Is it legal for GC Services to contact me through my neighbor?

Today I found a note on my door,from a woman who said she used to live across the street. She said that a woman from GC Services got the phone number through the internet. She wanted her to contact me, regarding an urgent matter. She left me the womans name number and a reference letter. Is this legal? I feel violated!

Oh, that's just charming!
These people are out of control. I would send them a cease and desist letter and let them know you're reporting them to your state AG's office, Federal Trade Commission and any one else you can think of, for unlawful debt collection activity!

Do you know if GC Services hold any of your accounts at all? However, that does not justify this behavior. This is so peculiar. If they have your contact details, what was the problem in sending out a letter? Dropping a note at your door can never ensure that you will get it. You should file complaint against them.

Also try to locate the account they own. You can contact the original creditor and see if they are interested to settle it with you directly. Keep us posted.

Is GC a debt collector? I ask because I haven't heard of them before.
That is such a strange way of trying to reach you, by contacting an old neighbor. As others suggested, you should file complaints against the company with your state Attorney General, the FTC, and your state's dept of consumer protection.

Yea, this is a collection agency. I cannot remember this, but I think they collect student loans too-

http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/gcservices.html

They do collect on Student loans...I've dealt with them before, they're real a-holes.

they also do American Express and MCI (or did MCI). My wife used to work for them, wasn't cut out , and basically she just marked accounts paid that never really were.. She was originaly hired to work on their computer network and ended up collecting. Most of the people she worked with were in serious debt trouble. once girl was facing 15 counts for passing bad checks..

I am a former debt collector. I was employed at G.C.Services. I admit that if I was being sought or "skip traced" by a debt collector I would object to the contact of a neighbor to leave a note on the door.

The practice of leaving messages with neighbors is called "leaving word". As long as your personal debt information is not divulged there has been no violation of law with a few exceptions: Minnesota and Wisconsin prohibit such contact attempts. Circumstances that make this type of messaging illegal apart from the exclusions mentioned above are; If the debt collector has already spoken to you, or you have written a cease and desist letter.

The best thing to do if you have a debt issue is to contact the debt collector upon notification of assignment. This will save you severe headaches.

One caviot to sending a cease and desist letter is that depending upon what credit company they are working for you may end up being sued. People being held liable by a court may in many states, have the funds extracted from them on an involuntary basis.

Another thing to be aware of is that some portfolios send accounts to the debt collection agency simply to be able to display " due diligence " in a court of law meaning; they may have intended a litigious resolve from the beginning.

Debt collectors have been or at least were at one time trained to never take payments that involve anything less than the balance in full during the first conversation. They expect you to reach out to family and friends and raise the balance in full.

The negotiations will continue to be more favorable usually with passing time and multiple phone calls that you answer and engage with them.

Some keys to success in dealing with debt collectors:

Get and maintain a secondary bank. USE THIS ACCOUNT FOR PAYMENTS ONLY!

Never "update" your personal information accurately. The debt collector's job is to locate an "asset" they will want to know where you work, bank, and live, they will want the same info for your spouse. DO NOT GIVE IT TO THEM! simply refusing to furnish information will likely result in the collector being very aggressive.

Get a PRIVATE mail box at a reputable company. Note it's privacy policy! These private mail boxes will offer a valid and deliverable street address for you. USE IT have all of your mail delivered there. ALWAYS tell them you are self employed and never us or give a land line phone number. give them your cell phone as home and business and you may escape embarrassing phone calls at work. Also give them the secondary bank info. *** tip *** if you cannot open a checking account open a savings and buy prepaid debit cards. G.C. services did not accept card payments when I worked there so you may have to pay via western union on the internet with your card.

Take into account what you can pay them without hurting yourself or starving to death and be polite and firm with you request for payments only after you pretend with the quest to raise the funds for the balance and the settlement offers they typically offer. If you can take advantage of a gc services settlement offer, do it! the banks would not offer it if they were not profitable and purposeful.

Good Luck in dealing with your creditor and remember, that debt collector has a very difficult job, that may be the reason they are being hostile. Empathize with them and do not underestimate their intelligence and resources... keep you story straight or even better don't tell them one because they can sniff out inconsistency about a zillion miles away.

These people always have a way of calling you but if you need to call them forget it they won't answer.

A guy from this company called husband's cell phone this a.m. asking for someone I've never heard of. He tried to get personal info from me and I got mad, he wanted to argue. I don't have any debt problems and still these people harrassed us, asked personal questions, etc, etc. I contacted Verizon and got the number blocked and intend to file a complaint against this company. From what I've read they are totally corrupt, dishonest, deceitful, and immoral. There really needs to be oversight by the government on these people. My advice to all of you who are getting these calls is to contact your phone company and report them as harrassing and threatening calls. Have the numbers blocked if you can. Nazis, that's what they are.

The best way to deal with these idiots is to not talk to them, not give them even a shred of information to use against you. They are not going to play fair. The more you cooperate with them, the more they will take advantage of you. Don't believe a word they say. They are liars, snakes in the grass. They prey on the innocent. They called me looking for a relative that lives in Arizona. I am stationed in NC and that relative has never been here or visited. They just saw "googled" the last name and figured that they could call and harrass me and that I would gather personal information on that person for them. They have called neighbors and asked them to go leave messages for people "HARRASSMENT". If you give them your social Security #, they will attach it to someone else's debt and try to collect the debt from you even if you don't know the person. My best advice is to not cooperate at all with these crooks and scammers. If you owe a debt then pay it to whoever you owe. Don't give anything to these people. It amazes me how they get away with their scam. I wish congress would secure our information. Anybody can find out any information on anyone on the internet. So much for privacy. Congress!!!! pass some meaningful legislation for a change and outlaw the gathering of personal information for databases. You have sold out our right to privacy so someone can make a buck. Are we going to continue to stand for this? I don't know about you but it infuriates me. So much for anti terrorism. If you feel safe it is a false sense of security. The terrorist's have their own databases which are loaded with information on us gathered off the internet. The scam artists are the least of our worries. Gunnery Sergeant G USMC

If they give you trouble, especially this contact the neighbor crap, the one to call is Michael Laine Fisher. His direct number is (314) 851-4371. You can also get him on (800) 926-3136 x4371.

http://gcserviceswatch.blogspot.com/

If calls are comming in for a person that is not there and you never heard of, let them know and they will have to verify it as a wrong number to more times before they can take it off the system.

Which the best advice I can give is pay your bills and they wont give you any phone calls and they do have time arrangements to help make your payments.

That tactic has been used for a long time. It is meant to get you worked up and to initiate communication. Might be illegal if they already have your verified information per Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA)

Received a call from this company - the caller did give the name of company when I insisted, but would not state the reason for call or the type of business. All he seemed to have was a last name as listed in the tel. directory, which made me think he was a salesman. When I told him we were on the no call registry, he tried yakking non-stop and I just hung up. [why ever would he think that would produce anything?] This isn't about "just paying your bills," they seem to engage in random searches for debtors. I cannot believe that, in this day and age, anyone would provide any personal information over the telephone to a stranger (and one only providing his first name only) anyway. Looked up the number thinking it was a scam operation...