(1)(a) "Collection agency" means:

(A) A person that engages directly or indirectly in soliciting a claim for collection, or collecting or attempting to collect a claim that is owed, due or asserted to be owed or due to another person or to a public body at the time the person solicits, collects or attempts to collect the claim;

(B) A person that directly or indirectly furnishes, attempts to furnish, sells or offers to sell forms represented to be a collection system even if the forms direct the debtor to pay the creditor and even if the creditor may or does use the forms in the creditor’s own name;

(C) A person that, in attempting to collect or in collecting the person’s own claim, uses a fictitious name or any name other than the person’s own name that indicates to the debtor that a third person is collecting or attempting to collect the claim;

(D) A person that engages in the business of soliciting the right to repossess or in repossessing collateral security due or asserted to be due to another person; or

(E) A person that, in collecting claims from another person:

(i) Uses any name other than the name regularly used in conducting the business out of which the claim arose; and

(ii) Engages in any action or conduct that tends to convey the impression that a third party has been employed or engaged to collect the claim.

(b) "Collection agency" does not include:

(A) An individual who engages in soliciting claims for collection, or who collects or attempts to collect claims on behalf of a registrant under ORS 697.005 to 697.095, if the individual is an employee of the registrant.

(B) An individual who collects or attempts to collect claims for not more than three employers, if the individual carries on all collection efforts in the name of the employer and the individual is an employee of the employer.

(C) A person that prepares or mails monthly or periodic statements of accounts due on behalf of another person if all payments are made to the other person and the person that prepares the statements of accounts does not make other collection efforts.

(D) An attorney-at-law rendering services in the performance of the duties of an attorney-at-law.

(E) A licensed certified public accountant or public accountant who performs the duties of a licensed certified public accountant or public accountant.

(F) A bank, mutual savings bank, consumer finance company, trust company, savings and loan association, credit union or debt consolidation agency.

(G) A principal real estate broker that is licensed under ORS 696.020, with respect to any collection or billing activity that involves a real estate closing escrow, as defined in ORS 696.505.

(H) An escrow agent that is licensed under ORS 696.511, with respect to the escrow agent’s:

(i) Collection or billing activities that are related to closing an escrow, as defined in ORS 696.505, or related to a collection escrow, as defined in ORS 696.505; or

(ii) Service as a trustee of a trust deed in accordance with ORS 86.713.

(I) An individual who is regularly employed as a credit person or in a similar capacity by one person, firm or corporation that is not a collection agency.

(J) A public officer or a person that acts under order of a court.

(K) A person that acts as a property manager in collecting or billing for rent, fees, deposits or other sums due landlords of managed units.

(L) A person that provides billing services. A person provides billing services for the purposes of this subparagraph if the person engages, directly or indirectly, in the business or pursuit of collecting claims for another person, whether in the other person’s name or any other name, by any means that:

(i) Uses an accounting procedure, preparation of mail billing or any other means intended to accelerate cash flow to the other person’s bank account or to any separate trust account; and

(ii) Does not include any personal contact or contact by telephone with the person from whom the claim is sought to be collected.

(M) A person that provides factoring services. A person provides factoring services for the purposes of this subparagraph if the person engages, directly or indirectly, in the business or pursuit of:

(i) Lending or advancing money to commercial clients on the security of merchandise or accounts receivable and then enforcing collection actions or procedures for the loans or advances; or

(ii) Soliciting or collecting on accounts that have been purchased from commercial clients under an agreement whether or not the agreement:

(I) Allows recourse against the commercial client;

(II) Requires the commercial client to provide any form of guarantee of payment of the purchased account; or

(III) Requires the commercial client to establish or maintain a reserve account in any form.

(N) An individual employed by another person that operates as a collection agency unless the individual operates as an independent collection agency while a collection agency employs the individual.

(O) A mortgage banker as defined in ORS 86A.100.

(P) A public utility, as defined in ORS 757.005, a telecommunications utility, as defined in ORS 759.005, a people’s utility district, as defined in ORS 261.010, and a cooperative corporation that engages in furnishing electric or communication service to consumers.

(Q) A public body or an individual that collects or attempts to collect claims owed, due or asserted to be owed or due to a public body, if the individual is an employee of the public body.

(R) A person that receives an assignment of debt in any form without an obligation to pay the assignor any of the proceeds resulting from a collection of all or a portion of the debt.

(S) A person for whom the Director of the Department of Consumer and Business Services determines by order or by rule that the protection of the public health, safety and welfare does not require registration with the Department of Consumer and Business Services as a collection agency.

(2) "Collection system" means a scheme intended or calculated to be used to collect claims sent, prepared or delivered by:

(a) A person that in collecting or attempting to collect the person’s own claim uses a fictitious name or any name other than the person’s own name that indicates to the debtor that a third person is collecting or attempting to collect the claim; or

(b) A person that engages directly or indirectly in soliciting claims for collection, or collecting or attempting to collect claims owed or due or asserted to be owed or due another person.

(3) "Claim" means an obligation to pay money or value if the obligation arises out of an agreement or contract, express or implied.

(4) "Client" or "customer" means a person that authorizes or employs a collection agency to collect a claim.

(5) "Debtor" means a person that owes or is alleged to owe a claim.

(6) "Nationwide Multistate Licensing System" means a system that the Conference of State Bank Supervisors and the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators, or assignees of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors or the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators, develop and maintain for participating state agencies to use in licensing and registering mortgage loan originators, as defined in ORS 86A.200, and other persons that provide nondepository financial services.

(7)(a) "Out-of-state collection agency" means a collection agency located outside of this state the activities of which, within this state, are limited to collecting a debt that a debtor located in this state incurs outside this state.

(b) As used in this subsection, "collecting a debt" means collecting a debt on behalf of clients located outside this state by means of interstate communications, including telephone, mail or facsimile transmission from the collection agency’s location in another state.

(8) "Person" means an individual, firm, partnership, trust, joint venture, association, limited liability company or corporation.

(9) "Public body" has the meaning given that term in ORS 174.109.

(10) "Registrant" means a person that is registered under ORS 697.005 to 697.095 or that is registered or licensed as a collection agency under the laws of another state.

(11) "Statement of account" means a report setting forth amounts billed, invoices, credits allowed or aged balance due. [1981 c.85 §2; 1987 c.373 §43; 1993 c.744 §20; 1995 c.622 §1; 1999 c.468 §1; 2001 c.917 §5; 2009 c.134 §1; 2013 c.444 §1; 2019 c.106 §1]