Suggestions??

DV's don't work with the original creditor, they are exempt from the fdcpa. Sending it to the FTC? Not really sure other than showing them that you had sent validation. However I can't really think of what branch/division this would be mailed to.

If the OC still owns the debt maybe they are trying to shake up the OC a little, they can call off the CA. The OC will see the CC: to the FTC, I believe OC's have been held financially liable for what their CA's have done. I can't think of any other reason

When my department recieves request for validation we forward it to the creditor who sends the requested documents to us and also the requestee.

That is how it should be handled.

debt validation letter should be sent to the third party collection agencies. Though original collectors are exempted from fdcpa but under certain circumstances action can be taken against first party collectors too.

You can go through this link......hopefully it will be helpful

http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/collection-agency/faqs.html

I remember reading on the FTC website that they don't followup on individual complaints; rather they wait for patterns/multiple complaints to come in on a company and then they look into it.

CC'ing the FTC on a DV letter wouldn't really even be a complaint, so I really don't think that they would do anything with it.

As for sending it to the OC -- I suppose you could, assuming the OC hasn't sold it. It would be more for effect on your end, because the OC doesn't have to act upon your DV. It actually may be giving them a "heads up" to get whatever paperwork ready for the CA so that the CA can validate it more quickly and start collecting again.

Personally, I don't see why you would do these things. You should DV any CA trying to collect from you, even if you know you owe lets say a credit card, you still need to make sure that everything is on the up and up. If everyone did this the FTC would get -swamped- with just DV letters! :D Plus, I wouldn't contact the OC at all...let the CA earn that commission. Only contact the OC if it helps your own case.

I would only involve the FTC when the DV got ignored.

Add to that, the fact you're dealing with a government agency. CC-ing a DV letter to the FTC (Don't you just love all these intials?!?) is, in my humble opinion, really just a waste of paper, postage, and time. They already have enough paper to deal with, I wouldn't want to confuse them any further by sending them something they don't plan to do anything with. As was stated, they don't actually worry about the individual complaints lodged against CA's allegedly violating the fdcpa, they only start to take notice if there is a "trend" of complaints against a particular CA. Sending a CC'd DV letter hasn't even gotten it to the "comlaint" stage yet, so I'm sure they aren't going to do anything with it.

I would like to have been there with the Legal Aide attorney to see where they were going with this suggestion. Did he/she elaborate any further as to why they were advising you of this?

That being said, I would definitely be sure to file complaints with the FTC if you feel a CA has violated the FDCPA! Even if you feel it will not do any good. Chances are, if a shady CA has violated the law with you, then they have done so with others, and nothing will get done about them until people stand up to them.

Personally, I think we all need to start lobbying our representatives in Washington for updates and changes in the FDCPA! We really need to make the penalties more steep for those CA's that choose to violate the law; not just a little tap on the wrist, like it is now!

That's just my opinion.