Trying economic times are resulting in more debtors being unable to pay back their loans. This, in turn, leads to debt collectors getting involved and they are starting to fight dirty as they become more and more desperate.

Threats of violence, harassing phone calls, vulgarity, and shake-downs are becoming more common as debt collectors struggle to amass overdue loans that people simply don’t have.

“The American consumer is really hurting and collectors are having to fight harder to get money,” said Robert Andrews, a senior analyst specializing in the debt industry at research firm IBIS World.

The Federal Trade Commission announced that 2009 saw a significant rise in complaints of harassment by debt collectors, mounting by 50% to 67,550. A projected jump of 13% this year is predicted to occur based on the number of complaints recently filed within the last six months. The most common complaint deals with the bombardment of consumers with back-to-back calls, often causing many to switch phone numbers in attempts to escape harassment. Complaints of the use of obscene or abusive language spiked to an overall high of 35% last year, making consumers even less likely to answer the phone.

An anonymous New York native said a collection agent called her home repeatedly, using abusive language and bringing up personal details about her and her husband. Her fears were not without reason, considering that complaints of debt collectors threatening or even resorting to violent tactics more than doubled last year. Under the FTC’s Fair Debt Collection Practices Act passed in 1977, not only are these practices considered stressful and rude, but illegal.

The industry responded by claiming that an increase in complaints of harassment should not be blamed on merely the collecting agents, but also on consumers attempting to live high off the hog by filing frivolous law suits.

“There’s a growing industry of consumer attorneys and savvy consumers who have learned that they can sue a debt collector fairly easily and collect very easily,” said Mark Schiffman, a spokesman for The Association of Credit and Collection Professionals.

It is true that consumers are well within their rights to take a collector to state or federal court for harassment, even if the accusations fall short of reality. If the case proves productive for the debtor, any medical bills or lost income proven to be a direct result of the harassment must be paid by the collector.

The United States has seen its share of expensive times; with two wars going on in the Middle East, last year’s bailouts and stimulus, and of course, the tense results of a shaky economy. It has many people uneasy, including Congress, which may face backlash when voters go to the polls this fall. And that doesn’t include the federal government remaining accountable to Social Security and numerous other funds in its care.

Debt increases are widespread and the news isn’t good: net public debt is expected to be about $14 trillion in five years (that’s a 73 percent ratio to Gross Domestic Product); and both domestic and foreign investors, like China, will hold about $9.1 trillion in debt in 2010, a full $1.6 trillion over 2009.

And it’s not going unnoticed, even if it’s not widely broadcast. Congress received a report last week stating GDP, at 93 percent this year, will top 102 percent in five years. That’s dire news in contrast to predictions made by Carmen Reinhart, a University of Maryland professor, that said debt exceeding 90 percent of GDP could cause the economy to stagnate. Reinhart is part of the bipartisan fiscal commission tasked with ways to reduce debt by President Obama.

Republican Representative, Dave Camp, made the report public. At a time when finding jobs for Americans and reducing debt are both of utmost importance, the revelation hits hard, “The president’s economic experts say a 1 percent increase in GDP can create almost 1 million jobs, and that 1 percent is what experts think we are losing because of the debt’s massive drag on our economy.”