| Volume 142 Number 61 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
The American Community Survey (ACS) is a legitimate survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, which is part of the Department of Commerce. Unlike the 10-year Census, this survey runs all year, every year. The survey goes to a random sample of addresses in every state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Many federal, state, tribal, and local leaders use the answers to update their statistics. Click here for more.
National Cheap Flight Day happens this Friday, but is it a good deal?
America has all sorts of “national” days. To go along with all our traditional days, consumers are fed topical days in the hope that celebrating may equate to added business or goodwill, such as with the UPS-driven National Returns Day. This month alone, there’s National Underwear Day, National Thrift Shop Day, and National S’mores Day. In addition to those days, every August also sees the celebration of National Cheap Flight Day -- this year happening on Friday, August 23. The angle is pretty simple: August 23 is generally considered the day that airlines lower ticket prices to compensate for the typical lull between the end of the summer travel rush and the beginning of holiday travel. Click here for more.
Your Money
Maybe you don't balance your checkbook or even receive a monthly report on your checking or savings account in the mail, but you still need to be regularly looking over your bank statements. Checking your statement or transactions will alert you to any potential fraud quickly, such as a hacker using your debit card to pay for purchases. Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
Prohibited information on envelope is injury for purposes of FDCPA. The Third Circuit confronted a FDCPA issue posed by a debt collector's conduct. The debt collector sent the debtor a letter with a "QR" code on the outside of the envelope that, if scanned, revealed the debtor's account number with the collection agency. She brought suit, alleging violation of an FDCPA provision that prohibits debt collectors from placing language or symbols other than their own return addresses on envelopes containing communications with debtors. The purpose of the provision is to avoid infringing the debtor's privacy by revealing information that could be used to determine that she is the subject of debt-collection efforts. The court held that the debtor had standing to sue because the disclosure of confidential information (in the form of a code revealing her account number) inflicted a harm that Congress had determined was an injury. The court reasoned that, through the QR code, "protected information has been made accessible to the public," and this disclosure "is itself the harm" Congress intended to protect against. Thus, the debtor suffered an injury through the public display of private information regardless of whether anyone actually scanned the barcode and read the account number. DiNaples v. MRS BPO, LLC (3rd Cir 2019) Click here for more.