The federal complaint route gets a company response. Your state attorney general is a different weapon: the AG’s consumer protection division enforces your state’s collection laws, watches for patterns across complaints, and in many states is connected to the licensing system that lets a collector operate at all. There is one complication — there is no single national procedure, and a handful of states route collector complaints somewhere else entirely. This page is the map.
General information, not legal advice. Attorney general offices act on patterns of misconduct; they generally cannot act as your personal lawyer (see below).
Every state’s AG runs a consumer protection division or hotline that takes debt collection complaints. The National Association of Attorneys General directory at naag.org lists each office and its complaint portal — the FTC’s own debt collection guidance points consumers there. Most states accept complaints online; some still use a paper form you mail with copies (never originals) of your documents.
File with the AG by default — but these states split or redirect the job:
More states license collectors than the four above — if your state has a licensing regulator, a complaint there is often the fastest pressure point. Your AG’s consumer page usually names it.
Send the same evidence pack you would send the CFPB — your contact log, the letters, the timeline — framed for state law:
Attorney general offices use complaints to spot patterns and build enforcement cases; some offices also mediate individual complaints, and a letter from the AG gets a collector’s attention even when nothing more follows. What the AG generally cannot do is represent you: California’s AG states it plainly — “we cannot give legal advice or provide legal assistance to individuals.” For recovering money or statutory damages over a violation, the lever is an FDCPA claim of your own, usually with a consumer attorney — see when to hire a lawyer for medical debt. File with both the AG and the CFPB: the state record and the federal response machine work on different timelines and both cost you nothing but the paperwork.
Where do I report a debt collector for doing something illegal? Start with your state attorney general’s consumer protection division (find it at naag.org), and also file with the CFPB and the FTC. In some states another office is the sharper tool — a licensing regulator such as California’s DFPI or New York’s DFS — and in Virginia, agency complaints are redirected to the CFPB.
How can I file a complaint against a debt collector? Use your AG’s online complaint portal or paper form, and attach copies of your evidence: your contact log with dates and times, the collector’s letters, your letters with mailing receipts, and a short dated account of what happened. Keep your originals.
Can the attorney general get my money back or be my lawyer? Generally no. As California’s AG puts it, the office uses complaints to learn about misconduct but “cannot give legal advice or provide legal assistance to individuals.” AGs enforce the law and sometimes mediate; recovering damages for your own case is what an FDCPA claim with a consumer attorney is for.
Does my state have its own debt collection law? Very likely — the FTC notes that many states have their own debt collection laws that differ from federal law, and your attorney general’s office can help you determine your rights under your state’s law. Some state laws are broader than the FDCPA, and a few cover original creditors such as a hospital’s own billing department.
Sources: FTC Debt Collection FAQs (reporting routes; state-law note); naag.org attorney general directory; California OAG and DFPI; Texas Secretary of State collector bond FAQs and Finance Code ch. 392; Virginia OAG collection agencies page; New York AG and DFS. Currency verified 2026-10-23.