CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The state attorney general's office has filed a lawsuit against a Florida debt collector, alleging that the company illegally threatened West Virginians in an effort to collect debts that sometimes didn't exist.

In a petition for an injunction filed Monday in Kanawha Circuit Court, Attorney General Darrell McGraw maintains that Charles Howell & Associates Inc., a Tampa-based firm, tried to intimidate consumers into paying bills.

Gregory J. Wells, the company's president and CEO, also is named as a defendant.

In most cases, Howell & Associates called West Virginians about nTelos cellular phone agreements involving cancellation fees amounting to several hundred dollars, according to the complaint. Although they have no lawyers on staff and do not file lawsuits, the company routinely threatened to sue consumers over relatively small debts, the suit alleges.

"Howell has also threatened to report consumers to law enforcement officials, disclosed consumers' debt information to employers and other third parties, and threatened to tack additional fees onto consumers' debts, all of which conduct is prohibited by law," the suit states.

"It's a commission-based industry, and there are a lot of incentives to being overly aggressive with consumers and go way past that [legal] line," said Chris Hedges, an assistant attorney general with the consumer protection division.

The attorney general's office has received about 20 complaints about Howell's business practices since 2005, Hedges said.

Cynthia Miller, an accountant from Beckley, said she decided to file a complaint after a Howell employee was belligerent with her and the called her mother and disclosed her personal financial information. He told her mother he was going to garnish Miller's wages, which would put her job in jeopardy, Miller said.

"He had my mom very upset, thinking that he would actually show up at my place of business," Miller said.

Miller's mother, who has since passed away, was on disability and lived on a fixed income at the time, she said. She spent between $600 and $800 a month on medication, but went without to pay the debt because she was scared.

The collector wanted $200 on top of the actual debt, Miller said.

Miller said she is pleased the attorney general's office is following through on her complaint.

"I'm sure that I was not the only person that they were harassing like that," she said. "While I could defend myself and do it very well, there were probably others who paid a lot of money that they shouldn't have paid."

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The state attorney general's office has filed a lawsuit against a Florida debt collector, alleging that the company illegally threatened West Virginians in an effort to collect debts that sometimes didn't exist.

In a petition for an injunction filed Monday in Kanawha Circuit Court, Attorney General Darrell McGraw maintains that Charles Howell & Associates Inc., a Tampa-based firm, tried to intimidate consumers into paying bills.

Gregory J. Wells, the company's president and CEO, also is named as a defendant.

In most cases, Howell & Associates called West Virginians about nTelos cellular phone agreements involving cancellation fees amounting to several hundred dollars, according to the complaint. Although they have no lawyers on staff and do not file lawsuits, the company routinely threatened to sue consumers over relatively small debts, the suit alleges.

"Howell has also threatened to report consumers to law enforcement officials, disclosed consumers' debt information to employers and other third parties, and threatened to tack additional fees onto consumers' debts, all of which conduct is prohibited by law," the suit states.

"It's a commission-based industry, and there are a lot of incentives to being overly aggressive with consumers and go way past that [legal] line," said Chris Hedges, an assistant attorney general with the consumer protection division.

The attorney general's office has received about 20 complaints about Howell's business practices since 2005, Hedges said.

Cynthia Miller, an accountant from Beckley, said she decided to file a complaint after a Howell employee was belligerent with her and the called her mother and disclosed her personal financial information. He told her mother he was going to garnish Miller's wages, which would put her job in jeopardy, Miller said.

"He had my mom very upset, thinking that he would actually show up at my place of business," Miller said.

Miller's mother, who has since passed away, was on disability and lived on a fixed income at the time, she said. She spent between $600 and $800 a month on medication, but went without to pay the debt because she was scared.

The collector wanted $200 on top of the actual debt, Miller said.

Miller said she is pleased the attorney general's office is following through on her complaint.

"I'm sure that I was not the only person that they were harassing like that," she said. "While I could defend myself and do it very well, there were probably others who paid a lot of money that they shouldn't have paid."

Jamie Zifilippo, a maintenance mechanic from Fayette County, said a Howell collector called him at work when he worked at the stamping plant in South Charleston in 2006.

Zifilippo said he had a misunderstanding with nTelos when he tried to cancel their service. Instead of getting a bill for the appropriate cancellation fee, the bill was much larger, and he refused to pay it, he said.

The plant manager called him into his office, and told him he needed to return the call, he said.

The Howell employee was immediately confrontational and wouldn't listen to Zifilippo's explanation of the situation, he said.

"He said: 'Have you ever been visited by a federal marshal? Have you ever had your wages garnished?'" Zifilippo said.

While nTelos eventually acknowledged that he owed only the smaller cancellation fee and the situation was then easily resolved, Zifilippo said he filed a complaint so that the company wouldn't harass other West Virginians.

"I don't appreciate being threatened at work. Whatever this gentleman said to the plant manager to encourage him to call me, that bothered me," he said. "I just didn't want any other individuals to have to be tormented or exposed to a company like this."

According to the complaint, a Howell employee called a 61-year-old Wetzel County homemaker repeatedly over a cell phone contract. She had never owned a cell phone.

In another instance, the company threatened a 25-year-old university instructor from Huntington with a lawsuit that would cost $1,200 over an alleged debt of $368, the complaint states. The instructor had no knowledge of any outstanding debt, and reported the calls in July.

Howell has not cooperated fully with the state's investigation, Hedges said. After an incomplete response to a subpoena in the spring, Howell has not responded to any additional inquiries, he said.

In the meantime, additional consumers complained about the company's practices, he said.

The suit seeks a court order forbidding Howell from making illegal or false representations to consumers when it tries to collect debts from West Virginians.

Reach Andrew Clevenger at acleven...@wvgazette.com or 348-1723.