Page 53 - CARS Standard Program

In Section 1039(c) there is further prohibition against the sale of “confidential phone records information,” which states that an individual who knowingly and intentionally sells or transfers such confidential phone records of a covered party without prior written permission from the customer from whom such confidential information was obtained fraudulently, shall be fined under this Act, imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both.
Under the same section, the Act prohibits the purchase of confidential phone records information and imposes the same penalties.
The Act also provides for enhanced penalties for “Aggravated Cases.” These are instances where the individual violates the Act while violating another federal law. In such cases, the violator may be fined twice the amount as provided in the Act and may be imprisoned for an additional five years.
Although state laws vary considerably regarding pre-texting, the federal Act has led most lending institutions to make the prohibition of pre-texting of any nature a part of their contracts with skip-tracers or Recovery Agents.
To expand upon pretexting as it applies to collateral recovery and/or skip-tracing one must also recognize that this includes any written form. Providing misleading statements via email, phone text, Internet, U.S. mail or fax is also considered pre- texting and is strictly prohibited. Since you would be knowingly providing false or misleading statements in an attempt to secure the collateral, one could easily argue that you are violating the Fair Debt Collections Privacy Act (FDCPA).
The Telephone Records Act makes it a federal crime to fraudulently obtain consumers’ “confidential phone records information.” Although there is some ambiguity in that term, it is clear that confidential phone records information includes a third party’s call history, including the numbers called, and the time and length of the call. The Act’s language also makes it clear that confidential phone records information is not “subscriber list information” such as an individual’s name, telephone number and address. The act does not prohibit the purchase or sale of subscriber list information.
We recommend a comprehensive reading and understanding of the Telephone Records & Privacy Protection Act, which is presented following in its entirety.
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