§ 601. Prohibited practices. No principal creditor, as defined by this article, or his agent shall:

Terms Used In N.Y. General Business Law 601

  • Communication: shall mean the conveying of information regarding a debt directly or indirectly to any person through any medium. See N.Y. General Business Law 600
  • Consumer claim: means any obligation of a natural person for the payment of money or its equivalent which is or is alleged to be in default and which arises out of a transaction wherein credit has been offered or extended to a natural person, and the money, property or service which was the subject of the transaction was primarily for personal, family or household purposes. See N.Y. General Business Law 600
  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Debt: means any obligation or alleged obligation of a consumer to pay money arising out of a transaction in which the money, property, insurance, or services which are the subject of the transaction are primarily for personal, family, or household purposes, whether or not such obligation has been reduced to judgment. See N.Y. General Business Law 600
  • Debtor: means any natural person who owes or who is asserted to owe a consumer claim. See N.Y. General Business Law 600
  • Judgement: The official decision of a court finally determining the respective rights and claims of the parties to a suit.
  • Principal creditor: means any person, firm, corporation or organization to whom a consumer claim is owed, due or asserted to be due or owed, or any assignee for value of said person, firm, corporation or organization. See N.Y. General Business Law 600
  • Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
  • Uniform Commercial Code: A set of statutes enacted by the various states to provide consistency among the states' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. Source: OCC

1. Simulate in any manner a law enforcement officer, or a representative of any governmental agency of the state of New York or any of its political subdivisions; or

2. Knowingly collect, attempt to collect, or assert a right to any collection fee, attorney's fee, court cost or expense unless such changes are justly due and legally chargeable against the debtor; or

3. Disclose or threaten to disclose information affecting the debtor's reputation for credit worthiness with knowledge or reason to know that the information is false; or

4. Communicate or threaten to communicate the nature of a consumer claim to the debtor's employer prior to obtaining final judgment against the debtor. The provisions of this subdivision shall not prohibit a principal creditor from communicating with the debtor's employer to execute a wage assignment agreement if the debtor has consented to such an agreement; or

5. Disclose or threaten to disclose information concerning the existence of a debt known to be disputed by the debtor without disclosing that fact; or

6. Communicate with the debtor or any member of his family or household with such frequency or at such unusual hours or in such a manner as can reasonably be expected to abuse or harass the debtor; or

7. Threaten any action which the principal creditor in the usual course of his business does not in fact take; or

8. Claim, or attempt or threaten to enforce a right with knowledge or reason to know that the right does not exist; or

9. Use a communication which simulates in any manner legal or judicial process or which gives the appearance of being authorized, issued or approved by a government, governmental agency, or attorney at law when it is not; or

10. Remotely disable a vehicle using a payment assurance device defined in paragraph sixty-a of subsection (a) of section 9-102 of the uniform commercial code or by any other means in order to repossess a debtor's vehicle without first having given written notice of the possible remote disabling of a vehicle in the method and timetable agreed upon by the consumer and the creditor in the initial contract for services. The notice shall be mailed by registered or certified mail to the address at which the debtor will be residing on the expected date of the remote disabling of the vehicle. The notice shall be postmarked no later than ten days prior to the date on which the principal creditor or his agent obtains the right to remotely disable the vehicle; or

11. If such principal creditor or agent sends more than fifty information subpoenas per month, fail to keep complete records concerning all information subpoenas sent by such principal creditor or agent. Such records shall be maintained for five years. Contemporaneous records shall be kept that set forth with specificity the grounds for such principal creditor or agent's reasonable belief, which must be certified and accompany each information subpoena pursuant to rule fifty-two hundred twenty-four of the civil practice law and rules, that the party receiving the subpoena has in its possession information about the debtor that will assist the creditor in collecting his or her judgement. In addition to any other penalty that may be imposed, failure to maintain records in accordance with this subdivision shall subject such principal creditor or agent to a civil penalty of not more than fifty dollars per subpoena, up to a maximum of five thousand dollars per violation, in an action brought by the attorney general; or

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