NEW YORK (AP)—The country is facing an epidemic of unscrupulous debt collectors willing to pose as law enforcement and threaten arrest to squeeze dollars out of Americans, a top prosecutor said Tuesday as he announced the arrests of seven people who worked for an Atlanta-area company.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said the abusive practices have become so widespread that even a top FBI official in New York City got a call.
“This has become something of an epidemic,” Bharara told a news conference.
He described the workers at the defunct Williams, Scott & Associates LLC in Norcross, Georgia, as “ruthlessly persistent” as they badgered people in all 50 states from 2009 through April, collecting more than $4 million from over 6,000 victims.
He said the workers threatened people with imminent arrest unless they paid debts they sometimes didn’t even owe.
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