时间:2018-12-02 作者:英语课 分类:万花筒2009年


英语课

Here's how debt collectors are supposed to treat you on the phone. "I want to inform you and I am obligated to inform you that this is an attempt to collect the debt."


 


This is how they're not. "Stanley McLeod, you need to call Green Tree and get your act together and make your payments on your mortgage and quit playing these games."


Diana McLeod says the call is one of hundreds his husband got before he died of heart failure.


"How many phone calls a day would you get?"


"Six, seven, it might have been more."


McLeod is now suing Green Tree Servicing LLC with using harassing 1 tactics that broke Florida law, and she claims, led to her husbands' death.


"The stress just built up within, he had trouble sleeping, not eating well, the stress was getting worse and worse for him."


The company's General Counsel told CNN, "The collection activity did not lead to his death. The claim is meritless. We deny that the content, the number or the timing 2 of the calls had anything to do with him dying in 2005."


After a heart attack and continuing heart problems, Stanley was on disability in 2002. The McLeods fell behind about three months on the mortgage payments. The calls began. This one after explaining to the collector he had been life-flighted to the hospital.


"Why don't you have that helicopter pick you up and bring that payment to the office?"


Scare tactics, charges McLeod's attorney Billy Howard. "That's how this mafia-like tactics result in so much money. People are scared."


Howard says this is not an isolated 3 incident. He's got hundreds of cases involving other clients. Now how would you feel if you got a call like this: "When I see you, I'm going to f*** you up. I want my money and I want it now." Or this one: "You haven't heard the last of me and if it takes me a year or takes me two, believe me, I'll find you."


"We want them gone, we want all of them gone." Anna Inglett runs a debt collection agency. She says collectors breaking the law should be prosecuted 4. "Tell you sometimes the industry is penalized 5 for a few bad apples. We’ve tried very hard and here in our firm, we absolutely make sure that we are in compliant 6."


With the recession, the number of people in debt is going up, as does the number of complaints against debt collection agencies. According to the Federal Trade Commission, between January and June of this year, they received 45,000 complaints, that's up more than 20% over the same period last year. But the FTC has only one case pending 7. Referring most complaints to the state for legal action to protect consumers, attorney say if you get harassing messages, do what Stanley McLeod did: save the tapes. John Zarrella, CNN, Tampa.

 



1 harassing
v.侵扰,骚扰( harass的现在分词 );不断攻击(敌人)
  • The court ordered him to stop harassing his ex-wife. 法庭命令他不得再骚扰前妻。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • It was too close to be merely harassing fire. 打得这么近,不能完全是扰乱射击。 来自辞典例句
2 timing
n.时间安排,时间选择
  • The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
  • The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。
3 isolated
adj.与世隔绝的
  • His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
  • Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。
4 prosecuted
a.被起诉的
  • The editors are being prosecuted for obscenity. 编辑因刊载污秽文字而被起诉。
  • The company was prosecuted for breaching the Health and Safety Act. 这家公司被控违反《卫生安全条例》。
5 penalized
对…予以惩罚( penalize的过去式和过去分词 ); 使处于不利地位
  • You will be penalized for poor spelling. 你拼写不好将会受到处罚。
  • Team members will be penalized for lateness. 队员迟到要受处罚。
6 compliant
adj.服从的,顺从的
  • I don't respect people who are too compliant.我看不起那种唯命是从,唯唯诺诺的人。
  • For years I had tried to be a compliant and dutiful wife.几年来,我努力做一名顺从和尽职尽职的妻子。
7 pending
prep.直到,等待…期间;adj.待定的;迫近的
  • The lawsuit is still pending in the state court.这案子仍在州法庭等待定夺。
  • He knew my examination was pending.他知道我就要考试了。
学英语单词
372
acromio-clavicular
administrative services
aerial arch
alpha ionization chamber
aminoacyl phosphatidylglycerol
Anopheles aconitus
apparent modulus
Arland, Marcel
armored scales
ataxospasmodic
basis pyramidis
benisons
blitheer
branding irons
Brazilian rhatany
bread paste culture-medium
buoyant apparatus
capacity estimate
catalog card
character group
chorismic acid
climatological
comparative marketing systems
datta
Dedekind domain
differential energy balance
diffuse alveolar damage syndrome
divided edge
Elkview
eutrephoceratids
exosmoses
expiratory flow retard
face and side milling
fair-to-middling
gallamine trienhiodide
gelsinger
gluteoinguinal
ground cedars
guldima (galdima)
hemihydrates
hinged clamp
honey badger
immune horse sera
insert camera
JMicron Technology Corporation
job grading
Leasburg
linaria
liquidated debt
luminescent protein
mancebo
meconoisine
metallized
mixed gypsum
Moornanyah L.
mphil
natural current
nghe
nitrile oxide
nitrocellulose propellant
notepaper
old account
omnius
overhead magnetic seperator
parameter of noncentricity
pdy
phosphorous glass
piedmont pluvial facies
pigmented peribuccal erythema of brocq
pipeline stopcock
Pleophos
pultaceous angina
Pyrola rugosa
receiver transformer
relcovaptan
right-hand track chain
rina
Ringgenbach
saltational
self-coachings
semi mechanical installation
semicircular
series microprocessor
ship flooding valve
shock absorber rubber
shooting board fixture
sludge settling
soil physical chemistry
soil-fracturing agent
some degree
Soulgé-sur-Ouette
Strauss's test
supernumeraries
Szajol
thinfilm
torsion-free group
union metal
value analysis (va)
VHML
wire gauze packing