There are seminars that teach attorneys how to buy debt at 3 cents on the dollar. These lawyers then file judgments against the person and begin wage garnishment if they can. The fall back position that is pitched to the attorney is that, in most states, once a judgment is filed, it is valid for ten years which means the lawyer has the person by the balls for ten years. They also tack on yearly interest until the debt is paid. This sometimes will turn a 5k debt into a 40k or 50k debt over time.

it is easy to fight it as they have to show proof of what they actually paid for the debt and they always can't. I just got out of a $20,000 debt to Midland Funding using this tactic.

the this that immediately jumped out at me was the addresses contained in the article are all located in African-American communities. Which makes me think this tactic is atargetted wealth stripping strategy.