Help! man from collection agency posing as my husband

I know for a fact that Universal Fidelity collects for defaulted payday loans with Sonic, Payday Avenue, and Cash Transfer Centers. Is it possible that he is calling because you have a defaulted internet payday loan with one of these companies?

aylaofduni - this is VERY illegal. Have you ever taken out a payday loan, or has he stated what debt he is attempting to collect?

This sort of tactic is completely against the fdcpa.

He's calling about a credit card debt. The debt is valid but I am not interested in dealing with a collection agency. I will deal with the original CC company. It is my understanding that I have the right to do this in the state of TX (or possibly everywhere)Although the debt is valid, I have not admitted it on the phone. The only thing I have told them is that I am not interested in dealing with them and not to call back. Obviously, they don't listen. I want to record myself on the phone telling them to stop calling so that I can take legal action, but it's tricky because I only have a cell phone. Would sending a registered letter to them do the same thing?

WOW.....WOW....JUST WOW....

This is MASSIVELY illegal. This is exactly what I would do--

1--contact your parents. Ask them to provide to you a copy of their phone bill, showing the incoming calls from this idiot.

2--ask them to sign and have notarized a sworn statement that details exactly what took place on the phone when he called there--when, how many times, and specifically what he said, as well as the name he used.

3--take all of this documentation to your state's attorney general's office ASAP. Tell them you wish to file a criminal complaint right away. They will be quite interested in this information, I have a funny feeling.

4--consult with an attorney and sue the pants off of the company that is doing this. Just from what you have mentioned, they have done at least these things wrong according to federal law:

--calling your parents when they already know where to find you(this is known as a third party contact). Third party contact is, according to law, only to be made once per party, and only to find out your location. If they already have a means to contact you they are not allowed to contact third parties about you.

--claiming that he will tell your employer. this is another third-party situation, and seeing as he threatened to release private information about a debt that is allegedly yours to a third party, this is a major no-no.

--Using deception when he called your parents. Federal law prohibits a debt collector from using ANY deceptive practices when trying to collect a debt.

--harassment. There is no doubt on the planet that the intent of all this BS was to harass or annoy, and that is exactly what the law in question prohibits.

I am certain that I can find more violations, depending on what other wild threats and claims he made. Here's the interesting part for you--the law is called the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, or fdcpa. And each of these violations carries a penalty of up to $1000.00 plus any actual damages. That means if you sue these morons, and you prove your case, they will be liable for $1000 for each violation of this law. I just rattled off four of them right off the bat, without even knowing all the details of what he said to you. I think you can see where this might lead!

For an attorney, go to www.naca.net and look for one in your area. Many of them will offer a free consultation to determine if you have a sufficient case or not. Some of them will also take a case on a contingency basis, meaning that you dont have to come up with legal fees up front if the attorney agrees to do that. In a contingency basis case, your attorney gets paid by the defendant, which will be the colleciton agency that this genius called you from. If thats the case, you really have nothing to lose.

thanks for the advice everyone. The trouble is that I have no proof of any of this. All contact from these people has been on the phone only, and none of it is recorded. Certainly this guy isn't going to admit to having broken the law multiple times since he's a liar. It seems like it's just my word against theirs at this point, right?

to answer your question--yes. Send them a certified letter, return receipt requested, ASAP. In this letter, tell them that in accordance with the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, they are hereby notified that you are requesting validation of this debt. Tell them that this isnt a request to verify your mailiing address, but for actual validation of the debt pursuant to federal law.

You see, federal law(the fdcpa again) requires that if you ask for this validation they must stop all collection activity, contact the original creditor, obtain ORIGINAL documentation of the debt, and send it to you. Then, and ONLY then, are they allowed to continue collection efforts.

In that letter you can also tell them that they are only to communicate with you from this point forward through the mail. No phone calls will be tolerated. By law, if you send them these requests in writing, they have to follow them.

It is VERY important to send this out certified mail, return receipt requested. This will give you written proof that they received the letter. If you end up taking them to court you will want this.

Actually, with my parents phone bill records, it would prove he has called them at least 20-25 times. Is that alone enough to sue? With no proof of what was said on the calls?

yes, it is. This is because the third party contact statute is clear as a bell. It only allows them to contact a third party in an attempt to locate you, as in, they dont know where you are at that point. But they already knew where you were, am I right? They called you and harassed you, and then called your family after they started calling you?

If they called you and then called your parents, then absolutely they screwed up and your phone bill showing the incoming calls, plus their phone bill showing their incoming calls, will prove it.

Also, your testimony will be convincing when combined with the sheer number of calls he made to your parents house--that will show a definite desire to harass. I feel that you have a solid case for at least a few violations.

to be completely honest, they may have contacted my parents first, but they were given my cell phone number by either my parents or my brother. They have had my cell number for at least a month or so, maybe longer. They called my parents as recently as Saturday. That was the day the guy claimed to be my husband.

I will call my mom back tomorrow and start the process of getting hold of the records. I'm sure I'll be back for more help after that!

The funniest part is that just one of these $1000 fines is more than double the debt they are trying to collect!

thanks for your help everyone, I'll be back in the next few days.

even if they called your family first, once they had a way to contact you there is no reason under the law to contact your family again. So you still have the same case that way. If there is anything we can help you put together, just ask. Also, in TX, there are state laws that you need to research. TX has really good laws to protect consumers....

OK, one more question. I was just talking to my mom about it again and she brought up the problem of blocked numbers. If these guys are calling from a private or blocked number, will it still show up on the phone records? How will we get it if not? Thanks again for all of your help. I have a really good feeling about this!

The phone company may or may not be able to better answer that question than I personally can. You may consider calling them and asking them about it.

another thing--I know that phone company records can also be subpoena'd into court with a court order. The phone company may itself hold different records as to blocked numbers than what they show you on the phone bill. Call your phone company's legal department and ask them if there is any that they can identify a blocked humber in this kind of deal, and if so, what do you have to do to obtain the information. More than likely, if they can do it at all they will need the court order. but if youre gonna sue them, a court order is no big deal.

Hi, AYLAOFDUNI!! Well....have your parents call the phone and they can PROBABLY tell you whether or not the calls have a number. Just because the number is coming up 'Blocked' or 'Private' doesn't mean the phone can't 'trace' who is ACTUALLY calling you. OR...( A friend of mine did this once because of prank calls, on her line), you can ask the phone compny if they can trace the call, while you're on the line. I think you have to contact the police, to do this, however. Even if the debt IS valid, that many calls ( with in a certain time) is harressment ( I think, anyway).

IIRC correctly, the phone company will have the actual incoming numbers. It's been a long time since I dealt with telco euipment, but they maintain the actual numbers separately, for internal purposes [billing, security, etc.] What they show for caller ID is generated by a query to their computers, which then sends a number to display. Sometimes, star-6-9 immediately after an incoming call will fetch the number from the telco switch, even though it came up blocked on caller ID. You can then capture that on the end of the recording, if you're recording. Doesn't always work, it depends on the model switch and the software it's running.

A word on using subpoenas to get phone records.... Don't forget that you can also subpoena the other guy's phone records in most instances, directly from the phone company.

thanks for all the advice guys. I have no problem paying back money that I owe, but by lying on multiple occasions and claiming to be my spouse, this guy and his company have bought themselves a permanent enemy. There's a line and they crossed it about 50 miles back. I'm not the type to let this slide and will pursue every legal avenue. I'm really hoping I can somehow get to this guy personally but that's probably wishful thinking. At the very least I'm going to sue the pants of his company and get him fired if at all possible.

WULF....you're AWSOME tonite (Always awsome, for that matter!!LOL) You're 'all over' the board...LOL I knew you COULD do the 'tracing thing' with the phone companies, I just din't know exactly HOW to go about it. Thanks, WULF, for the 'clarification.'

Stay after them! If there's anything we can do to help, well, that's what we're here for. And keep us posted, if you please. Many heads are oft better than one.

Once you get this behind you, consider staying on to pass your knowledge and experience along. It's a good feeling, to help somebody bust a bad CA.

you guys really don't know how much this all helps. I knew I had rights and I even knew some of the details of them, but after that call from my mom earlier today when I found out about this "husband" BS, I really got pro-active and that's why I ended up here. When they were just calling, it was annoying (and embarrassing to have my parents bringing it up) but like I said, this is beyond just annoying/embarrassing at this point. The more I think about it the more ridiculous it seems and the angrier I get. Where do these people get off??

Yes, we do know how much it helps. That's why many of us are still here. We've seen the elephant, as it were. And we remember....

you have a whole industry running around breaking laws 24 hours a day. It's amazing really.

[quote=sdchargers_63]WULF....you're AWSOME tonite (Always awsome, for that matter!!LOL) You're 'all over' the board...LOL I knew you COULD do the 'tracing thing' with the phone companies, I just din't know exactly HOW to go about it. Thanks, WULF, for the 'clarification.'[/quote]


When he was good, he was very, very good. But when he was bad, he was better.

I'm still learning about this whole debt/legal thing. For too many years [decades], I didn't need to worry about it, because I had 'other' means. But I've been doing electronics, phone systems, computers, and such since the early 70s. That stuff, I gots down pat.

I somehow lost my account and then re-registered the same name again. NO idea how I did that but it's still me!

Anyway, I have my mom waiting on the phone bill records and I have contacted one lawyer. I spoke to his assistant I guess it was, and she took all my info and asked some questions. She said the would call back "sometime" this week. He was listed as having advanced knowledge of fair debt collection practices on www.naca.net. I know lawyers are busy but I was hoping for something a little more solid than "sometime this week" so I may contact a few others in my area with similar experience. What do you guys think, good idea or bad idea to contact more than one attorney before hearing back?

In the mean time, I called the CA today and finally spoke to a supervisor. He just listened and didn't say a word til I was done, then said he would "take care of it." I really didn't believe him so rattled off a few laws I knew for sure his company had broken and told him I wasn't going away anytime soon. Anyway, I get the feeling they were just putting me off but maybe the fact that I know my rights will at least be enough to get them to stop harassing my parents.

Sounds like a good start! Keep us posted, please.

Just wondering when entering court tomorrow. I am waiting to see what my court filing of a "motion for discovery"sent last friday,I didn't have a lot of time to send it, will produce.If they will have the "original signed contract" or will it possibly be a "photo copy" of the "original signed contract? Is that still legal and binding.Does anyone know??? Wish me luck for tomorrow bright and early and goodluck, Hope you get lots of wisdom thrown your way!!!!!!!!-Thanks-Bobbi

A few times, I had a laywer call my house..asking for my ex-husband. As I was telling her that my ex NO LONGER leaves here, she was (BASICALLY..) calling me a liar. According to the laywer, my ex said I would "take care of his bill, for her service." OMG!! He (ex) ALSO gave the lawyer my address, for 'Billing purposes.' You talk about a TICKED OFF ex-wife!! Anyone..thought I would share that story. I'm glad things are calming down for you, AYLEO. Sounds like these people need to be stomped on..LOL BTW...WULF when "you are bad, you are better!?" Good for you!!LOL

All I can say is, wow, wow and triple wow. These people will stop at nothing--and I mean absolutely NOTHING to do their dirty work.
The other thing I would suggest to you and I don't think it would hurt would be to call the police and file fraud reports against them. The more documentation you have, the better. You will be getting the records from the phone company and if your parents could even provide summaries of each call, that would be great.
These people are going to deny up and down, of course, but the more you have, the better. Good luck and let us know what happens, OK?