“The book teems with eccentric characters and scenes that made my skin crawl…. Explained simply, read easily, Bad Paper defies expectations. It should also raise quite a few alarms.”-Colin Dwyer, NPR
The Federal Trade Commission receives more complaints about rogue debt collecting than it does about any activity besides identity theft. In Bad Paper, journalist Jake Halpern reveals why. He tells the story of Aaron Siegel, a former banking executive, and Brandon Wilson, a former armed robber, who become partners and go in quest of “paper”-the uncollected debts that are sold off by banks for pennies on the dollar. As Aaron and Brandon learn, the world of consumer debt collection is an unregulated shadowland, where operators often make unwarranted threats and even collect debts that are not theirs.
Introducing an unforgettable cast of characters, Halpern chronicles Aaron and Brandon’s lives as they manage high-pressure call centers, hunt for paper in Las Vegas casinos, and meet in parked cars to sell the social security numbers and account information of unsuspecting consumers. The result is a vital exposé on the cost of a system that compounds the troubles of hardworking Americans and an astonishing feat of storytelling.
An Amazon Best Book of the Month, October 2014: Everyone knows about collections agencies, but how they actually operate is much more interesting than you probably think. Falling somewhere between Glengarry Glen Ross and Mean Streets, Jake Halpern’s Bad Paper introduces us to an economy spanning many shades of gray. Halpern’s book tracks the descent of “paper” (spreadsheets containing the information of millions of debtors and their debts) as it’s sold for pennies on the dollar by banks and credit companies and passed through a network of collectors. Files are often bought and sold multiple times, each transaction stripping away the best remaining prospects as collectors wring paper dry through all manners of persuasion and coercion. Along the way, Halpern encounters first-hand the game’s players, from the financiers at the top of the pyramid to mid-level “brokers” and the ground-level phone-jockeys; these are all hard men within their contexts, as one tale of a Tarantino-grade stand-off over stolen information attests. This book is unexpected, and unexpectedly fun. –Jon Foro
Quick read, but still a detailed and vivid look at debt collection and involvement of banks and scary collection practices I received this in the early hours of the morning on the book’s release day and stayed up all night and most of the next day to read it. It is both suspenseful and horrifying and everyone should read it – not just people who’ve ever dealt with collection agencies. I was immediately drawn into the tale of one man, Aaron Siegel, who came from a wealthy family. He deals in the business of buying bad debts, those which still need to be collected from people with unpaid credit card bills, auto…
Felt like a thriller! A friend of mine gave me this book, and I wasn’t sure at first if I was going to like it. But once I started reading it, I was hooked! The writer does a fantastic job of telling the story of two guys–Aaron and Brandon–who go into the debt collection business together, and the absolutely crazy stuff that happens when they do. It’s hard to believe this isn’t fiction. There were times when I felt like I was reading a thriller. I learned a lot and found myself thinking about what…
An Incredible Story! American consumers owe $11.4 trillion, of which about $831 billion is delinquent. Some 30 million consumers are being hounded over at least one loan, averaging about $1,458. Overdue debts are regularly bought and sold for pennies on the dollar.Aaron Siegel, the lead protagonist in this story, had invested $14 million contributed by 8 others into $1.5 billion (face value) of bad debts, and then learned that some of his portfolio had been stolen – in the form of spreadsheets…