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Fighting back against debt collectors

Posted at 6:10 PM, Apr 29, 2016
and last updated 2016-05-02 23:33:05-04

Robocalls from debt collectors are annoying and sometimes illegal.

Now, a pastor who says she is a victim of more than 700 calls is turning the tables on those responsible.

Robocalling debt collectors picked on Pastor Myra - a student of the Bible.

She's never taken out student loans, but her phone has been lighting up like no tomorrow for more than a year.

We tracked down expert attorney Brian Parker. He routinely represents victims like Pastor Myra who are living a nightmare of telephone abuse and harassment.

Parker says while your number could become compromised in a number of ways, don't ever pay money you don't owe or give out your info and always keep a paper trail you can use, if you decide to hire an attorney.

The reality is you could be entitled to a six-figure payout.

In this case, Navient Loan Solutions made the calls. They are a student loan servicer. They pulled Pastor Myra's number off a church filing, after looking for her daughter - a common tactic.

Instead she's suing for a million dollars and that's not even outrageous. It turns out that for an alleged violation of the telephone consumer protection act, setup to protect against these types of calls, the penalty is between $500-$1,500 per call.

Navient is declining to comment, citing pending litigation.

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