Threatened With Prosecution Over an Canceled Check

A consumer used an out-of-state repair service to perform a computer repair, paying by check. When the computer was returned it died a day later, so the customer canceled the check, which still hadn't cleared.

The consumer has since been contacted by Rapid Recovery Credit & Collections, which says that they owe twice the amount of the canceled check. The person who most recently called the consumer said that he is a part-owner of the company and is a lawyer. He says that if the customer doesn't start paying the money, he will be criminally charged and can go to jail. Is that true? He demanded payments of $25 per week, and said to call him next week to set up automatic payments.

The company you have identified is a debt collector. They aren't the owner of the debt. The odds are that the person to whom you spoke was not a lawyer, and if he was a lawyer he should have known better than to threaten you with prosecution. What you have described would be a violation of the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act, and you can actually sue the collection agency for damages.