Another plaintiff tried to allege a collection agency violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act because it only referenced “Verizon” in a collection letter and there are too many different entities that have the name Verizon in them to know to which one the debt was owed, but a District Court judge granted summary judgment in favor of the defendant.
A copy of the ruling in the case of Eger & Vanpelt v. Southwest Credit Systems can be accessed by clicking here.
The plaintiff received a collection letter from the defendant. The letter included a table at the top that referenced “Verizon” as the creditor as well as the plaintiff’s account number, and included the following statement in the body of the email: Your account has been assigned to this office for collection. The records of Verizon show that your account has a past due balance of $295.61. The plaintiff filed suit, alleging the letter violated the FDCPA because “given the many entities registered in New York that begin their legal name with ‘Verizon’, the least sophisticated consumer would likely be uncertain as to whom the debt is owed.”
By pairing the name Verizon with an account number, even a least sophisticated consumer would be able to figure out which Verizon was being referenced in the letter, Judge Sandra Feuerstein ruled.
