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Debt collection - can creditors call family members?
Someone related to me (I'd rather not go into details) is in the process of filing Chapter 7 - not due to irresponsibility but rather due to a really serious cluster-eff related to the economy. This person is represented by a BK attorney and is currently undergoing means testing.
I've received several phone calls from creditors of this person, despite the fact that I am clearly not the target of this collection. I returned a phone call a few days ago clarifying that one caller that the person does not live within 1000 miles of me; and today received a phone call from the same caller. I said that it seemed shady to me that a reputable agency would call me, given that it they were legit they would have the contact info of the actual person they are trying to reach. I was hung up on.
I feel terrible my relative, and don't want to tell my him/her about the phone calls as I am sure s/he would be terribly embarrassed.
First, is it even legal for a collection agency to contact family members who have no tie to the debt? And second... what to do?
I am a runner, knitter, scientist, DE-IVF veteran, and stage III colon cancer survivor.
Re: Debt collection - can creditors call family members?
I cannot imagine that is legal, but I am not 100% sure. That seems VERY shady to me.
There's a Fair Debt Collections Practices Act. If you google that, you'll find tons of resources explaining your rights as well as the rights of the person they are seeking to collect on behalf of. That person will probably also find some sample cease and desist letters that he could send to these people if he wanted to.
You could also google the name of the collections agency and see if there are other similar complaints against them, and that might give you some ideas as well.
According to the FDCPA, they have violated a few laws already:
1) You cannot continue to collect on an account that is represented by an atty, provided they have been notified in writing of said representation. It seems like they have done that. They should only be dealing with the attny.*
2) You cannot disclose to a 3rd party that you are collecting a debt for someone else without written authorization to speak with that 3rd party. So if they are just randomly calling you and saying your realative is a deadbeat debtor, thats against the law.
You can find out more about your/their rights here:
http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs27-debtcoll.htm
*ETA: They can only make negotiations/contact with the attny until the case is dropped or the bankruptcy goes through.
The person identified themselves as being from an attorney's office. She didn't specifically say that she represented a collection agency, but given the previous calls she didn't have to. Man this bums me out.
I am a runner, knitter, scientist, DE-IVF veteran, and stage III colon cancer survivor.
Can a debt collector call my employer, friends or family?
Yes, under certain limited circumstances. A debt collector may contact any person for the purpose of correcting or confirming your contact information. However, the debt collector may NOT identify himself as a debt collector or tell the person that you owe a debt. Also, the debt collector may NOT call the person more than once (unless the person asks the debt collector to call again or the debt collector reasonably believes that the person gave wrong or incomplete information but now has correct information).
http://www.nedap.org/hotline/fdcpa-recognizing.html
So should I report the calls (along with phone numbers of callers) to the family member so that his/her attorney can send the letters?
again...
I am a runner, knitter, scientist, DE-IVF veteran, and stage III colon cancer survivor.
Personally, I think if its ongoing you might want to report them to your AG. You can get THEM (CA) to pay YOU up to 1k per occurrence/violation last time I checked.
Also, identifying yourself as an attny is also illegal under the FDCPA, but CA's do it all.the.time.
Worth checking out their credentials.
I don't know, but I know they do.
They don't have to say anything about debt for you to figure out what's going on. I knew by the 3rd phone call for the person who had our phone number last why they changed it.
Sorry you're going through this.
You probably should.
This place isn't in San Jose, CA by any chance is it?
ESF, nope - LA. But when I googled the number it does appear to be shady:
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-310-658-5997
I am a runner, knitter, scientist, DE-IVF veteran, and stage III colon cancer survivor.
There are some sketch collections agencies out there. Good luck!
Check your PMs in a few.
This.
Although they do love to disregard the latter. We have one that calls with a snotty ass attitude every now and then and treats me like I'm lying.
No, biitch. I don't know who the fuuk Victoria Jackson is and yes, this has been my phone number for the last three years. Call me again and I will shank you in the muthafuuking ear. Have a nice day, skankbot.
Click me, click me!
Replied - thanks
I am a runner, knitter, scientist, DE-IVF veteran, and stage III colon cancer survivor.
Epphd- I feel your pain on this one, that sucks. I probably wouldn't say anything to the family member, if you think they will be emberrassed by it. I would just not answer my phone.
My full married name is Jennifer Marie Silvermarie (not really, but for the sake of this story). I have good credit. I used to get collection calls ALL the time for some dumb tramp that lives in Florida named Jennifer Marie Silver. Finally I figured out that one of the credit bureaus links accounts by NAME even though they obviously have different ss#'s. It was a nightmare to get it fixed, and so emberassing to keep getting these calls, when it wasn't even me they were after.
Best of luck getting it sorted out!
I get calls for my BIL on my answering machine. We never call the people back, just send it along to him via my FIL (he lives with them currently with his baby momma and 2 kids - oh, yeah, he's a nightmare).
I also had some weird thing happen with my credit report and Sprint. Some chick with my same first name skipped out on her sprint bill and somewhere along the line, it got tied to my SSN. THAT has been fun to sort out - we almost couldn't refinance our house because that one hit on my credit report dropped my score below 700.
I have pretty much said this to Debt Collectors who have called me looking for relatives. My Mother and husband have been called as well.
It's been my experience, once the shady collection agency realizes you know a few things about the Fair Collection Act, they leave you alone.
Good information above. I'm not 100% about this, but I think another "rule" about contacting parties not affiliated with the debt is they are only allowed to do it if they have no other way to get in touch with the debtor. And they can only make that contact once, unless given permission to continue contacting.
I once had a debt collector contact my NEIGHBOR. Yes, my neighbor. Talk about inappropriate and unprofessional. They didn't say they were a debt collector, but it is always obvious. And yeah, totally illegal. They didn't have my phone number, sure, but obviously they knew my address.
I also had a debt collector call me once for some random person. At 6:30AM, no less. The same phone number had been psycho calling me for a week or so, I was just never home to answer it. Here is the hilarious conversation:
DC: "Is this Rando McSmith?"
Me: "No, there is no one here by that name?"
DC: "Than can you please provide me with Rando McSmith's current phone number?"
Me: "No, sorry. I have no idea who that is. I was recently assigned this phone number by the telephone company."
DC: "Who is this?"
Me: "Who is this?!? Who the F**K are you? It's 6:30 in the morning and I have already politely told you twice you have the wrong goddamned phone number."
At that point, he actually started laughing and profusely apologized for calling me. He admitted to being a debt collector and was just getting frustrated that he couldn't find Rando Smith. He promised to take my number out of their system. And, miracles of miracles, I never got another call from them.