Quote:
Originally Posted by Slava
I definitely agree with you on your points here about the estates and things like that. The part that was egregious though is companies calling peoples employers and things like that. Or the messages he played where they were saying they were going to eat the guys dog. I don't know where the line is, but that is quite clearly over it!
If anything what it made me think is that it would be a great business to get into. I mean sure, you're not going to collect the whole thing, but lets say you sink that $60k into the debt he bought and collect 10% of it. That's $1.5mm. Some of that money is legitimately owed as well. So even if you do only get 10% of the outstanding amount, its a pretty good return on your money!
|
Thing is, there's a reason you get it for so cheap. It's like penny stocks. These things are valued according to the amount that is usually recoverable.
Obviously, the tactics that were shown on the phone calls to employers (that's illegal) or the actual physical threats (that's not just illegal, it's criminal activity you should be arrested for) are ones that no one should use. Moreover, the guys pretending to be a government agency are engaging in absolutely clear, no-doubt-about-it
criminal fraud. It should go without saying that these tactics, rather than the enterprise itself, are the problem.
However, it also tells you what a long-shot proposition it is to try to collect these debts. People won't pay them without being basically
extorted.
Last thing: you said, "some of that money is legitimately owed". Unless you've paid back the loan and there's a bookkeeping error, it's
all legitimately owed. What Oliver talks about at the end - this medical debt from Texas that's outside the statute of limitations - is still money that's owed. He says they're "not obligated to pay" it. That in itself is misleading. You still owe the money... the creditor just can't sue you for it anymore. They no longer have a remedy. But you still borrowed it, and agreed to pay it back. Oliver's version of the world here is basically, "if I lend you money, and you default by not paying me what you owe, just wait two years, and as long as I don't sue you in the meantime it's free money for you!"
That is not how loans work.