The Plaintiff claims that the Defendant engaged in an unlawful collection practice that violated both the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. Sec. 1692-1692o (FDCPA), and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. Sec. 227 (TCPA), as well as state law by placing phone calls to his cell phone with an automatic telephone dialing system that left a pre-recorded telephone message.

That message allegedly only stated "Please contact our office at [phone number] so that we may assist you in voluntarily resolving this matter. When calling reference your file number [number]."

The FDCPA prohibits unfair or unconscionable collection methods, conduct which is abusive, and any false, deceptive or misleading statements in connection with the debt, and requires debt collectors to provide consumers with certain information.

The Plaintiff is a resident of the Northern District of Illinois. The Defendant is a Maryland limited liability company with its principal office in Bel Air, Maryland, which operates as a collection agency that currently manages receivables on both debts purchased for its own account, and on behalf of other credit grantors, according to the Complaint.

The Defendant placed a call to the Plaintiff's cell phone on April 23, 2008 via an automatic telephone dialing system, leaving a pre-recorded message. A representative of the Defendant then made another call to the Plaintiff's cell phone on May 1, 2008, leaving another similar message.

Additional such calls were allegedly made on May 4, 2008 via an automatic dialing system, and on May 6, 2008 by a representative of the Defendant, with similar messages left, as well as two other calls from numbers used by the Defendant.

The Plaintiff states that he did not give his prior consent to the Defendant for the placement of the calls in question. He also asserts that his cell phone contract with Verizon Wireless includes a specific amount of available minutes for calls made before 9 p.m. on weekdays, which are defined as "peak calls." The calls and messages left by the Defendant, except for one call made on a Sunday, were alleged "peak calls," and the time of these calls reduced the number of available minutes for the Plaintiff to use.

The Plaintiff is charged $0.35 per minute for peak calls made over the allowable number of minutes in his plan.

The Defendant's calls were allegedly made in an attempt to collect a purported debt.

The Complaint alleges that the calls violated the FDCPA, 15 U.S.C. Sec. 1692d(6) by failing to make a meaningful disclosure of the caller's identity, and further violated 15 U.S.C. Sec. 1692e(11) by failing to state, in the text of the messages, that the Defendant was attempting to collect a debt.

The Complaint further asserts that the Defendant violated the TCPA, 47 U.S.C. Sec. 227 by using an automated telephone dialing device to make calls and leave a prerecorded voice on a phone number assigned to a cell phone or any service for which the called party is charged for the call.

Remedies sought include statutory damages under the FDCPA of up to $1,000, $500 for each occurring violation of the TCPA and treble damages in the amount of $1,500 for each violation if the Defendant'' acts are determined to be willful.

An award of attorneys' fees and costs is also sought.