Consumers Take Credit Hits After Outfit Attempts Collection On Zombie Debts; Victim Suffers Insurance Rate Boost After Improper Derogatory Report

In Minneapolis, Minnesota, a recent story in the Star Tribune on a recent state attorney general lawsuit against alleged robosigning debt buyer Midland Funding LLC (a subsidiary of its publicly traded parent, Encore Capital Group Inc. of San Diego, and which reportedly announced recently it had tentatively agreed to settle a separate Ohio debt collection lawsuit for up to $5.7 million), and describes how its collection activities have impacted two local residents:

• Daniel Fischer of Brooklyn Park said he discovered he had been a victim of Midland's tactics a year ago, when his credit card company reduced his credit limit because of a "derogatory statement" in his credit report. It turned out that Midland had sued him five years earlier, obtained a judgment for $1,155 and was ready to garnish his paycheck or other assets.
• But Fischer didn't owe anyone money, and the order to appear in court to prove his innocence was sent to an address where [he] had hadn't lived for 23 years. Only after he contacted the attorney general's office did Midland's law firm, Messerli & Kramer of Minneapolis, drop the case, he said.
• That pattern was repeated with Barbara Thies of Eagan, who kept getting dunned for an obligation she had paid before it was due in 2001. Thies said she repeatedly sent the canceled check to Midland, but had to go to court anyway. There, confronted with the evidence in person, the Messerli firm dropped the case in 2007, she said.
• But that didn't repair her credit. Later, her auto and home insurers raised her rates because her credit rating had dropped, she said.

For the story, see State files suit against debt firm (Collections giant is accused of "robo-signing" documents).