If PRA Receivables Management is calling you, federal law protects you even if you owe the underlying debt. Under the FDCPA, you may be able to recover up to $1,000 in statutory damages for violations involving harassment, misleading collection tactics, or improper handling of a dispute. If the calls involve an autodialer or a prerecorded voice, the TCPA adds $500 to $1,500 in damages per illegal call. If you win, PRA may also be required to pay your attorney’s fees, which is what makes it possible to pursue your rights at little or no upfront cost.
Consumer Rights Law Firm PLLC has been stopping debt collector harassment since 2010. We hold an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. Call us at (877) 700-5790 or start a free case review. The collector pays our fees when they lose, not you.
Is PRA Receivables Management Legitimate or a Scam?
PRA Receivables Management, LLC is a real, licensed debt collection company, but real does not mean every practice it uses is lawful. PRA Receivables Management is a subsidiary of PRA Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: PRAA), a publicly traded debt buyer headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia. Within the PRA Group family, PRA Receivables Management specifically acquires and services accounts tied to bankrupt and insolvent consumers, which is a narrower role than its much larger sister company, Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC, which purchases and collects general consumer debt.
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Legal Name | PRA Receivables Management, LLC |
| Parent Company | PRA Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: PRAA) |
| Sister Company | Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC |
| Parent HQ | Norfolk, Virginia |
| BBB-Listed Address | 10 Orchard #100, Lake Forest, CA 92630 |
| Main Phone | (800) 642-6233 |
| Portfolio Recovery Associates Line (referenced in PRA’s own BBB responses) | (800) 772-1413 |
| BBB Status | Not BBB Accredited |
| Typical Accounts Handled | Credit card, auto loan, and other consumer debts tied to bankruptcy or insolvency proceedings |
| Business Contact Named in Complaint Responses | Devin Urbanowski |
We want to flag something important here that a lot of sites covering this company get wrong: PRA Receivables Management, LLC and Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC are related but legally separate entities under the same parent, PRA Group. Several major regulatory actions you may have read about, including a 2015 CFPB consent order and a 2023 follow-up judgment, were brought against Portfolio Recovery Associates specifically, not PRA Receivables Management. We cover both accurately below rather than blending them together, because getting this distinction right matters if you are trying to figure out exactly who is calling you and why.
Why Is PRA Receivables Management Calling You?
PRA Receivables Management is calling because it acquired or was assigned an account tied to a debt it believes you owe, often in connection with a bankruptcy filing. Based on documented complaint and court records, the most common scenarios include:
- A credit card debt that was charged off years earlier and later assigned to PRA for collection
- An auto loan balance, sometimes following a bankruptcy case that was dismissed or discharged
- A proof of claim filed in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case on an old, charged-off account
- An account transferred from another creditor where the balance PRA is demanding does not match the consumer’s own records
One thing consumers often misunderstand is that PRA Receivables Management frequently deals with accounts that are already old by the time they reach the company, sometimes old enough that the legal window to sue over them, the statute of limitations, has already closed. As you will see in the federal cases below, that alone does not make PRA’s involvement illegal. But it does mean you should never assume a balance is accurate or currently collectible just because a letter or call says so.
PRA Receivables Management Phone Numbers
The number most consistently documented in connection with this company is:
| Number | Reported Use |
|---|---|
| (800) 642-6233 | Main line listed with BBB for PRA Receivables Management, LLC |
| (800) 772-1413 | Portfolio Recovery Associates line, referenced in PRA’s own complaint responses when redirecting consumers |
If you are getting calls from a number that is not on this list, that does not mean it is not connected to this company or the broader PRA Group family. Collectors of this size often use a range of local and toll-free numbers. Ask the caller directly to identify themselves, the company they work for, and the original creditor on the account, and write everything down.
PRA Receivables Management Consumer Complaints
Source: BBB’s profile for PRA Receivables Management
BBB’s profile for PRA Receivables Management at its Lake Forest, California address shows the company as not accredited, with complaint activity that includes narratives BBB has published directly from consumers. Several of these describe specific, documented problems:
One complainant described receiving threatening emails alongside a wave of phone calls and voicemails, and said the company misrepresented conversations with people the complainant had never actually spoken to. Another complainant said they received a letter demanding payment on a vehicle debt they had never seen or financed, and that repeated attempts to reach the company went nowhere. A third complainant, dealing with a wage garnishment issue, said PRA had acknowledged receiving proof of a bankruptcy filing that should have stopped the garnishment, but stopped responding to calls and messages afterward.
What our clients tell us is that this pattern, a company acknowledging a problem and then going quiet, is one of the more frustrating tactics debt collectors use, because it leaves consumers unsure whether the issue was actually resolved or simply ignored.
A separate, detailed complaint published on RevDex describes a consumer whose 2007 vehicle purchase agreement, originally financed for $16,000, had been paid down to roughly $7,000 before a Chapter 13 case involving that debt was dismissed. After dismissal, the consumer began receiving calls and letters from PRA claiming the account had been transferred and that $17,000 was owed, a figure the consumer disputed as inconsistent with the original contract. The consumer also reported being contacted at their place of employment about the disputed balance. Another RevDex complaint describes an attempted vehicle repossession by two individuals in an unmarked tow truck while the consumer was out shopping, an incident the consumer said local police intervened in after the collectors could not produce proper documentation.
We are presenting these because they are independently documented on BBB and RevDex, not because we can confirm every detail of a consumer’s account of events. If you have had a similar experience, filing your own complaint with BBB creates a timestamped public record that can matter later.
PRA Receivables Management Harassment Patterns: What Consumers Report
Based on documented complaints and court filings, these are the tactics most frequently associated with PRA Receivables Management and the broader PRA Group family that raise FDCPA concerns:
- Calling a consumer’s workplace after being contacted about a disputed balance, as described in the RevDex vehicle-debt complaint
- Demanding a balance inconsistent with the original loan or credit agreement, without providing documentation to explain the discrepancy
- Continuing to pursue an account after a bankruptcy filing or discharge, without properly updating records to reflect the case’s status
- Failing to honor a court-acknowledged stay of garnishment, as described in one BBB complaint
- Filing a proof of claim in bankruptcy on a debt outside the applicable statute of limitations, a practice documented in multiple federal cases discussed below
We frequently see consumers assume that because a collector filed something in a bankruptcy case, it must be accurate and enforceable. That is not always true, and the difference between a debt that legally exists and a debt that can actually be collected is exactly what several federal courts have had to sort out in cases directly involving this company.
Federal Lawsuits Against PRA Receivables Management
Source: Keeler v. PRA Receivables Management
Case 1: Keeler v. PRA Receivables Management, LLC and Portfolio Recovery Associates, Inc.
Court: U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania Docket: Adversary No. 08-0334bf (Bankruptcy No. 08-14079bf) Judge: Bruce Fox Decided: May 4, 2009
Jesse Keeler filed Chapter 13 bankruptcy, and PRA Receivables Management, LLC, acting as agent for Portfolio Recovery Associates, filed a proof of claim for $3,230.55 based on a credit card account that had been charged off back in 1995, well outside Pennsylvania’s four-year statute of limitations. Keeler sued, alleging the filing violated the FDCPA and Pennsylvania consumer protection law, and sought sanctions and broader relief affecting other bankruptcy filers. The court granted PRA’s motion to dismiss all four counts, holding that a debt collector filing a proof of claim on a time-barred debt is not itself an FDCPA violation, because the debt still exists as a legal “claim” under the Bankruptcy Code even after the limitations period has run.
Source: Somohano v. PRA Receivables Management
Case 2: Somohano v. PRA Receivables Management LLC
Court: U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Docket: No. 19-11813 (District Court Nos. 1:18-cv-21896-KMW; 1:17-bkc-18157-LMI, S.D. Fla.) Panel: Chief Judge William Pryor, Judge Jill Pryor, Judge Newsom Decided: July 23, 2020
Alberto Soler Somohano, in his own Chapter 13 bankruptcy, sued PRA Receivables Management LLC and Cavalry SPV I, LLC after they filed proofs of claim on credit card debts where the last payment and charge-off dates, disclosed on the face of the filings themselves, showed the debts were outside Florida’s five-year statute of limitations. Following the Supreme Court’s 2017 decision in Midland Funding, LLC v. Johnson, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed dismissal of Somohano’s FDCPA claims, holding that a proof of claim which discloses its own staleness is not “false, deceptive, or misleading” under the statute.
What these cases mean for you: In both instances, courts ruled that simply filing a proof of claim on an old debt in bankruptcy, when the filing itself discloses that the debt is time-barred, does not violate the FDCPA under current law. That is a narrower legal question than whether PRA’s calling and contact tactics on a specific account are lawful. A dismissal on the proof-of-claim theory does not mean every tactic a collector uses is automatically fine, it means that particular legal argument, on those particular facts, did not succeed. Phone conduct, workplace contact, balance accuracy, and response to a documented bankruptcy stay are all separate questions a court would evaluate on their own facts.
A note on verification: both cases above were confirmed through official court and legal-database sources, including the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Bankruptcy Court’s own published opinion and CourtListener’s record of the Eleventh Circuit’s decision. Full case files beyond the published opinions may require a PACER account to access.
Your Legal Rights Against PRA Receivables Management
Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA): PRA Receivables Management may violate this law by calling your workplace after being told not to, demanding an amount inconsistent with the original debt without documentation, continuing collection after a documented bankruptcy stay, using harassing or repeated call patterns, or filing a proof of claim through deceptive means rather than one that discloses its own limitations status.
Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA): PRA Receivables Management may violate this law by using an autodialer or prerecorded message to call your cell phone without consent, with each violation potentially carrying its own statutory damages of $500 to $1,500 per call.
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA): PRA Receivables Management may violate this law by reporting inaccurate balances or account statuses to credit bureaus, or by failing to complete a required investigation within 30 days of a dispute.
Automatic Stay and Bankruptcy Protections: If you have an active bankruptcy case, continued collection activity, including wage garnishment, after the company has been notified of the stay, raises separate issues under bankruptcy law in addition to the FDCPA.
FDCPA Violations at a Glance
| Violation | Real PRA-Related Example | Statute | Remedy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calling a consumer’s workplace about a disputed debt | Described in a RevDex complaint involving a disputed $17,000 vehicle balance | FDCPA § 805(a)(3) | Up to $1,000 statutory damages plus actual damages |
| Demanding an inflated or inconsistent balance | Consumer disputed a $17,000 demand against an original $16,000 contract already paid down to roughly $7,000 (RevDex complaint) | FDCPA § 807 | Statutory and actual damages |
| Failing to honor an acknowledged bankruptcy stay of garnishment | Described in a BBB complaint where PRA acknowledged proof of filing but stopped responding | FDCPA § 805; Bankruptcy Code automatic stay provisions | Statutory damages, plus possible bankruptcy court sanctions |
| Filing a proof of claim on a time-barred debt without disclosing the limitations issue | At issue in Keeler v. PRA Receivables Management (dismissed where disclosure was made) | FDCPA § 807 | Statutory and actual damages if disclosure is absent or misleading |
| Illegal autodialed or prerecorded calls | Common industry-wide complaint pattern per CFPB reporting | TCPA § 227(b)(1)(A) | $500 per call; $1,500 per call if willful |
If a collector violates the FDCPA, they, not you, are responsible for our attorney’s fees and costs. That fee-shifting structure is written directly into the statute, which is why claims like this can be handled on full contingency with no upfront cost to you.
What To Do Right Now: Step-by-Step Action Plan
Step 1: Start a call log immediately. Record the date, time, caller ID number, and a summary of what was said on every call. If you are in an active bankruptcy case, note whether the caller acknowledged that fact.
Step 2: Do not confirm a balance verbally. If PRA’s stated amount does not match your own records, say only that you dispute the amount and need it in writing.
Step 3: Send a written debt validation request. Within 30 days of first contact, send a certified letter demanding written proof of the debt and the exact basis for the amount claimed. Use our debt validation letter resource to do this correctly.
Step 4: If you are in bankruptcy, notify your bankruptcy attorney immediately. Continued collection activity after a stay is in place is a separate, serious issue that your bankruptcy counsel needs to address alongside any FDCPA claim.
Step 5: Send a cease-and-desist letter if you want direct contact to stop. Our cease-and-desist letter resource explains how to do this by certified mail.
Step 6: Check and dispute your credit report. If PRA is reporting an inaccurate balance or status, use our dispute credit report resource to correct it.
Step 7: File complaints with the FTC and CFPB. Report the conduct at reportfraud.ftc.gov and through the CFPB complaint portal.
Step 8: Talk to a consumer rights attorney before too much time passes. The FDCPA generally gives you one year from the date of a violation to bring a claim. In many of the cases we review, clients wait months before documenting calls, and by the time they reach out, some of their strongest claims are close to expiring.
Consumer Rights Law Firm PLLC
Consumer Rights Law Firm PLLC is a law firm that specializes in helping clients who are facing harassment from debt collectors in any form, including telephone communication. Rather than suffer alone, contact our office to begin the process to stop the PRA Receivables Management harassment. Our office has been assisting consumers since 2010. We have an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.
If you are interested in learning more about how to safeguard yourself and prevent harassment from PRA Receivables Management. call us at 877-700-5790 for immediate assistance or visit our website.
Success Stories
- I was getting daily calls from a collection agency that wouldn’t leave me alone—even after I told them I didn’t owe the debt. I found Consumer Rights Law Firm PLLC online, and I’m so glad I did. They stepped in immediately, sent out legal notices, and the calls stopped within days. They even helped me win a $1,000 settlement! Highly recommended if you’re being harassed.
- The team at Consumer Rights Law Firm was incredible. They were very clear about my rights, walked me through every step, and handled all communication with the debt collectors. I went from feeling overwhelmed and powerless to completely in control. Best of all—they got me compensation for the harassment I endured.
- I was hesitant to hire a lawyer, thinking I couldn’t afford it, but Consumer Rights Law Firm PLLC worked on a contingency basis, which meant I didn’t pay a dime unless we won. And we did! I was awarded damages for all the robocalls I received. Their team is kind, responsive, and really fights for you.
- I thought I had no options when the collectors kept calling me at work. It was embarrassing and stressful. Consumer Rights Law Firm PLLC took my case seriously from day one. They filed complaints, took legal action, and in the end, I received justice—and peace. Don’t hesitate to contact them if you’re being harassed.
FAQs
Who is PRA Receivables Management and why are they calling me?
PRA Receivables Management, also known as PRA Group or Portfolio Recovery Associates, is a legitimate debt collection company that purchases defaulted debts and contacts consumers to collect payment.
Is PRA Receivables Management a scam or real debt collector?
PRA is a real, large debt collection company operating nationwide. However, it has faced complaints and enforcement actions related to abusive or unlawful collection practices, so consumers should verify all debts.
What constitutes phone harassment by PRA under the FDCPA?
Harassment may include repeated phone calls, calling before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m., using threats or abusive language, or contacting third parties about your debt without permission.
How many calls from PRA is considered harassment?
If PRA calls more than seven times within seven days, or contacts you again within seven days after a previous call about the same debt, it may violate federal debt collection rules.
Can PRA call me at work or contact my family about my debt?
No. If you tell PRA not to call you at work, they must stop. They also cannot disclose your debt to family members, coworkers, or neighbors.
Can PRA threaten to arrest me, garnish wages, or sue me?
PRA cannot threaten arrest or wage garnishment unless such action is lawful and intended. False threats or lawsuits filed after the statute of limitations has expired are illegal.
What should I do if PRA keeps calling or calls harassingly?
You should document each call, send a written cease-and-desist letter, and request debt validation. Continued harassment can be reported to regulatory agencies or addressed through legal action.
Can PRA report debts to credit bureaus or affect my credit score?
Yes. PRA may report delinquent debts to credit bureaus, which can negatively affect your credit score. Inaccurate reporting can be disputed.
Can I sue PRA Receivables Management for harassment?
Yes. If PRA violates the FDCPA or TCPA, you may be entitled to statutory damages, actual damages, and attorney fees.
Does PRA use robocalls or spoofed phone numbers?
Many consumers report receiving robocalls or calls from spoofed or unfamiliar numbers. Unconsented robocalls may violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
