Guest--thats EXACTLY why shoddy companies like this one use these tactics--because all they care about is getting the money. If they embarass you enough, you will want to pay them just to make it stop. DO NOT PAY THEM MONEY LIKE THIS.
If they have a legitimate debt of yours, then they can handle it legitimately. There should be no reason for this kind of deception if they really have your debt, because the law allows for several honest alternatives that they could have used.
First, you need to contact the court clerks office in your county. You need to do this to make sure that no one has actually filed a case against you. It isnt unheard of for someone to do that, especially if they file in small claims court, where no attorney is required.
OK, now, let's address this company itself. Here is a list of their partners, taken from their website:
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Check each of those names to ensure that not one single one of them is licensed in your state, if you have not already. All they would need is one attorney to be licensed there.
If you find that none of them are licensed there, your first move should be to immediately contact the Ohio State bar Association and inform them that this "legal professional association" is using unethical practices, trying to operate in a state where they are not licensed to practice.
However, you probably wont get that far doing that, because they are not truly acting as attorneys at this point. They are acting as
debt collectors. What they have done is claimed that they are trying to have you served with papers, which any plaintiff would have to do. That is not practicing law. It is claiming to have you served in regards to a lawsuit for the purpose of debt collection. you could be a plaintiff yourself today, and if you sued someone, you would have to ensure that they were served a summons as well. So, I would spend more time focusing on whether or not this company is licensed by your state to operate there as a debt collector. If they are not licensed to do business there, then thats where you have your first catch, so to speak. For this, you would check in one of two places, or both--secretary of state's office, or if your state has a banking commission or financial institutions commission in the government. SoS would be first, and then see if there are any laws relating to debt collectors with the banking commission.
OK, now, on to their violations of federal law. First, it is prohibited by the fdcpa to disclose any information about the purpose of their call to a third party. So, if they called your HR department at work and specifically said that they were trying to locate you to have you served papers, then they violated the FDCPA's statute concerning third party contact. The ONE AND ONLY permissable purpose for a debt collector to contact a third party at this point is to try to learn your location. Guest, they called your home BEFORE they did that, so they obviously knew your location already. I hope you saved that voicemail message, but if not the phone company records will still show that they called your house....and that would prove well enough that they already knew where to find you. Here is something else--in MD, service by certified mail is allowed, so since they already knew your whereabouts well enough to call your house, if they really needed to serve you, they would have just sent it certified mail. Dont let these people lie their way into your pockets, people!
To the first guest, yes, within five days of initial communication, they are required by the FDCPA to send you a notice of your rights. Believe it or not, that message they left at your house last week was their initial communication, under the law. So, thats now two violations of the FDCPA. Each one is worth $1000 in your pocket, plus any actual damages.
OK, now, here is how to make this stop, at least for the moment. You need to send WWR a letter, by certified mail return receipt requested, requesting that they validate the debt. You also need to state in this letter that they are not to communicate with you concerning this matter using ANY MEANS other than mail. Tell them that no communication is to take place over the telephone, at any phone number, regarding this matter. This includes your work, home, and cell phone numbers.
I would also go as far as to inform them that you already have them on three violations of federal law: initiating unlawful third party contact, disclosure of private information to that third party, and failure to provide you with disclosure of your rights within 5 days of initial communication. Tell them that these violations are well-documented and any further illegal tactics on their part will result in you suing them for repeatedly failing to abide by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. this will NOT, repeat, NOT, make the debt go away. what it WILL do, however, is force them to either get sued for multiple violations, or follow the law and stop harassing you and using deceptive tactics. Oh, thats anotehr violation--if they are not actually trying to have you served, then they lied about their course of action. This is specifically prohibited by the FDCPA as well. In order to find this out, I would check with your county's court clerk's office to see if anyone has filed a complaint against you there. If no complaint has been filed, then they lied, there's another $1000 in your pocket.
Sorry to make this so long, but this is a lot of ground to cover. If anyone wants more details or has other questions, dont be afraid to ask me. Above all, DONT PANIC....thats what these idiots are counting on!
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