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One reason so few process severs face criminal charges is that, under the old law, it was too time consuming and complicated to prove a pattern of fraud, advocates say. To prove that a process server consistently failed to serve, an investigator would need to utilize a special computer program or a team of other investigators to analyze thousands of pages of documents, including some documents that he or she couldn't access without a subpoena.

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Kelly Virella
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"I'm pretty convinced that you could have the whole freshman class at Pace Law School, Brooklyn Law School and NYU Law School trying to catch process servers in fraud and everyone would come out saying, 'Wow that was a frustrating experience,' " Tyler said.

There is no consensus that bad debt collectors should be criminally charged.

"I don't necessarily see that the best way to go about pursing these cases is in the criminal arena," said Janet Ray Kalson, chair of the civil court committee of the New York City Bar association. "I think it's better in the civil arena because the standard of proof" there is lower.

Advocates are placing most of their hope in the city's two new policies, which don't create new criminal penalties or increase the existing ones.

One of the policies, outlined in a set of regulations by DCA, could thwart debt collectors' efforts to collect illegitimate debts – old, already paid-off debts and old, unpaid debts for which the statute of limitations has expired. The second new policy – outlined in a City Council bill that Bloomberg signed into law last month – could help New Yorkers sued by debt collectors learn about the legal action against them early enough to fight it.

Under the new policies, a debt collector must supply, upon request, proof of the consumer's original debt, with an itemized list of fees and other charges contributing to the balance. And process servers must prove that they actually serve debtors and other defendants with court summonses by carrying a GPS to the defendant's address. The new city law also allows debtors and other defendants to sue and collect damages from offending process servers.

These changes will make it easier for victims of illegal debt collectors to get compensation, advocates say. "It makes it easier to prove fraud and it gives attorneys some incentive to pursue it," Tyler said.