On October 1, 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
entered into a
consent order with an indirect finance company, Westlake
Services, LLC, and its auto title lending subsidiary, Wilshire
Consumer Credit, LLC (collectively, "Respondents").
Westlake specializes in purchasing and servicing subprime and
near-subprime auto loans. Wilshire extends auto title loans
directly to consumers. Respondents agreed to pay
approximately $44.1 million in cash and balance reductions to
affected borrowers, pay an additional $4.25 million in civil
penalties to the Bureau and implement a compliance plan subject to
the CFPB's approval.
The consent order states that Respondents violated the Fair Debt
Collections Practices Act (FDCPA) and engaged in unfair, deceptive
and abusive acts and practices (UDAAP) when they used a web-based
program, Skip Tracy, to alter the caller ID information that call
recipients saw when Respondents called borrowers. Respondents
used Skip Tracy to
