FTC: You have rights when debt collectors harrass you for debts you don't have ABC15.com (KNXV-TV)
The ABC15 Investigators examine complaints about aggressive debt collectors and your rights.VALLEY VICTIM TELLS HER STORY
Debbie Brooks of Laveen says she has been harassed for two years.
She says she has been called a "cheat" and that she was "welching" on a debt she owed.
But Debbie says she doesn't owe the debt.
Unfortunately, Debbie has the same name as someone who allegedly does owe thousands of dollars to banks.
She says debt collectors call her day and night, even though she spells her name with an "ie", not an "i" as the other Debbi does.
She also has a different middle name, different address, phone number, social security number and so on.
Debbie tells us, "It's a nightmare. It totally disrupts my life."
FTC: THOUSANDS COMPLAIN ABOUT COLLECTORS
Debt collection practices is the Federal Trade Commission's No. 1 complaint area.
Their website shows they had 140,000 complaints in 2010 alone.
Debt Collector Harassment
FOX 25 Boston News - www.myfoxboston.com - Job loss, medical issues, and getting over-extended are just some of the reasons why people get stuck ...
Do I have to put up with harrassment from "debt collectors"?
I had a seizure in school last year and was hospitalized. I repeatedly told the doctors that all tests had been done in the past and no explanation for these seizures had ever been found but they repeated all these expensive tests from expensive specialists again anyway. I further explained that I am a student with no income and could not afford to stay in the hospital at all but they kept me anyway. Now I am receiving harassing phone calls and threats of legal action. I'm still an unemployed full time student. I refuse to deal with debt collectors and my intention is to pay these doctors when I do graduate and find employment. Of course, as I told them, they were not ablt to find causes for my seizures.
You are responsible for those bills. At any time you could have easily signed yourself out AMA and refused treatment. You could have left the hospital. You could have screamed until they didn't give the tests, fought them off, gone to whatever extreme necessary for them to listen to you. Now you have to pay the bills. If they are actually "harrassing" you, that's one thing. They have to abide by the Fair Debt Collection practices.
You need to contact a legal aid attorney, immediately.
You are going to mess up your credit until you resolve this problem.
They don't care , their job is just to get the $$$ .
If you can not pay now , get caller ID .
Even if they do start legal action , you have no assets or wages to garnish soooo ,
What will happen ? It is called 'blood from a turnip'.
What may happen is that they hang in until you get a good job then start working you again . They will go after it for 7 years from the date of the debt .
Just get and use Caller ID , that's why it was invented .
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You are stuck with the debts and you are responsible for paying them off.
You need credit counseling from a counseling agency certified excellent by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. Go to www.nfcc.org and use the agency locator to find a helpful office near you.
How far is too far with debt collectors? Anybody familiar with the law?
I have a debt collector calling me and it leads to harrassment. I have made arrangements to pay off the account but it doesn't meet their "time line" . They tell me things like maybe I should file bankrupcy, you people that don't pay are pathetic, or get a job. I am a full time student and work part-time I'm tired of them calling me because i tell them what i can do as far as payment and they say "we can't except that". What should I do? I told them I would pay the account off in August isn't this fair enough?
Do not send a full cease and desist. If you do you leave them only two choices - sue you or sell the debt.
If you had not sent a debt validation letter yet, you should before you start talking about paying them. Make sure the amount they are requesting is the legal amount, that they have a legal right to collect that debt, etc., etc., etc.
Include in your letter:
I am requesting that no telephone contact be made from you to my home or place of business as it is inconvenient to me. All future communications from you must be made by USPS.
That is a limited C&D, it still gives them the right to contact you but only by mail.
Everything you send to them should be sent certified mail return receipt. Keep copies of everything - papertrail.
You might click on my profile and do some reading in the links I have provided - to the FDCPA, FCRA, etc.
Learn your rights and learn how to use them.
How may a debt collector contact you?
A collector may contact you in person, by mail, telephone, telegram, or fax. However, a debt collector may not contact you at inconvenient times or places, such as before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m., unless you agree. A debt collector also may not contact you at work if the collector knows that your employer disapproves of such contacts.
Can you stop a debt collector from contacting you?
You can stop a debt collector from contacting you by writing a letter to the collector telling them to stop. Once the collector receives your letter, they may not contact you again except to say there will be no further contact or to notify you that the debt collector or the creditor intends to take some specific action. Please note, however, that sending such a letter to a collector does not make the debt go away if you actually owe it. You could still be sued by the debt collector or your original creditor.
You can make affordable monthly payments and be out of debt within3-36 months. Once you join the debt settlement program, all the communications from your debt collectors will be directed to the settlement company.
Check this out who has helped me with the same unsecured debt situation.
http://www.debtfreeafterall.com
Good Luck
How can I get debt collectors to stop calling my parents?
Creditors keep calling my parents house looking for me, but I no longer live there. They are beginning to get angry and threatening, and their behavior isverging on harrassment. I have contacted the company and given them my new address and phone number, but they won't stop. How can I get them to quit bothering my parents???
Your parents, or you need to register your parents, for National Do Not Call Registry. It takes about 24 hrs to take effect. It will stop the solicitation by phone (which is unlawful to begin with) and force the credit collectors to do it the proper way, using registered mail.
Regardless, you still need to make a commitment to pay your debt to end any kind of harrasment, even through mail.
Click here to register to the National Do Not Call Registry:
https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx
It will also stop annyong tele-marketers.
However if you are having and issue with your personal finances you should check out Dave Ramsey.com I have had issues for along time and no longer are they an issue. He won't give you and easy out but with your hard work he'll show you how to regain your financial independence.
Any debt collector communicating with any person other than the consumer for the purpose of acquiring location information about the consumer shall --
(1) identify himself, state that he is confirming or correcting location information concerning the consumer, and, only if expressly requested, identify his employer;
(2) not state that such consumer owes any debt;
(3) not communicate with any such person more than once unless requested to do so by such person or unless the debt collector reasonably believes that the earlier response of such person is erroneous or incomplete and that such person now has correct or complete location information;
(4) not communicate by post card;
(5) not use any language or symbol on any envelope or in the contents of any communication effected by the mails or telegram that indicates that the debt collector is in the debt collection business or that the communication relates to the collection of a debt; and
(6) after the debt collector knows the consumer is represented by an attorney with regard to the subject debt and has knowledge of, or can readily ascertain, such attorney's name and address, not communicate with any person other than that attorney, unless the attorney fails to respond within a reasonable period of time to the communication from the debt collector.
How do you get collectors to stop harrassment when you have WON a bogus case in court.?
Case of a bogus debt( I did not owe) dismissed WITH prejudice in court.
If a collector is harrassing you that is illegal. If they threaten you that is illegal. Ask for their legal department and fax them a copy of the courts judgement. That should end the calls if they are a reputable company. Hope this helps.
How many times, in one day, can a debt collector call?
When a debt collector calls many times, say above 10 times in one day, who can I contact about this? And is that considered harrassment? The companies never leave any messages and the few times I have answered the phone, it has been a pre-recorded messages telling me to call them back. What can I do about this?
They can contact you as much as they need to, but only between certain hours (8:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m).
There is no law that determines how many times they can call, only when they can call and how they must treat you.
Send a Cease and Desist letter and never talk to them on the phone. All correspondence needs to be written and sent certified return receip mail.
Good luck
So write them a letter.
More info:
trying to help/advise a 78yr old friend re: energy supplier and harrassment re: debt he disputes?
he left npower last november -now with powergen.
re: final bill he got shock of £370+ owing-i rang on his behalf-nothing for months then bill for £210 and court case-came to nothing/nothing heard-then a bill for £76.
these amounts are from same lot of figures added up by different persons!
countless letters of threats of baillifs/court action. re: £76.
the `supplier` npower told me on phone-"we couldn`t `justify` the amounts so MR A got the bills!
also stated they had him on record as having a `credit meter`-he has always been on a prepayment meter-payments made on a card to `top up` meter!
he rang me a hour ago-in a state-what appeared to be a debt collector? ringing his bell!
infor has not it seems been `passed on` to the debt collection agency!
he has also had over weekend -caller with held phone calls-disturbing to my friend who also has angina!
i intend to contact them 2moro on his behalf -wondered what advice to give him-thinks they`ll take to court for £76.
Get your complaint to OFGEN. They're good at helping - I had trouble with British Gas (elec. division) and they sorted it.
CAPQUEST DEBT COLLECTORS - have they broken the law and anyone had any problems with them?
2 old debts have been passed to this company for chasing. They telephoned me regarding this matter and were very rude and unhelpful. I explained to them that i would only deal with them in writing and that i would make an offer of payment to them once they sent me written proof. This never materialised and the calls kept coming. In anger at the constant harrassment my partner told them that i didn't live there anymore.
Today whilst getting into my car my elderly next door neighbour said that she had a phone call from a company asking whether i live next door as they had something to send me and just wanted to know before they sent it - thought this was very odd and the more i have thought about it the more i wondered if this is legal. I then telephoned my mum and she said that she had had a call of the same nature asking for my current address!
Any geniune advice would be great x
Think they may have my mums number as was living there when i got into the debt. My mum did question how they had got her number and they said 'obtained it from electrol role' - which is obviously a lie.
Presume they just called directory enquiries for neighbours number!
I can't tell you how important it is to report these CapQuest people to The Office of Fair Trading. I know for a fact that they are being watched by that office and that their tactics are totally at odds with their license. Several people I know have had trouble with them. I think you would be advised to ring an online solicitor, I believe there are certain rules that apply before people like this can harrass you, first they have to prove you owe that particular amount.
what can happen if some one sexually harasses a telemarketer, or a debt collector?
since they called did the calling, can they sue for harrassment. havent we all wanted to irritate those people that call us early saturday morning and during dinner.
When I worked in a non-sales call center, there was a special department that dealt specifically with folks who would hang up and get abusive.
While being sexually harassed was a reason for a normal employee to end a call, it did not stop the 'special' employees from calling you instead.
And most places record calls in some fashion- where I worked, I could be randomly recorded at anytime and I could also hit a button that would start a recording if I felt I needed something to back me up with the supervisors. So keep that in mind if you feel moved to make death threats.
In short- abusing them will not stop the calls. Someone out there is selling your phone number, and for every marketer that you ask to remove you from their rolls, five more call.
Two pieces of advice:
1. register with the do not call list: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/tcpa.html
2. look into buying something like this:
http://www.hellodirect.com/hellodirect/Shop?Dsp=30100&PCR=1:1:5:25:280:3020&IID=12200&itemskuid=12200&actn=addkeycodetocart&keycode=53400538&cm_mmc=Google-_-MISC-_-CallBlocker-_-stop%20marketing%20calls
Debt collector resorted to now faxing to my job.?
A creditor just faxed over legal proceeding information and included all information regardng my debt to my work in in which other staff members retrieved it in another department and then faxed it over to me. Is this legal. What can I do. This is harrassment on the job.
Furthermore, they had the nerve to post my social security number on the fax.
This is clearly in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which is enforced by the Federal Trade Commission.
Any correspondence to a debtor relative to unpaid debts is to remain confidential, with only a few exceptions.
Please refer to Sec. 804-805 of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
Are there laws that protect the consumer in Florida against phone harrassment by debtors.?
It was my understanding that a debt collector can actually be sued for harrassment under certain surcumstances were they call someone excessively in a single day.
Due to a few hollier than thou's who are so quick to judge others, I must explain that the debtor harrassment is coming from a company that cant understand that the person they are looking for do live here, my phone number is not theirs and that I have no idea who they (the consumer) are. And if that isn't enough, my number is unlisted and registered with the national do not call list.
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre27.pdf
a) COMMUNICATION WITH THE CONSUMER GENERALLY.
Without the prior consent of the consumer given
directly to the debt collector or the express permission of
a court of competent jurisdiction, a debt collector may not
communicate with a consumer in connection with the collection
of any debt—
(1) at any unusual time or place or a time or place known
or which should be known to be inconvenient to the
consumer. In the absence of knowledge of circumstances
to the contrary, a debt collector shall assume that the
convenient time for communicating with a consumer
is after 8 o’clock antimeridian and before 9 o’clock
postmeridian, local time at the consumer’s location;
(2) if the debt collector knows the consumer is represented
by an attorney with respect to such debt and has knowledge
of, or can readily ascertain, such attorney’s name
and address, unless the attorney fails to respond within
a reasonable period of time to a communication from
the debt collector or unless the attorney consents to
direct communication with the consumer; or
(3) at the consumer’s place of employment if the debt collector
knows or has reason to know that the consumer’s
employer prohibits the consumer from receiving such
communication.
debt collectors harrassment - News
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Persecuted for bank debts of just £750 - Times Online Persecuted for bank debts of just £750 Citizens Advice, National Debtline and the Consumer Credit Counselling Service have unearthed harassment tactics used by some debt collection firms. |
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Lawmakers Urge Obama to Stop IRS Debt Collectors - On Wall Street Lawmakers Urge Obama to Stop IRS Debt Collectors an investigation into the use of private debt collectors and found that their services often subjected taxpayers to undue harassment and confusion not |
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Collection Plate - WebCPA Collection Plate I mention the Nevada brothel vignette, because now there is an effort to resurrect the movement to end the IRS’ private debt collection service. |
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You Have Rights Against Aggressive Debt Collectors - CBS 5 You Have Rights Against Aggressive Debt Collectors Many may end up in the hands of a collection agency. But that does not mean you have to tolerate threats, insults, and harassment. |
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Profile: From Bankruptcy to Blog to Successful E-Biz - ECommerce-Guide Profile: From Bankruptcy to Blog to Successful E-Biz Someone else in the group suggested Friedman should use his skill set to create a business helping people deal with debt collectors and collection agency |
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(Guest) Get this.I pay all my debt great credit scores. For at least 5 years I have received calls from collectors from 2 different companies looking for 2 different ...
