Dateline NBC's Chris Hanson
Debt Collectors will get the Dateline NBC treatment on Friday night, March 27th at 10pm Eastern and Pacific. Reporter Chris Hanson, most famous for his work exposing child predators on “To Catch a Predator,” will “expose dirty tactics used by some collection agencies.” According to NBC, hidden cameras will be involved, so this should be a really interesting show to watch on Friday night.
The episode of Dateline is titled “Debt in America and Its Collectors” and is part of a series called “Inside the Financial Fiasco.” Collection agencies abusing consumers is a serious issue in our country and it is great to see Dateline NBC and Chris Hanson tackling this issue with their trademark style.
However, everyone is not so excited. Without even having seen anything but the preview (below), Patrick Lunsford of InsideARM is lamenting the fact that it will be unfair and biased, with this from his article on the show:
To pre-suppose that the show will be an unfair view of the ARM industry is a bit beyond us at this point. I seriously can’t imagine what manner of awfulness will be foisted upon the public in this segment. I guess that we should withhold judgment until the piece airs, but I can’t see a piece that touts itself as a hidden camera expose of the ARM industry being even-sided.
While it’s always great to see “foisted” used in an article, I’m not sure how Patrick already knows the show will be so unfair? Maybe, it’s because Patrick, as an InsideARM expert, is well aware that there are a lot of debt collectors out there breaking the law every day, and if Chris Hanson is on the case, he’s bound to expose a number of them on national TV Friday night. Even better than Patrick’s “warning” to fellow debt collectors are the comments below the post. Apparently it’s not required to take an economics class to be a debt collector.
Tune in on Friday night or check back here on Saturday for an update on the episode.
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Tags: Collection Agencies, Collection Laws, Dateline NBC, Debt Collectors, InsideARM
Great story. I wonder why the police could not have done the same thing? Guess they get money also to protect the unscrupulous debt collectors. Is there going to be a follow up? Have there been any arrests in the impersonation of police officers or criminal harassment? Telling someone they will be raped if they don’t pay should be a capital offense. Punishable by a double barrel shotgun. I hope the law enforcement and DA’s office make arrests.
I would love to see Dateline NBC and Chris Hansen do a followup. Not only was the outcome of that woman’s harassment not detailed, but how about that illegal collection scam that is still in operation?!