This has been going on for years. When large debt buyers find out about widespread illegality within their company before they are actually sued for it, they do the following:
1. Call up a friendly debt collection attorney.
2. Convince said attorney to bring a class action. Have the attorney give as little notice to potential class members as a court will let them get away with.
3. Settle that class action for literally less than a penny on the dollar of the value of all the claims that could possibly be brought against them, without admitting liability.
4. Sit back and enjoy immunity from any further lawsuits stemming from their illegality . (The debt collection attorney gets himself a nice little fee in the process as well).
Its a nice little game for everyone involved, except of course consumers which have been subjected to illegal debt collection and are left without any legal recourse.