What?! A Candidate is Politicizing a Debt Collector Witch Hunt? No...

Yeah, he is.

Current New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has been on a crusade – some would say jihad – lately against debt collectors. This is not shocking to any readers of insideARM.com. We’ve been covering Cuomo’s “ongoing probe of illegal practices in the debt collection industry” since he launched it May 2009 (“NY Attorney General Shuts Down Collection Agencies; Subpoenas 20 Others,” May 28, 2009).

What is most interesting about Cuomo’s probe is that he seems to be tackling the “low-hanging fruit” of bad debt collectors. That is to say, a lot of the actions he’s taken have been against straight-up criminals. These are people that would get into trouble regardless of the industries they chose to infiltrate. So really, it’s a good thing.

But he keeps lumping these – I can’t even call them bad actors, because they’re not even proper debt collectors – people in with the rest of the legitimate ARM industry. I guess it’s a nuanced position, since they technically were trying to collect debt, but have these folks ever been to an industry conference? Been members of trade groups? Sat in a meeting with a big bank executive? Doubtful.

Still, it’s good that these criminals are being rounded up and removed from the business. There’s nothing political about an attorney general prosecuting criminals, right?

Wrong, apparently:

Ouch, soon-to-be New York Governor Cuomo, ouch.

First of all, she clearly states that the “debt collectors” harassing her were arrested. How many colleagues do you know that have been arrested for FDCPA violations?

As the attorney general of the second largest state in the union, and a candidate for its governorship, I’m sure Andrew Cuomo has a few plates in the air. But he took the time to have his people make an ad about bulldogging debt collectors, which to my knowledge, is the first time the industry has appeared in a political ad.