Harassment, oppression, or abuse
15 U.S.C. § 1692dPlain English
A debt collector may not engage in conduct the natural consequence of which is to harass, oppress, or abuse any person in connection with the collection of a debt — including repeated or continuous calls, profane language, threats of violence, and publication of a refusal-to-pay list.
How SettleUp Collections enforces
The agent caps outbound touches at the § 1692d threshold — no more than one communication per consumer per calendar day without operator flag, never back-to-back on consecutive days, and no language scoring above the lexicon's harassment band. Each draft is scored before dispatch.
Why this rule is in the library
Section 1692d is the conduct-based twin of § 1692g — it polices HOW a debt is pursued, not WHEN or WHAT. The subsections the agent enforces are (a) harassment in general, (b) repetition/continuity of calls with intent to annoy, (c) profane or obscene language, and (d) publication of any refusal-to-pay listing. The litigation pattern is well known: a consumer logs three calls in three hours, a voicemail without disclosure, then a script that contains a threat; section 1692d holds even if § 1692g works perfectly. SettleUp Collections's enforcement sample — a one-touch-per-day cap and a lexicon band check — is calibrated against the CFPB's continuous-call enforcement pattern rather than a literal translation of the statute, because contempt and intent are easier to plead in court when the underlying cadence already shows restraint.