Welcome to RegulationRoom, dkossenk, and thank you for sharing your friend’s experience and your suggestions for verifying the debt. At this stage, CFPB is looking for information on problems consumers and responsible debt collectors are having. As CFPB moves to the next stage (coming up with specific proposals for new rules), it will be carefully considering what commenters, like you, say here. Please see When consumers dispute a debt to talk more about how collectors should investigate and verify a debt.
From a collection standpoint, I can tell you that many creditors would LOVE to check with the DMV to get current address information. Unfortunately, many privacy laws make that impossible. It's also extremely common for people to fail to update their addresses either with their creditors or with the post office. Any legitimate collector wants to find the right person.
Moderator
1
Welcome to RegulationRoom, dkossenk, and thank you for sharing your friend’s experience and your suggestions for verifying the debt. At this stage, CFPB is looking for information on problems consumers and responsible debt collectors are having. As CFPB moves to the next stage (coming up with specific proposals for new rules), it will be carefully considering what commenters, like you, say here. Please see When consumers dispute a debt to talk more about how collectors should investigate and verify a debt.
View this comment in the discussion thread
RHN91362
2
From a collection standpoint, I can tell you that many creditors would LOVE to check with the DMV to get current address information. Unfortunately, many privacy laws make that impossible. It's also extremely common for people to fail to update their addresses either with their creditors or with the post office. Any legitimate collector wants to find the right person.
View this comment in the discussion thread