How to stop a debt collector from calling the wrong person?

Hey, Fotoladyscott

Good on you for logging these harassing calls. Keep it up. Dates, times, names, details, quotes while they're still fresh in your mind.

I only found this site two days ago (Tuesday), but there's a ton of info here. Hopefully you're reading some of the threads in this forum. Any of the allied interstate threads with a lot of replies should be very informative and tell you what you need to know about a Cease and Desist letter (below).

Sounds like you need to get a mailing address and send these, um, people a Cease and Desist letter, Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested (about $4.65 at the US Post Office, best $5 you will spend trying to get this resolved). In the right-hand banner on this site, under Our Services, there's a link called Do it Yourself. There should be links to sample Cease and Desist letters. Oh, and put the Certified Mail number on the letter, and keep copies of everything, natch.

Also, if you haven't pulled your credit reports form Equifax, Experian and TransUnion recently, you may want to do that, too. You're entitled to 1 free report from each agency in a 12 month period. There's an official website annualcreditreport.com that's set up to provide this. The individual agencies will try to sell you all sorts of extras, but you don't have to purchase them. You'll have an opportunity to create an ID and password so you can see the report (but NOT updated) online, free, for 30 days after you make the request. But if it won't break the bank, get the reports, put stacks of paper in your printer and make hard copies. Then they'll be in your hand whenever you need them, even if the power goes out.

Places to complain: FTC, your state's Attorney General's office, the BBB, Rip-off Report/Bad Business Bureau (google will pull it up).

Good luck. Keep us posted. Hope you stick around for awhile--it'll be nice to have another newbie Lurking and Learning with me.

Best,
Diva

funnydiva, I think your post has some very good info. However, I think the info about the credit report is not accurate. The site you mention does give you a report for free, but then you have signed up for monthly monitoring and there is a fee for that every month. You have to call to get them to stop the service and it is a pressure filled call, them wanting you to say, blah blah blah. I don't know the web site of the real free no hidden stuff site, but I know somone on this site does and will post it.

Since they're asking for a different person, it's not likely to be on your credit report. Most likely, the person they're looking for used to have your #, or they typed it in wrong in their computers.

Send a cease and desist letter, certified, telling them to stop calling. If they do not stop, file a police report and file complaints with the AG. You will have a log to back you, and 30 times in 6 days is excessive.

You might also threaten them with violating the Graham-Leach-Bliley Privacy Act, since they appear to have given you non-public information about another person's account ... that is not fair to the real debtor.

Hey, Guest

Thanks for your very civil post. Hope you hang around and maybe even join. Because folks like you who can disagree without going on the attack...you're my kind of folks and make this site work.

In the same spirit, I'd like to use this post to clear up any potential confusion. Because, like Guest, I think accuracy is very important--especially here. And because I'm a detail-oriented Science Nerd, and intensely dislike getting the facts wrong on just about anything. :wink:

annualcreditreport.com is, in fact, the
"real free no hidden stuff site".
I used it myself on Tuesday 12/19/2006. And double-checked just now that I hadn't mis-typed the URL (I hadn't).

from the site:
"AnnualCreditReport.com is the official site to help consumers to obtain their free credit report."
And basically what it does is get people directly to the proper place on the bureaus' web sites. There is also one central, official number to request by phone, and one central address to request by mail. No more writing to or phoning the 3 bureaus individually.

Apparently, there are other copycat, hard-sell sites out there with similar names and URLs, and all the bureaus tried to sell me this or that, including credit monitoring and credit score. But it's not required. Consumers will have to wade through the soft-sell on the online order forms, and find a "no thanks, just my report" button that is a bit unobtrusive. But I have all 3 reports, and was never asked for a credit card authorization.

Does anyone know when this official, one-stop site went live? I sure didn't find it in May of 2005--and I knew at the time I was supposed to get a certain amount of information for free. Ended up paying TrueCredit.com (TransUnion's site) for a 3-bureau report (with scores.) And then paying the Mortgage Broker to do a credit check. Oh well. It wasn't a big deal at the time. But it does seem that it's easier now to get those free reports that are mandated by law. This is a Very Good Thing.

And this site is a Very, VERY Good Thing. It's one of the places that pointed me to the above site, and several posts basically said "accept no substitutes."

Best,
Diva

It doesnt matter whos bill it is... the agencies will still lie to the bureaus in hopes that the bill will get paid. Most collectors are lying thieving scam artist convicts trying to make a buck off our working asses.

annualcreditreport.com is not the same as freecreditreport.com Free Credit Report does ask for a monthly commitment. Annual Credit Report does not.

My suggestion would be to send the collection agency a letter with a copy of what you have logged and explain that you are considering legal action.

I remove wrong numbers when I come agross them but I do investigate it. I have recently had a debtor tell me up and down she doesn't know the person I am looking for even going so far to have her husband call in. I did my research, found a work number, called it and low and behold who ansers the phone? The same woman, she even identified herself before she found out what it was for so I put the home number back in made very excellent notes to cover my butt. Such as property records, credit reports numbers attached to social security numbers.

But then again I actualy do my research before calling a number again. I can't speak for other collectors.