Roth, Morgan and Associates

Roth, Morgan and Associates is a fictitious name used by Allied Credit Consultants, LLC, an Orlando based Florida debt collector.   It's debt collectors call consumers and impersonate paralegals acting on behalf of an attorney.  Moreover, they also use pseudonyms such as "Scott Stevens", "Thomas Schaffer" and "Michael Bennett."  Roth, Morgan and Associates debt collectors communicate with consumers in a manner that gives the false impression and appearance that they were associated with an attorney.   On its website, the company boasts:  "Roth & Morgan is an international business corporation that collects your delinquent accounts using our vast network of law firms and collection agencies. Before developing our network, we were your normal brick-and-mortar collection agency. Our personal collections experience and communications with other agencies and law firms convinced us there are better ways of collecting your debts - faster and with a higher collection rate."

                         

"Wrong Number" Calls or Voicemails from Debt Collectors

Have you ever received calls from debt collectors for a person completely unknown to you? These “wrong number” calls are usually the result of collection calls being made to the person who owned the telephone number immediately prior to you. What do you do about these wrong number calls? My advice is to tell the debt collector that you are not the person that she/he is trying to contact and ask them to stop calling. However, this common sense approach often does not work because the debt collector does not believe the person that she/he spoke with. The collecting caller may believe that the person called is actually the true debtor and is trying to avoid the call by saying that it was a “wrong number.” If the debt collector keeps calling after being told that they have the wrong number, in this author’s opinion, the continued calls constitute harassment under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

In addition, the “wrong number” calls could be in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The TCPA prohibits calls using a pre-recorded or artificial voice to deliver a message to a consumer unless there is a previous business relationship or consent for the call by the consumer. With most calls made by the debt industry to a consumer, the previous business relationship between the creditor and the consumer is sufficient to allow the debt collector to utilize a pre-recorded message. However, with wrong number collection calls, such a previous business relationship is lacking. Bringing suit under the TCPA premised on wrong number debt collection calls can result in substantial claimed damages. The TCPA provides for a statutory penalty of $500.00 per call and that amount increases to $1500.00 per intentional violation.

For more information, visit us at Stop Debtor Harassment or Consumer Rights Orlando.