Holy mercy! Just saw this and immediately thought of our discussion:

http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/0...-to-those-who/

Yeah, I've seen similar articles recently and I'm less than thrilled.

Beyond being moronic, it's an outrageous waste of taxpayer dollars.

Interesting but how is this any different from people who write hot checks serving a few days in jail?

One is fraud?

I don't know, writing a bad a check and using a credit card with no intention of paying it are the same in eyes.

There's bouncing a check and there's an intentionally bad check. One's a mistake and you pay a fee to your bank, the business, etc. One's fraud and possibly theft of services.

Not paying your credit card is more of a violation of contract and not paying most debts is a civil matter, not a criminal one.

There's a system for it, our jails aren't it.

Yep, but didn't these people end up in jail because they didn't appear in court?

The article explains pretty easily how it's an abuse of the system, and how low the level of proof is on the debt collection company's part. There are other articles out there if you want to know more.

I have clients that try and commit fraud all of the time. They ok things when they know damn well they aren't going to pay for it. I am happy to see them go to jail. Good riddance.

Maybe particular creditors are abusing the system, but missing hearings in the court system is dead serious, as it should be. Otherwise, anybody in any kind of trouble would just skip out on going to court. The power of the court to issue consequences, including imprisonment, is the reason people take courts seriously.
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KarolinPosh cam

Although the article said that sometimes there was no evidence that the debtors were notified of the court date. That is simply shady.

Also, see the article.

Or AGDee's comment.

There's also the issue, though I'm not sure if it happens in these cases, of the debt purchasers taking the person to court in another jurisdiction. I know it can happen in lawsuits, but not sure about these cases.

Many of the people I see committing the fraud are simply shady. Pay your bills and you won't get into trouble or don't spend what you don't have.

There's a big difference between not being able to pay your bills and committing fraud. They're way on the other end of the spectrum from each other.

Even if they're no longer attempting to make payments, doesn't mean they incurred those debts with that intent. I won't deny that people who legitimately commit fraud are in the wrong. But they're not the majority of people failing to make payments.