"Robo-signers" have been all over the news in the last few weeks. Mortgage lenders have been using these employees to sign foreclosure documents by the thousands and swear to the documents' accuracy. Of course, as we have been learning, the robo-signers just sign, they don't actually check the paperwork and they certainly don't investigate the underlying transactions.

What Fort Lauderdale credit card debt reduction attorneys can tell you is that robo-signers are nothing new. The credit card companies, and the debt collectors they sell credit card debts to, have been using robo-signers for years.

Credit card debts frequently pass through so many hands before a debt collector contacts the original debtor, that the details of the original debt are lost. Inaccuracies that creep into the record of a debt live on because no one who now owns the debt knows anything about the original situation.

It is as if a witness came to court to testify about a traffic accident, but they didn't actually witness the accident. They just heard about it. Debt collectors don't have firsthand information about the debts they collect, they only know that someone told them that such-and-such person owes a certain number of dollars.

Debts are bundled together by the credit card companies and sold to debt collectors for pennies on the dollar. Debt collectors who sue the debtors are not able to actually verify the details of the debt in many cases, but they always swear to the accuracy of their claims, nonetheless.

Getting more information would cost the debt collectors money, so they don't go out and get it.

Source: New York Times "Debt Collectors Face a Hazard: Writer's Cramp" 11/1/2010