Santa Ana : Collection Agency to Pay Fine for Mailed Threats

The president of a Santa Ana collection agency has agreed to pay $2,500 in penalties for sending out threatening letters that “resembled court orders” to consumers who owed debts, the district attorney’s office announced Wednesday.

The Check Alert Check Control Center threatened consumers who had written bad checks with audits of their bank accounts, legal fees and possible arrest and criminal charges, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Gay Geiser-Sandoval of the office’s consumer affairs division.

“The mailers were entitled ‘Writ of Examination,’ with an American eagle symbol,” she said.

Prosecutors claim that the agency violated the Robbins-Rosenthal Debt Collection Act, which protects consumers from such tactics.

Geiser-Sandoval said the collection agency appears to be out of business. It has moved from its current address. Its telephone has been disconnected and no forwarding phone number was left with the telephone company.

The district attorney’s office began looking into the collection agency last November after complaints from consumers accused of writing bad checks to a grocery store.

Geiser-Sandoval said the collection agency in effect would buy a series of bad checks from the grocery store at a discount--for example, the agency might buy a $20 check for $5, she said. Then if the collection agency managed to recover the $20, it had a $15 profit. It took a loss if it could not recover any money.

Lester C. Landrum of Santa Ana, the president of the company, made an agreement with the district attorney’s office to send no more mailers, should his business resume, unless they are pre-approved by the district attorney’s office. He also agreed to the $2,500 fine.