West Virginia woman wins $10M judgment from abusive debt collector

A West Virginia woman fought back after getting abusive phone calls over a debt she says she didn't owe. And she won the largest judgment ever against a debt collection agency, $10 million. She told Target 11 Consumer Investigator Robin Taylor, it's not about the money.

Diana Mey hasn't collected a dime, and she may never get any of that money, but what she has done is draw attention to debt collectors who break the law.

"They have the game down!  They know how to scare the crap out of people, even if you're innocent!" said Mey, a housewife who lives in Wheeling, W. Va.

It all began two years ago when Mey got call from a debt collector threatening to put a lien on her home, a tactic that's illegal.

"We are in the process of serving some court documents in regards to case 29369," said a woman’s voice on the answering machine.

The debt wasn't even hers so, Diana fired off a cease-and-desist letter.

Precisely, 23 minutes after Reliant Financial Associates signed for the letter, a series of hang up calls began that looked like they were coming from the local sheriff's department.

When Diana finally answered, she was subjected to an obscene phone call that she recorded.

"You've been really trying to get a hold of me, called quite a bit the last couple days," said Mey. "Yes, I want to make sure you like being gang banged," replied a man’s voice in the vulgar message that went on for two minutes.

"I consider myself a fairly savvy consumer, but that message scared me!" said Mey.

A detective later told her the call didn't come from the sheriff's department.  The caller ID had been manipulated, a practice called spoofing.

That's when Diana put two and two together. She researched the debt collection company on the Internet and found out she wasn't the only one this had happened to.

"Did they call the wrong person when they called you?" I asked. "They absolutely called the wrong person. Yea, they picked the wrong person," said Mey.

You see, Diana has fought big companies before. In 1999, she won a class-action lawsuit against a telemarketer who kept calling even after she asked it to stop.

Diana sued RFA and won $10 million after their lawyer failed to show up in court. The judge called the collection agency's actions "malicious."

"Ultimately, they just blew the case off. They just blew it off," said Mey.

We reached out to RFA’s lawyer, calling several times, and have been waiting for nearly a week for a response, but never heard back from him.

So far, Diana hasn't collected a dime.

"So you won a $10 million judgment, do you think you'll ever collect on that?" I asked.  "I think it's a long shot, but now that we've identified who the owners are, I'm sure going to try," said Mey.

Mey says it's not about the money. It's about sending a message to other debt collectors that they have to obey the law. If they don't, there are people who will stand up against them.

Mey is also fighting for tougher federal regulations that will increase the penalties against abusive debt collectors.

WPXI