorney General’s Office has received more than 120 complaints about the company since the beginning of 2005 from residents of Washington and a handful of other states.
The business has an “F” rating with the Better Business Bureau.
Topco Financial Services stands out from other collections agencies in the number of similar complaints against the company, said Shannon Smith, assistant attorney general.
The state also alleges that Topco representatives have illegally threatened to take away debtors’ driver licenses. The debtors who complained to the state were very upset, Smith said.
“Some of them were afraid,” she said. “It’s just a very, very unpleasant situation and it’s unnecessary.”
The Attorney General’s Office is asking the court to make Topco pay the state up to $2,000 in penalties for each instance when the company allegedly violated laws to collect money.
Complaints against collections agencies have grown steadily since 2001, when the industry ranked eighth on the Attorney General’s list of consumer complaints. In 2007, collections agencies ranked second.
“Even though they provide an important service for businesses, collection agencies get a bad rap because nobody likes to be on the receiving end of the call,” Attorney General Rob McKenna said in a statement. “Unfortunately, it only takes a few bad collectors to generate a lot of complaints.”
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