My wife received a letter from JBC Legal Group today. The letter stated that they were collecting a debt from a bad check that she allegedly wrote in 1999.
After some careful research online, I called the 1-800 number given in the letter. The guy I spoke to was rude, pushy, and refused to give me any more information concerning the debt. He said that JBC sent a letter in November (to our old address) and that since 30 days had expired, they do not have to divulge any more information. Yet, the letter we received today makes no mention of any past letters or notices. It also clearly states that we have 30 days to respond to THIS letter to dispute the debt.
Anyways, after arguing with the guy about this for awhile, I'm pretty sure he violated section 807 (3) of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act of 1977 when he implied my wife committed a crime. He stated, Are you just going to let your wife run around committing check fraud? I also told him that I did some online research and read that JBC has had many complaints about scams like this. He said, "You can find pictures of aliens having sex online, that doesn't make it true." Real professional, huh?!
Well, I found out that the statute of limitations for past debt in Pennsylvania is 4 years. We will be sending a certified registered letter to these jerks stating that we will never pay this debt and that we plan to raise the "Expired Statute of Limitations" defense if they decide to take it to court.
I strongly suggest that you do NOT let these jerks push you around. Check into your state's statute of limitations on past debt. More than likely, the limit is up, and you can threaten to claim this defense.
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