Oregon Revised Statutes Chapter 646 § 646.639 — Unlawful collection practices

Unlawful collection practices. (1) As used in this section and ORS 646A.670: (a) “Charged-off debt” means a debt that a creditor treats as a loss or expense and not as an asset. (b) “Consumer” means a natural person who purchases or acquires property, services or credit for personal, family or household purposes. (c) “Consumer transaction” means a transaction between a consumer and a person that sells, leases or provides property, services or credit to consumers. (d) “Credit” means a right that a creditor grants to a consumer to defer payment of a debt, to incur a debt and defer payment of the debt, or to purchase or acquire property or services and defer payment for the property or services. (e) “Creditor” means a person that, in the ordinary course of the person’s business, engages in consumer transactions that result in a consumer owing a debt to the person. (f) “Debt” means an obligation or alleged obligation that arises out of a consumer transaction. (g)(A) “Debt buyer” means a person that regularly engages in the business of purchasing charged-off debt for the purpose of collecting the charged-off debt or hiring another person to collect or bring legal action to collect the charged-off debt. (B) “Debt buyer” does not include a person that acquires charged-off debt as an incidental part of acquiring a portfolio of debt that is predominantly not charged-off debt. (h) “Debt collector” means a person that by direct or indirect action, conduct or practice collects or attempts to collect a debt owed, or alleged to be owed, to a creditor or debt buyer. (i) “Debtor” means a consumer who owes or allegedly owes a debt, including a consumer who owes an amount that differs from the amount that a debt collector attempts to collect or that a debt buyer purchased or attempts to collect. (j) “Legal action” means a lawsuit, mediation, arbitration or any other proceeding in any court, including a small claims court. (k) “Original creditor” means the last entity that extended credit to a consumer to purchase goods or services, to lease goods or as a loan of moneys. (L) “Person” means an individual, corporation, trust, partnership, incorporated or unincorporated association or any other legal entity. (2) A debt collector engages in an unlawful collection practice if the debt collector, while collecting or attempting to collect a debt, does any of the following: (a) Uses or threatens to use force or violence to cause physical harm to a debtor or to the debtor’s family or property. (b) Threatens arrest or criminal prosecution. (c) Threatens to seize, attach or sell a debtor’s property if doing so requires a court order and the debt collector does not disclose that seizing, attaching or selling the debtor’s property requires prior court proceedings. (d) Uses profane, obscene or abusive language in communicating with a debtor or the debtor’s family. (e) Communicates with a debtor or any member of the debtor’s family repeatedly or continuously or at times known to be inconvenient to the debtor or any member of the debtor’s family and with intent to harass or annoy the debtor or any member of the debtor’s family. (f) Communicates or threatens to communicate with a debtor’s employer concerning the nature or existence of the debt. (g) Communicates without a debtor’s permission or threatens to communicate with the debtor at the debtor’s place of employment if the place of employment is other than the debtor’s residence, except that the debt collector may: (A) Write to the debtor at the debtor’s place of employment if a home address is not reasonably available and if the envelope does not reveal that the communication is from a debt collector other than the person that provided the goods, services or credit from which the debt arose. (B) Telephone a debtor’s place of employment without informing any other person of the nature of the call or identifying the caller as a debt collector but only if the debt collector in good faith has made an unsuccessful attempt to telephone the debtor at the debtor’s residence during the day or during the evening between the hours of 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. The debt collector may not contact the debtor at the debtor’s place of employment more frequently than once each business week and may not telephone the debtor at the debtor’s place of employment if the debtor notifies the debt collector not to telephone at the debtor’s place of employment or if the debt collector knows or has reason to know that the debtor’s employer prohibits the debtor from receiving such communication. For the purposes of this subparagraph, any language in any agreement, contract or instrument that creates or is evidence of the debt and that purports to authorize telephone calls at the debtor’s place of employment does not give permission to the debt collector to call the debtor at the debtor’s place of employment. (h) Communicates with a debtor in writing without