Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Ohio

In Ohio, if the firm that made the threat is collecting a consumer debt for someone else (meaning that the firm itself did not make the loan to your wife) then the firm has likely run afoul of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The problems are two fold, 1) proof that it happened (if this was an unrecorded phone conversation then it is often your word against theirs and 2) collecting upon a judgment if you win (if you can prove they said this, it is often because this some fly by night set of con men trying to collect on debts that they are not even authorized to collect).