My sister's neighbor was called by B of A

no, it isnt....for one thing, BoA is the original creditor, and not a third party debt collector, so they are not subject to the fdcpa....and that is the law which would make such an act illegal. plus, even with the FDCPA, debt collectors are allowed to call a third party, but only to try to locate the debtor.

Was it actually BofA calling, or was it a third party CA calling to collect on a BofA account?

If it was a third party CA, in my opinion, they have violated the FDCPA. True they can contact a third party, one time only, to verify or get contact information; however, the FDCPA says nothing about the CA using that third party as a messenger service! Period! And it kind of makes me laugh to think that CA's usually never call third-parties "one time only"; it usually is several times they call, to the point of being annoying. If they can't reach the debtor, they try harassing that third party as if he were a surrogate debtor.

Even after they have already been told not to call back.

If this was actually BofA then no, the FDCPA does not apply to them; however, your state may have laws in place that do apply to the OC. Whether or not there are laws in place, it sill seems to me a breach of privacy for BofA to be calling neighbors like that and having them pass messages around to the debtor.

Again, check to see if your state has any laws in place to protect debtors from the OC's.

It's funny, my Mother got a call the other night from some CA, United Recovery, calling her and leaving a name on the answering machine she didn't recognize. Of course, she got me involved because she knows how much I love to put CA's in their place. I called them back, recording the call of course, and found out they were trying to reach a neighbor of my mother's, which really ticked me off. Then the CA woman started to ask me if I could give them a message, and I cut her off in mid-sentence telling her neither I nor my Mother run a messenger service. So, the answer is no. I also re-iterated, while repeating my mother's phone number loud and clear on the recording, they are not to call my mother again.

I'm sure, a month down the road, she will probably get another call from that same company again, looking for the neighbors. When that happens, I'm not even going to call the CA back or even warn them, I'm going to sue them.

I've developed a "zero tolerance" towards CA's and their chicanery.