On today’s installment of hustle dude-bros really committing to the grift, it seems one financial guru has taken drumming up clients for his credit repair services to skeevy new heights — attempting to nuke peoples’ credit scores by offering some of the worst debt advice of all time.


Earlier this year, James Jiang, a self-described all-caps “CREDIT REPAIR EXPERT” appeared on the New Money Talks podcast to tout a bizarre piece of financial wisdom – get out of debt by not paying back your debt.


“You should never pay a debt collector, because the debt doesn’t belong to you, it belongs to the debt collectors,” Jiang explained during a segment of the podcast, a clip of which has since found viral infamy after being shared by Twitter page @RightWingCope.



“If I owe AmEx 1,000 and I say ‘I refuse to pay you’ right? And they sell my debt to ABC Debt Collections Company LLC the debt doesn’t belong to James Jiang anymore, it belongs to ABC Debt Collectors,” he continued, taking care to mispronounce AmEx. “Why should I pay a debt that doesn’t even belong to me anymore?”


The answer to his noble inquiry, as several Twitter users/anyone with even a basic semblance of how credit works can attest, is simple: They’ll rock your shit.



Despite Jiang’s claims that “most people get scared” due to threats of wage garnishing, alleging the practice violates the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act  – it generally doesn’t – his assertion that “you don’t have to pay debt collectors” can lead to a whole host of legal and financial nightmares.


“If you receive a notice from a debt collector, it's important to respond as soon as possible—even if you do not owe the debt,” from the State of California Department of Justice. 


“Otherwise the collector may continue trying to collect the debt, report negative information to credit reporting companies, and even sue you,” according to the State of California, noting that these lawsuits can lead to wage garnishments.


So here’s to Jiang’s advice: To paraphrase Right Wing Cope’s expert analysis, his “secret hack” isn’t half bad … so long as you’re cool with being “unable to get a car loan, home loan, or rent an apartment for the next decade at minimum.”