It shall be a prohibited practice for any debt collector to engage in any of the following practices while collecting a consumer debt:

(1) To threaten the use of violence or other criminal means to cause harm to the physical person, reputation, or property of any person;
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Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes 480D-3

  • Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
  • Consumer debt: means any debt of a natural person incurred primarily for personal, family, or household purposes. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 480D-2
  • Debt: means any obligation or alleged obligation of a person to pay money arising out of any transaction, whether or not the obligation has been reduced to judgment. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 480D-2
  • Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
  • Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
  • Person: means an individual, partnership, joint venture, corporation, association, business, trust, or any organized group of persons, or any combination thereof. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 480D-2
(2) To falsely accuse or threaten to falsely accuse any person of fraud or any other criminal conduct;
(3) To make false accusations or threaten to make false accusations, to another person, including any credit reporting agency, that a debt has not been paid;
(4) To threaten that nonpayment of a debt will result in the arrest of any person;
(5) To threaten to turn over the collection of the debt to a person who will engage in practices prohibited by this section;
(6) To threaten to sell or assign the debt with statements that, or implying that, the sale or assignment will cause the debtor to lose a defense or legal right as a result of the sale or assignment;
(7) To use profane or obscene language that is intended to abuse the hearer or reader;
(8) To disclose, publish, or communicate any false and material information relating to the indebtedness;
(9) To represent that an existing obligation may be increased by attorney’s fees, investigation fees, service fees, and other fees or charges when in fact the fees or charges may not legally be added to the existing obligations;
(10) To seek or obtain any statement or acknowledgment that the debt was incurred for necessities of life when in fact the debt was not so incurred; or
(11) To collect or attempt to collect any interest, charge, fee, or expense incidental to the debt unless the additions are authorized by the agreement or by law.

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