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Is Your Newest Facebook Friend a Sleazeball Debt Collector?

By Liliana Segura, AlterNet. Posted June 10, 2009.


Exposing the latest and slimiest ways the "financial services" industry is raking it in from cash-crunched Americans.

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With millions of Americans struggling in the current economic crisis, it should come as no surprise that a growing number of people are falling behind paying their bills. This is no cause for celebration -- unless of course, you happen to make your living as a debt collector, a debt-settlement company or other notoriously sleazy outfits engineered to profit off people's financial misery.

It’s bad enough that while newspapers and car companies die off, the debt business is booming. But recent months have brought a number of reports and lawsuits that exposed some of the latest -- and slimiest -- ways the "financial services" industry is using to cash in on already-struggling Americans.

Is Your Newest Facebook Friend a Debt Collector?

When Michigan resident Paula Newland fell behind in her car payments, she found herself battling some typical -- and not so typical -- tactics used by debt collectors. In addition to repeated, harassing phone calls from three companies -- including 15 calls on one Saturday and claims that phone calls were "concerning a 'family emergency' " -- Newland was told that if she did not pay up, her car would be reported stolen, and she would be arrested. The company also threatened to deploy what they called a "shame automobile" and "camp out all weekend" in front of her house.

And then came a novel approach: As if all this weren’t enough, the fact there were overdue payments for her 2005 Chevy Impala were broadcast on her MySpace account.

Outraged and humiliated, Newland filed a civil suit earlier this year claiming "damage to her business and community reputation, extreme mental distress, aggravation, humiliation and embarrassment."

Newland is hardly alone. Debt collectors are increasingly using social-networking technology to go after people in debt. Ever get "friended" on Facebook by a cute stranger? Think twice before you add them. Some debt collectors have been caught posing as random "friends" on Facebook.

According to a post on Consumerist last month, "Debt collectors are using cute chicks as bait on Facebook to track down and keep track of debtors." It told the story of one employee of a debt-collection agency, who after "friending" some 658 people, declared (rather bizarrely):

haha you guys i tricked you all my name is actually Emily and i work for cbv collections as a skip tracer i bet you guys got calls from them saying you owe money thats all my doing :) you want to call and bitch? i dare you to call me 604-[redacted]!!! I wait to hear from you :)"

Writing about the Consumerist story, blogger Angela Connor who writes at Social MediaToday, noted a trend in the Google searches that lead people to her site. "Here are a few I've seen in the last two weeks," she wrote:

1. "facebook debt collectors" (there are many instances of this one!)
2. "debt collectors are going to start infiltrating social media"
3. "Do bill collector's use LinkedIn?"

"This clearly is a topic on the minds of many," Connor wrote. "I have no idea who is conducting these searches (bill collectors or those trying to avoid them), but I know we will see this more often."

Indeed, another recent lawsuit tells the story of James Ricobene, who sued a Chicago company called Universal Tracing in April after "a senior investigator for the collection agency posted a message on [Ricobene's] daughter's MySpace page asking her to 'contact our office immediately so we can discuss the peaceful recovery' of his 2007 Mercedes GL450.


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Liliana Segura is an AlterNet staff writer.

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THE MAIN REASON WHY I DO NOT HAVE A SOCIAL NETWORK PAGE
Posted by: joeocho88 on Jun 10, 2009 2:52 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Is so that I will not be stalked or cyberbullied or have my identity or my image stolen and put on a forged passport or Visa!

TWITTER is the dumbest thing yet.I do NOT give a second by second account of my BORING LIFE ON THE DAMN WHATEVER IT IS.... Birds twitter and tweet and I just don't have time.

BESIDES, NOBODY GIVES A DAMN ANYWAY

And if they do, they are probably a BILL COLLECTOR or a BOTTOM FEEDER BILL COLLECTOR who buys debt after the Statute of Limitations has expired and NO ONE HAS TO PAY THEM ANYWAY.
I greet those guys with a message with "Sounds From the Haunted House" on an answering machine
if I even bother to pick up the phone at all.
AND NOBODY, and I do mean NOBODY has OUR BACK LINE!

I do NOT want STRANGERS KNOWING WHO I AM AND WHAT I LOOK LIKE!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Well, look what the laid of Republicans are doing for work....
Posted by: GerryAttric on Jun 10, 2009 3:11 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
since last November. Create the crisis, blame the little guy, and then screw him royaly. Land of the sheep and home of the depraved!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

It is sleazy tactics but ...
Posted by: skoog5600 on Jun 10, 2009 3:19 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
folks are behind on payments for both legitimate and maybe not so legitimate reasons so ...

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» It is ILLEGAL tactics Posted by: FoonTheElder
» Playing the role of victim... Posted by: skoog5600
People need to know who these collectors are
Posted by: colinmeister on Jun 10, 2009 4:26 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
My idea is to start a web site woth a name like "Knowyourdebtcollector.net". The site would be based offshore. The idea is for people to find out all they can about the debt collectors and post it on the site.

The site would include postal addresses, photographs, car license plate numbers, wives/s.o.'s names, places of employment, children's names and schools etc.

Of course, the idea would not be to encourage violence against the debt collectors, but just to let everybody know who they are, and maybe shame them into persuing a more acceptable way to earn a living.

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» Wholesale is better than retail Posted by: westomoon
This comment has been removed from the site due to non-compliance with AlterNet's community policies.
cute little strangers
Posted by: oku_haiku on Jun 10, 2009 4:42 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
while i think that such behaviour is indeed a sleazy and underhanded way to get things done, people, for heaven's sake, when a cute little stranger tries to friend you on a social networking site, ignore them! use the software to connect with people you do know, and find other acquaintances through your network of contacts, but do NOT accept overtures willy-nilly from people you don't recognize!!

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» RE: cute little strangers Posted by: everton9
know your debt collector
Posted by: littlepitcher on Jun 10, 2009 4:44 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Your average debt collector is a young person not long out of high school or college who could not find another job. He or she makes perhaps 25% over minimum wage, has a quota, does not make a commission, and has a supervisor who is screaming continually as a threat/motivational tool. The job is among the ten highest for stress. Good agencies train collectors in Federal Fair Credit Act procedures and limitations, bad ones don't.

The collector is required to use a pseudonym because of physical threats from debtors. The collector is required to sit at that phone 8 hours a day except for lunch and two breaks and keep dialing steadily without a break of any sort. You talk or you dial, and supervisors monitor the phones so no-one sits on a dead line. Employee turnover is extremely high.

Good collectors will be able to tell a debtor how to raise a little cash to pay a bill, will be patient but insistent, will set up "five-dollar-forever" payment plans if no other option exists, and will be able to run a check to determine if identity theft is, indeed, the debtor's problem.

The sharks should be sued. The collectors deserve huge sympathy, because it is a job no-one wants, not even the collector, unless he or she is a sadistic sociopath. Like telephone soliciting, this work is an option of last resort for the truly desperate. I'd die in a ditch from starvation before I'd ever do it again.

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» Telephone soliciting is larceny Posted by: leafsong1
Your Rights under the Fair Debt Collections Act
Posted by: terradea42 on Jun 10, 2009 5:04 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Listen up. If a debt collector threatens you, tells others about your debt, fails to provide you with proof that you actually owe the money, etc., they can be forced to pay YOU $1,000 each time they violate the Fair Debt Collections Act. And, they can be forced to pay your attorney fees. And, it doesn't require a court proceeding. It's quasi-judicial, meaning it doesn't go to court. Record all telephone calls (or insist only on communicating with them by letter or email) and save all your communications. Debt Collector illegal actions could make YOU money.

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» How? Posted by: westomoon
One word...okay, maybe a few
Posted by: AnIndependentThinker on Jun 10, 2009 5:14 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
SICK. Anyone or any organization that would stoop so low as to "befriend" people on social networking sites to defame an individual is rotten. Period. They might as well move in with their clients and harass them on a daily basis. Or better still, why don't they just stalk clients every where they go? That's what they're doing if they're harassing them online. I smell a MAJOR lawsuit.

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watch out for debt consolidators
Posted by: somegirl on Jun 10, 2009 5:15 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
i used one a few years ago (i'm disabled and had to live off credit for a while) and got a slight reduction on some larger debt. i came into a chunk of cash not too long after and was able to pay it off in full - only thing was it was larger than my original debt.

do your own negotiation and setting up of payment plans if at all possible.

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Debt Collectors-SCAM
Posted by: bccmeteorites on Jun 10, 2009 5:51 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If debt collection Attorneys file a lawsuit against you for an unwarranted claim one thing you can do is let it proceed to trial and in your answer file a harassment counterclaim asking for damages. In our case a CC company breached a contract on a closed account by jacking up interest rates and adding numerous fees. You are not allowed to change the terms of a closed account. They did just that and I filed an "Abuse of Judicial Process in Furtherance of a Criminal Enterprise" claim. Before we even got to trail the law firm was begging me to dismiss the complaint and all parties could walk away. The legal system is their playground and you have to know how to use it to dismantle the quacks, because AG's offices are generally fake agencies who do not have the consumer's interest at hand. They're just trying to generate income with the appearance of legal authority. Complete quackery.

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Sleeze & Debt.....
Posted by: Spiritgirl on Jun 10, 2009 6:02 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
You know as the average American is struggling to pay off debts, and bailing out the "corporate oligarchy" to boot - the noose is getting tighter and tighter! As the banks are getting billions their avarice knows no limit - and still they are squeezing tighter and tighter!

While I understand that they want the money owed to them - I would think that they would at least consider different payment options instead of sleezey tactics and bullying! Enough already!!!

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Tell them you already paid
Posted by: rickiey on Jun 10, 2009 6:10 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If it is citigroup, GMAC, bank of America, or any of a dozen others....

Tell them that you already paid them, via your taxes.

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» um... Posted by: IntlDad
» RE: um... Posted by: photon's feather
the illusion of work and debt as meaning in meritocracy
Posted by: ismac76 on Jun 10, 2009 6:17 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I thought the website mentioned earlier listing people in this profession is a great idea. Maybe for others too. People should be held responsible for how their work impacts society, whatever it is.

Here's another idea: stop paying on all debts now. If enough people reject their supposed responsibility for their debts, the financial system , this foolishness included, maybe whatever meaning is left in the anti-phrase society can address fundamentally needed changes to how and why credit and wealth are distributed in such an ignomious fashion. Your so called responsibility comes from externally imposed structures which were designed to favor those who designed it. If you are in debt, maybe you are not one of them after all. Do I need to name them?

Should wealth and it's inevitable companion poverty even exist at all? The real question is what's meaningful, realistic and possible outside of these current but synthetic and distorted norms?

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What not to do on Facebook
Posted by: brunowe on Jun 10, 2009 7:02 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I never accept or solicit "friend" status on Facebook unless I've at least me the person a couple of times and have some interest in keeping in touch.

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Pay up and stop charging on credit
Posted by: Gor on Jun 10, 2009 7:54 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
With the exception of a few emergency situations like illness ....etc. Most of the debt that is incurred is due to purchasing useless stuff that does not add any value to your life. Why not just pay up and stop being a debt slave. There are many things that you can easily do without and your life will much healthier and free from harassment. Also consider any type of employment – professional or otherwise as casual job that can come to an abrupt end next time you report to work and consequently PLAN for that eventuality.

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» I agree, with reservations Posted by: truthlover
» RE: Pay up and stop charging on credit Posted by: ronfar@hotmail.com
Paranoia is your only defense.
Posted by: Eddie Van Helsing on Jun 10, 2009 7:55 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Lillian Segura is describing a common social engineering tactic. Debt collectors are not the only ones who use social networking to obtain information you would not otherwise divulge to strangers.

Paranoia is your only defense against these tactics. Never accept a friend request from somebody you do not know and trust. Even if you get a friend request from somebody you know and trust, contact that person by phone or speak with that person face-to-face and verify that they're the one who sent the request.

Social engineering works because most people are naturally trusting, which makes them suckers. Don't be a sucker.

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» What Overkill Posted by: Gravitas
» RE: What Overkill Posted by: Eddie Van Helsing
Accountability
Posted by: westomoon on Jun 10, 2009 8:32 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Is there some reason we don't talk about the identity of these collection agencies? It sounds like some are responsible and some are out of control.

I would like to be able to boycott firms that give their debts to the bad agencies for collection -- and drop them a note explaining my actions. Sounds like right now, there are no reasons for companies to employ the good agencies, and no consequences when they employ the bad ones. We could create financial incentives to use the responsible collection agencies. But if we don't know which the worst agencies are, how can we take any action?

Surely Ms Segura's sister could name some of the worst she has dealt with? I would love to take part in some major collective action against the collection agency that thinks it's okay for its employees to threaten people with arrest, e.g. Or the agency that employed the Facebook cutie. Names, please!

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Only the ignorant and foolish are agog
Posted by: Ignatz deFyre on Jun 10, 2009 8:52 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
that industry should use any available channel to market. The popularity of cyber-social networks make them attractive to anyone wanting to peddle a service, gather information or exercise coercion.

In fact, there's nothing to prevent any corporation from creating a Trojan horse network to attract people and surreptitiously promote products and services using call center agents posing as subscribers.

Don't take it from me: google "social network marketing" and see what you get.

"The principal dilemma: how to monetize the consumer engagement that is exploding outside of corporate reach."

Right here: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/
?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=107043

Only a step away is the governmment and big brother to harvest and mine social network data and correlate with other records for intelligence purposes. Paranoia? I wouldn't bet on it.

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May They ROT!
Posted by: wireup on Jun 10, 2009 9:11 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
In 2006 I moved to a city from the suburbs. At that time I got a new 'phone number. For 3 years I have received repeated and multiple 'phone calls from people and businesses looking for the previous owner of my telephone number.

Mostly, it appears to be companies owed money. I monitor my calls and if I do bother to pick up the 'phone I usually tell them they have the wrong person and I explain the situation.

I ALWAYS request that they remove my number from their database. Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don't and they call back again. Sometimes they request my name and address but I ALWAYS refuse to provide this. After all, if I did they'd probably put my information into their computer.

At one point, I was being harassed so badly by a company that was owed money by the previous owner of my phone number, that I called the attorney general in my state capital to ask what to do. I was told that I could file a complaint for harassment. The next time the business called I told them that I would file this complaint if they continued to call and if they refused to remove my number from their computer. I have not heard from them again.

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» RE: May They ROT! Posted by: kamcallen
» RE: May They ROT! Posted by: Outsidetheboxlookingin
» RE: May They ROT! Posted by: wireup
CHASE BANK equals USERY.
Posted by: Cameo on Jun 10, 2009 9:12 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It is no accident that Chase is mentioned in this article as being one of the entities using debt collectors. I had a credit card with them about 8 years ago. They repeatedly failed to send me a statement, but then told me it was still my responsibility to pay on time. I responded by paying the balance off. They never sent me a statement showing my payment. Over a year later, they sent debt collectors after me saying I still owed a fee. That fee had escalated to $1200 from interest and "late payment fees".

Now I refuse to use credit cards and I run away as soon as Chase Bank is even mentioned.

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Ba
Posted by: mnstra on Jun 10, 2009 9:27 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Any article about ripping people off is irrelevant . The only sleaze balls crooks are Wall Street and the Congress.
Nothing else is worth talking about.

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If your identity was stolen and the charges are not yours!
Posted by: emccready on Jun 10, 2009 9:50 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
You should take the call from the collection agency, ask the account number, the company the amount is owed to, and the Amount that is owed to that company.
Tell them you will get back to them. Don't appeal to them or tell them your story.

Then call the corporate headquarters for the company involved and ask for the "Fraud department".

They will send you the forms necessary to file with them (you should have filed a complaint with the police and cancelled the card involved or whatever you could do).

Don't forget to tell them that you have been approached by a collection agency and that you want THEM to inform them not to contact you anymore....otherwise the collection agency might call you again and again.

The fraud department deals with this issue everyday, and they will treat you like a human being.

If you actually owe money, it might be worth your while to call anyway and perhaps try to find out if that company has a department where you can work out a way to deal directly with the company to pay the debt you owe. It is well worth a try... and make sure to ask the company to call off the collection agency if they agree to do this for you.

I had my identity stolen years ago when I was living abroad and it was horrible enough to be victimized by the person who used my name to establish electric bills, buy computers, jewelry etc., but to be victimized over and over by collection agency personnel who accused you of lying or not caring about even listening just made it more stressful. So if you follow the above procedure it will make a long horrible process (it took me 1 1/2 years to clear it all up!!!!) somewhat less of a nightmare.

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» Great advice! Posted by: westomoon
Do unto others.
Posted by: Christopher Hobe Morrison on Jun 10, 2009 11:04 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Do unto others as you have had others do unto you. I can think of many things to do, some of them are legal and some will get you locked up but this is something for the creative imagination to decide.

What can be done to trace down the people who run these places and make their lives miserable. A few of the tactics of the pro-lifers might be nice, other than shooting or assaulting the people. Picket the offices, call the owners at all hours of the day and night, get their cell numbers and make them miserable, call their customers and their customers' shareholders and executives. Always charge them with harrassment, always demand huge amounts, creative amounts like the collectors throw around. Things like this, things that require organization. But always smile and try to come up with something that seems fair to everyone. Bearing in mind that there will have to be a substantial amount deducted from the original debt, and they may end up owing you money.

Whatever you do, don't wimp out!

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» Use a spoof card Posted by: wolfgangmo75
Just another example...
Posted by: soulrebeljc on Jun 10, 2009 11:20 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Of how the criminal banking cartel is locking us all down in debt slavery.

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NEVER pay a collection agency! Also, funny story
Posted by: moyshekapoyre on Jun 10, 2009 12:49 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
First let me just say don't be a retard and pay a collection agency. They have a reputation for taking the money and running with it. At least they did with me. Pay directly to the company you supposedly owe, if you do.

Now the funny anecdote. My girlfriend lives in Mexico and doesn't speak English. Every day, she gets a call from a collecion agency from the U.S. which she can't understand because it is in English. All she understands is that they are calling for someone named Marjorie. The only non-funny part about it is they call on her cell phone and wake her up all the time and it costs her money if she picks up.

Oh btw folks, NCO, the biggest (i think) collection agency in the world is located in Horsham, PA. They have one room where their supercomputer is stored with all the debt records of people around the world... I'm not suggesting you go bomb their super computer but if you did I wouldn't cry for them.

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The whole notion of "debt-collection" ignores reality
Posted by: DaBear on Jun 10, 2009 1:12 PM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Most debts are usurious and unilaterally unjust and at least unfair--No lender needs more than 2-3% interest on any loan, so there goes 99% of the financial sector's parasitic raison d'etre.

Since most loans and credit cards are usurious anyway, if not complete fictions created by and for the benefit of the owning class and their corporate surrogates, I have utterly ZERO sympathy for bill collectors and their employees. Their reason for existence is to ensure the parasites are fed. I'd sooner take a baseball bat to the whole lot of them than even think for one minute that what they do is of any genuine use to humanity.

As a culture U.S. 'Merkaans need to decide: do you want to live covered in ticks and get all that Lyme disease n'shit, or do you want to just fuckin' get rid of the ticks and be free and healthy?

Despite the predictable protestations, moaning, wailing and gnashing of teeth by the owning class and their sycophants, the world will NOT end without Shittybank, Chase-u-down-and-gut-you, Capital-(punishment)-One-(count), Wells-aplenty-For-the-Aristocracy and their thugs NCO, SWR, et al. Honest, inexpensive fair credit can be extended, accessed and controlled by credit unions and consumer groups and the owning class will still be plenty fucking rich.

How many fucking millions does a body really have to have, afterall? Get over it, rich boyz.

Otherwise, 17-fuckin'-89.

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A perfect class action suit
Posted by: westomoon on Jun 10, 2009 1:32 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Okay, so debtors have clear rights under the law. Debt collectors ignore those rights, and nobody is enforcing the law. When your finances are imploding, you don't have the resources to sue on your own behalf (unless you also happen to be a lawyer).

But if there was ever a time for someone to set up a website for people to post their horror stories, this would be it. If a hungry lawyer were handed a couple hundred clear violations of the law, and if the law does carry automatic penalties to be paid to the injured party, that lawyer could make a tidy profit by filing a class-action suit on behalf of all the posters on the site, and taking a cut of the proceeds.

Does anybody know how to set up a website where people can make entries? If you are an enterprising lawyer, you'd be smart to do so. And if you are an abused debtor, it would also be smart to do. This could actually make some changes in how the industry works.

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So sue me.
Posted by: anok on Jun 10, 2009 1:42 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
That's a line I began using when receiving calls from debt collectors. My identity was stolen years ago, and thousands of dollars on several cards was racked up in my name.

The companies don't care, will not give you information to help clarify or defend yourself, and eventually will sell your debt to another collection agency (full well knowing it is disputed debt)>

After years of giving my lawyer's office number to the managers or supervisors of collections agencies so that they or their legal department may settle the issue on legal terms - I realized that they probably never call, anyway. They just sell the debt over and over again.

There should be a time limit placed on collections agencies. If a resolution cannot be reached by a certain time limit, it goes to court automatically. That would stop the harassing calls, and it would settle outstanding debts in a legal and reasonable manner either by a resolution with the collection company, or by a judgement.

No more games.

Until then, I challenge the agencies to take me to court, and try their luck there. They never do.

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The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act -- specifics
Posted by: westomoon on Jun 10, 2009 2:21 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There's a good wikipedia entry on this topic. Almost all the horror stories reported here are expressly prohibited by this law.

Prohibited types of "abusive and deceptive" conduct:

Hours for phone contact: contacting consumers by telephone outside of the hours of 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. local time

Failure to cease communication upon request: communicating with consumers in any way (other than litigation) after receiving written notice that said consumer wishes no further communication or refuses to pay the alleged debt, with certain exceptions, including advising that collection efforts are being terminated or that the collector intends to file a lawsuit or pursue other remedies where permitted

Causing a telephone to ring or engaging any person in telephone conversation repeatedly or continuously:with intent to annoy, abuse, or harass any person at the called number

Communicating with consumers at their place of employment after having been advised that this is unacceptable or prohibited by the employer

Contacting consumer known to be represented by an attorney

Communicating with consumer after request for validation: communicating with the consumer or the pursuing collection efforts by the debt collector after receipt of a consumer's written request for verification of a debt (or for the name and address of the original creditor on a debt) and before the debt collector mails the consumer the requested verification or original creditor's name and address

Misrepresentation or deceit: misrepresenting the debt or using deception to collect the debt, including a debt collector's misrepresentation that he or she is an attorney or law enforcement officer

Publishing the consumer's name or address on a "bad debt" list

Seeking unjustified amounts, which would include demanding any amounts not permitted under an applicable contract or as provided under applicable law

Threatening arrest or legal action that is either not permitted or not actually contemplated

Abusive or profane language used in the course of communication related to the debt

Communication with third parties: revealing or discussing the nature of debts with third parties (other than the consumer's spouse or attorney) or threatening such action

Contact by embarrassing media, such as communicating with a consumer regarding a debt by post card, or using any language or symbol, other than the debt collector’s address, on any envelope when communicating with a consumer by use of the mails or by telegram, except that a debt collector may use his business name if such name does not indicate that he is in the debt collection business

Reporting false information on a consumer's credit report or threatening to do so in the process of collection



How it's applied: The Federal Trade Commission has the authority to administratively enforce the FDCPA. Aggrieved consumers may also file a private lawsuit in a state or federal court to collect damages (actual, statutory, attorney's fee and court-costs) from third-party debt collectors. The FDCPA is a strict liability law, which means that a consumer need not prove actual damages in order to claim statutory damages of up to $1,000 plus reasonable attorney fees if a debt collector is proven to have violated the FDCPA. The collector may, however, escape penalty if it shows that the violation was unintentional and the result of a "bona fide error" that occurred despite procedures designed to avoid the error at issue

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the CONTEMPT corporate stooges have for FELLOW CITIZENS
Posted by: BlueBerry PickN on Jun 10, 2009 3:24 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
is typified by collections persons.

I had a neighbour in an apartment building who would *rant & rave* about the good for nothing deadbeats who owed money to the cable company where she worked.
it was repugnant...
...& she took many of my former friends in the building with her.

They *loved & ate up* the contempt she dripped for people.

Weirdly?

1/2 the people in the building who egged her on...
...were bootlegging cable from each other.
I kid you not.


How did she live? In a small bachelor's apartment, racking up her credit cards, dating a dirtbag musician who cheated on her, working herself ragged on shiftwork
... while she sneered & looked down her nose
...AT PEOPLE JUST LIKE HERSELF.
...feeding her personal frustrations, disappointments & self-loathing...

into a corporatized characterization of HER OWN PEOPLE

She got waaay up on her high horse & delighted -YES DELIGHTED- in harassing, threatening & even scamming people she called 'trailer trash'.
lovely. watching formerly NICE -but honestly flawed- friends suddenly transformed at parties into NeoCon, hate spewing assholes was just too much to bear. We simply stopped going to & hosting events at our building.

These people SUCK UP THE CONTEMPT of the corporate disgust for their own clients...
& feed it directly back into our Society & Communities.
sickening.


As it was, we ended up writing off my former friends & simply taking our savings & bought a house: where only *nice people* get to visit.
Moving day?: 11.Sept.01.



Perspective.

The Jeff Farias Show: streams FREE & LIVE Mon-Fri, 6-9pmEDT

FREE podcast
"... tolerance of intolerance is cowardice..." ~ Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
"We, two, form a Multitude" ~ Ovid.

"Violence can only be concealed by a Lie, & the Lie can only be maintained by Violence." ... "Any man, who has once proclaimed Violence as his Method, is inevitably forced to take the Lie as his Principle" – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." - Voltaire.
~~~

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So, let me get this straight...
Posted by: AgnosticPriest on Jun 10, 2009 3:43 PM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"Exposing the latest and slimiest ways the "financial services" industry is raking it in from cash-crunched Americans."

Because a company is doing everything in it's power to collect on a legitimate debt, that makes them sleazy? Whoever feels this way needs to pull her head out of their ass and wake the f*$k up to reality of the situation.

You do realize that we live in a capitalistic society right? And you further realize that the people calling/stalking the delinquent debtors are people that have families to feed too? Has the author of this article ever had to collect on a debt? From the title of the article, something tells me no. People want everything for nothing and that means they'll rack up $10,000 in credit card debt and then just blow off the company that gave them the benefit of the doubt to begin with. If you can afford an Internet connection, you could be paying off your debt, but nooooo... these deadbeats would rather spend their time and money on Facebook 'keeping up with friends and hopefully getting laid' instead of looking for a job or actually working.

Gimme, gimme, gimme! I deserve something for nothing! Why? Cause I'm American!

We wouldn't be in this economic turmoil if people didn't spend beyond their means and max out all of their credit cards or take on huge mortgages that they knew they could never afford. If it weren't for companies 'giving the benefit of the doubt", these sleazy debtors would still be renting or living in a cardboard box. Of course it's no surprise that in this entitlement society, when the Gov't gave the go ahead for sub-prime mortgages, everyone who was making $40k a year got to buy their very own $500k MTV crib in hopes of flipping it in 3 to 4 years for a profit. And then the bubble bursts and everyone cries SAVE ME! Waaaa!

I freely admit that I did NOT read the article. Why? Because the title pissed me off enough and if I had read the article, I probably would have had an aneurysm all because someone was asking for something for nothing.

Get a goddamn job, even if it's at McDonalds or (gasp!) picking crops. Take care of yourself and your family. Be self reliant for once in your life and stop sucking off the societal teat!

Plan for the future! If you can't afford to pay cash, don't buy it. Put at least 25% of your paycheck or whatever your budget will allow into savings.

I saw this sh*t storm coming 4 years ago when people were buying homes they couldn't possibly afford and putting big screen TV's, their car payments and groceries on credit cards because they didn't have the cash.

I'm the ant in the Ant vs. the Grasshopper anecdote. I saved as much as I could. I paid off and cut up most of my credit cards (only have 2 now - both with zero balance). Yes, I am debt free and I've never felt freer. Zero pressure. If I get laid off tomorrow, I can live for two years, comfortably, on just my savings.

Don't come to me looking for a handout. I busted my ass while you were enjoying the economic orgy. Now you have to pay for your fun.

And stop blaming the companies that gave you the benefit of the doubt. Remember, they didn't have to give you credit, you applied for it.

To all you sleaze balls: own up and pay off your friggin debt.

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» RE: So, let me get this straight... Posted by: moyshekapoyre
Power. To have power all must stand together.
Posted by: abusedbypenguins on Jun 10, 2009 4:21 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Pick a month, any month and every household in this country not pay one bill. Say, in August no one pays the telephone bill. Better, in January no one pays the heating oil/gas bill. That's probably several hundred million dollars not in circulation for that month. How many telephone or energy companies would be in a world of hurt. Payback is a bitch.

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I get harassed for other people's debt all the time
Posted by: crodo55 on Jun 14, 2009 11:08 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I own a building with two other apartments that I rent out. Former tenants skipped out on bills, and I get all the hassle because I live at the same address, sometimes 3 or 4 calls a day. I wrote to everyone from the Congress on down to the State and city government, and even though I explained the problem in very clear terms, they all responded with the same advice: "If you have trouble paying your bills, go to usgov website to find your rights." Not one acknowledged the fact that I am unfairly and continually contacted over other people's debts.

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