Dequan Sicard has been permanently banned from the ARM industry, as the result of a default judgment that was entered against him following a case brought by the Federal Trade Commission after he was part of a scam that impersonated lawyers in attempting to collect debts from individuals.
As a result of the judgment, Sicard has been banned from “debt collection activities, buying or selling consumer or commercial debt, and trading in consumer information related to a debt. He is also prohibited from making misrepresentations about any product or service, profiting from consumers’ personal information obtained from any debt collection activities, and failing to dispose of consumers’ information properly.”
The scam was first brought to light last July when the FTC brought charges against Sicard, another defendant, Daryl M. Hall, and a pair of companies, for violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Hall pled guilty to his charges back in December.
A judgment in the amount of $702,059 has been entered against Sicard as well.
In operating the scam, the defendants threatened lawsuits but never filed any, they threatened jail time, and in some cases, the individuals they were calling did not owe anything, according to the FTC. What made the process so effective was that when contacting individuals, the collectors would give individuals a callback number, along with a case number, and ask the individuals to call the phone number.
