Debt collector sentenced for sale of information

A chief U.S. District judge recently sentenced the director of a Buffalo debt collection agency to two years probation and fined him $28,000, after the man admitted he had sold thousands of debtors' personal information. Andrew Jon Pytlewski pleaded guilty to selling the information for approximately $28,000 to fraudulent debt collectors in 2009, The Buffalo News reports. The men Pytlewski sold the information to, Timothy Arent and Neil Wieczkowski, were convicted of using it to collect millions of dollars from victims on debts they didn't owe. Debt collectors in New York have come under greater scrutiny for their business practices. The attorney general there, Eric Schneiderman, recently announced a series of actions against Buffalo-area debt collectors who went after military personnel and other "vulnerable consumers." The activities flagged by the prosecutor included falsely telling debtors that a lawsuit was about to be filed against them, that their property would be seized and that police would come to their homes, according to a news release. A California-based debt collector, Rumson, Bolling and Associates, was banned from operating Minnesota for using "false, deceptive and misleading tactics," KMOV reports, but still does business in Missouri and Illinois.