During the Trump administration, amongst all of the many terrible things being done in order to line the wealthiest Americans’ pockets at the expense of the rest of us, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed new rules as an update to the 40-year-old Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). While a couple of the newly proposed rules were exciting for consumer advocates, there was one glaring anticonsumer, pro-big business clause: a clarification of “how debt collectors can communicate with consumers.” On Tuesday, the new rules of how debt collectors can “communicate” with consumers went into effect. Now, debt collection agencies can direct message you on any one of your social media accounts, be that Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or wherever you may spend some digital social time these days. Oh yeah, and they are now allowed to email you and text message you. You know how so much of the unfettered digital spam allowed under Trump’s Federal Communications Commission and Ajit Pai seems like a scam? Well, that’s still true, but now there’re also debt collectors in there too.  Read more