Lawsuits filed against debt collectors multiplied in recent years, as have complaints to regulators about abusive collection tactics. Indeed, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) receives more consumer complaints against debt collectors than any other industry. Collection companies, which recover billions of dollars in delinquent debt for creditors annually, defend their practices and challenge the validity of many of the lawsuits and consumer complaints. Nevertheless, over the past 18 months, the FTC and state attorneys general have stepped up enforcement against collection agencies they believe are breaking consumer-protection laws. Meanwhile, the Internal Revenue Service has drafted rules aimed at curbing aggressive collection methods at nonprofit hospitals, including dunning sick patients for payment in the emergency room. At the same time, the collection industry is bracing for tighter regulation from the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Barbara Mantel is a freelance writer in New York City whose work has appeared in The New York Times, the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology and Mamm Magazine. She is a former correspondent and senior producer for National Public Radio and has won several journalism awards, including the National Press Club's Best Consumer Journalism Award and Lincoln University's Unity Award. She holds a B.A. in history and economics from the University of Virginia and an M.A. in economics from Northwestern University.