IF YOUR BUSINESS DOES telemarketing of any sort, stop reading this and check your database immediately to see if it contains the name Ryan A. Swanberg. If it does, purge his file pronto. Why? Because he's out to get you.
For the past four years or so, Swanberg has made a decent living — about $100,000 annually — out of suing telemarketers and debt collectors who cross his path that in any way violate laws like the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, either inadvertently or on purpose.
The 25-year-old, a high school dropout, makes no apologies for his admittedly unorthodox “career path” — the lawsuits are his main, and in fact only, source of income — and has written a book about his adventures, “Lawsuit: How I Turned the Tables on Telemarketers & Debt Collectors.”
The subject matter of the book, available as an e-book on his Web site (www.lawsuitchaser.com), won't exactly thrill the readership of this magazine. But not surprisingly, a Google search on Swanberg's name yields stories from the mainstream media that view the litigant in the same way he sees himself, as a “consumer rights advocate.”
“Lawsuit” details Swanberg's life story, from his unhappy childhood to early attempts at trying to find ways to make his mark on the world. He notes that at one point he was circulating a resume he had embellished with a bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota. A bit ironically, the nonexistent degree was in marketing.
One idea he had that didn't take off was creating a national database of employee data which employers could use to look up prospective hires. The idea didn't fly because those he pitched it to were concerned about privacy — again, an ironic twist considering he decided to wage war against a marketing medium many consider an invasion of privacy.
By late 2001, Swanberg owed over $25,000 on about 10 separate credit cards, so naturally he was getting calls from debt collectors. One was so abusive he thought he might have a legal case against the caller. He did, and won, but the settlement was nowhere near what he had been promised by his attorney.
Realizing he might come upon other such opportunities, and disgusted by the legal profession, he decided to teach himself about the law. Eventually, realizing the economic potential of turning his newfound talents on the telemarketing business, he made that a target. His sights were so keenly trained on telemarketing that he even installed additional phone lines to boost the volume of incoming calls, and went out of his way to get on as many databases as possible.
Most of his cases are settled out of court, and he doesn't discuss specifics because of confidentiality agreements. Representing himself, he claims to have settled over 60 cases with debt collectors and more than 200 with telemarketers, with the average settlement between $1,500 and $2,000.
Swanberg makes no distinctions between the big players and little mom-and-pop operations in his efforts, reasoning that if they break the law, they break the law. But he does say he's accepted things like vacations, cell phone service and carpet replacements as settlements in some cases.
As of the book's writing, Swanberg said he was involved in 20 to 30 lawsuits and multiple settlements, and had litigated over 300 cases representing himself.
Whether you like it or not, you have to admire someone who clears so much money a year from home without having to change out of his pajamas. Swanberg notes early in his tale that he never felt comfortable in the 9-to-5 job setting. Heck, most wage slaves wouldn't be there given a choice.
Still, he's giving the world of respectability a shot. He's formed a consultancy, Swanberg & Associates, and is offering his services to debt collection agencies and telemarketing companies that want to train their employees on the proper procedures to avoid lawsuits. He doesn't have any clients yet, but several debt collection firms are interested.
The goal in going public with his “career” in the book was both to educate consumers about how to protect themselves, and marketers on what they're doing wrong, he told me in a phone interview. He openly admits that when telemarketers call him, he tests them to see if they trip up.
“It's up to them to comply with the law,” he said.
