Debt collection

An affiliate marketing company and its two principals have agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges for allegedly sending out more than 42.5 million unwanted and deceptive text messages to consumers.

Two companies have settled charges that they used prerecorded calls to trick consumers into deceptive credit card interest rate reduction scams.

More than 770,000 U.S. homes were in foreclosure at the close of the second quarter ended June 30, according to the latest data provided by RealtyTrac.

A federal court judge in Florida has banned the defendants behind an alleged credit card interest rate reduction scam from selling debt-relief service and telemarketing any services.

Patrick Pinto, a former vice president at Oxford Collection Agency, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to two years of probation for bribing an executive at U.S. Bank. Pinto also must pay a $10,000 fine and perform 100 hours of community service.

The defendants in Tampa, Fla.-based operations that allegedly bilked consumers of millions of dollars are banned from providing the types of financial services used in their schemes. The settlement includes a $25.3 million judgment against one defendant.

U.S. consumer credit growth slowed for the second straight month in July as a key measure of credit card usage fell, indicating consumers might be growing more cautious.

While 10.7 million residential homeowners nationwide owe at least 25% or more on their mortgages than their properties are worth, another 8.3 million homeowners are on track to have enough equity to sell sometime in the next 15 months, according to a new report.

A U.S. district court has halted a Tampa, Fla.-based operation that promised to help consumers get payday loans. Instead of loans, the defendants used consumers’ personal financial information to debit their bank accounts in increments of $30 without their authorization, the FTC alleged.

Two attorneys, an appraiser and two others have been indicted for their roles in a New York mortgage fraud ring that operated for years and netted more than $1 million by preying on first-time home buyers and institutional lenders.

Consumers' confidence in the economy moved closer to a 5 1/2-year high as a result of growing optimism that wages and hiring will improve in the next few months.

Suburban Chicago business owner Daniel Dvorkin had just been ordered to pay more than $8 million to a debt collector last year when he took a lucrative but deadly proposition to a gun shop owner he knew, according to prosecutors.

Western Sky Financial, an online loan company based on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota, cites "unprecedented government interference" as the reason for laying off the majority of its employees.

A Greensboro, N.C. hospital has filed a lawsuit seeking more than $5 million from an Illinois company it hired to hand its collection efforts.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday sued Morgan Drexen Inc., of Costa Mesa, Calif., alleging it illegally charged more than 22,000 customers millions of dollars in upfront fees to help resolve outstanding debts.

Global mobile marketer Jesta Digital LLC, will provide refunds to a large number of consumers and pay an additional $1.2 million to the Federal Trade Commission as part of a settlement. The FTC alleged that Jesta crammed unwanted charges onto consumers’ cell phone bills.

The national auto loan delinquency rate (the percentage of accounts 60 or more days past due) remained relatively flat in the second quarter ended June 30 compared with the year-ago period, moving from 0.79% to 0.80%.

A new research report on student loan debt is pinpointing the lasting financial effects.

Certegy Check Services Inc., one of the largest check authorization service companies, agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle charges that it violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Foreclosure filings in July — including default notices, auctions and bank repossessions — climbed 2% from a 78-month low in June but were still 32% lower than a year ago, according to RealtyTrac.