Blackstone Group

[albacore44]

Hi team,Me again,

So my daughter-in-law who lives with me, gets a call on her cell today, from a guy claiming to be an attourney for these guys. seems she has some ghosts in her closet, an old $4k Wells fargo, long charged off 4 years ago. He used the usual tactics, threatened to sue, going to send a marshall to her house etc. said they had been looking for her a long time etc. If she would pay him $2k today he would forgive the rest. My son married her about a year ago, and she has been careful to keep under cover. She is not on his bank account, and they are both on unemployment right now. he seemed to have a lot of information about her, and she got a bit rattled, and told the guy she had a husband, so he promptly said he could garnish my sons money .

So get this...she tells the guy dont bother filing suit, as she is planning BK soon. he starts rattling off all the junk on her credit report, and says she doesnt have enough debt to file BK. What a PUTZ this guy is.

anyhoo, anyone ever deal with these Bozo's ?? i looked up Blackstone, and they are some big multi-national corp. My guess is they picked up some JDB's under their corporate portfolio.

[DebtHater]

so he promptly said he could garnish my sons money .


anyhoo, anyone ever deal with these Bozo's ??

The fact that they said he could garnish your son's money is a lie.

It sounds like these guys are a typical bottom-feeding CA. Tell them if they continue to call you'll report them to the Federal Trade Commission for violating the fair debt collection practices act. If that doesn't work, advise them the next time they call you'll blast them over the phone with a sports air horn.... and do it! The (at a minimum) temporary deafness should stop them.

[frogger]

Blackstone is huge, and they have a lot of little bottom feeders under their belt.

[keepinitreal]

Suggest to your daughter-in-law that she do whatever it takes to not have a phone number he can reach her at again. Change her phone number, change providers, whatever.

[catleg]

Cease and desist letter is designed for these situations.

Just ask the creature "where do I send my check?"

"No, I can't do a check by phone, I need to mail you a check."

"No, I can't send you a Moneygram, I need to mail a check."

Is this debt outside of statute yet?

[flyinbroke]

Hire a NACA attorney. Then launch a suit for FDCPA their way. I found at least three violations which is an easy 1K for her on FDCPA. State laws may go "per violation" which could easily add to far more than the 4K she allegedly owes.

[catleg]

I wish I lived in a state like Texas.

[albacore44]

thanks for all the advice. I know the ropes, been there, done that. I was just curious, that when I called the # they called her from i got a recording that said you have Called the Blackstone Group, if you would like to speak to one of our attorneys...blah...blah...blah, I was trying to figure out why Blackstone would be chaseing someone over a $4k Wells Fargo card. In the state this country is in I guess Debt collection must be adding a big chunk to the GDP.

[Pandora]

sounds to me that the SOL is coming near the end (4 years for written/2 for oral) and this JDB is trying hard to collect since the statue is coming a close.

[DebtHater]

I was trying to figure out why Blackstone would be chaseing someone over a $4k Wells Fargo card.

Chances are they bought the debt for pennies on the dollar so regardless what the amount of debt is they are making the same ratio of income for them selves. Besides, there's likely a lot of accounts in collections for less than $5,000.

[gacreditguy]

Suggest to your daughter-in-law that she do whatever it takes to not have a phone number he can reach her at again. Change her phone number, change providers, whatever.

Even easier, have her FedEx a limited Cease and Decist Order instructing them to ONLY contact her via snail mail and (open a PO Box) and give them that address.

Oh yeah, by "threatening" to get your sons accts and telling them they will send a marshall? Well, that is a violation of th FDCPA.

[gacreditguy]

Chances are they bought the debt for pennies on the dollar so regardless what the amount of debt is they are making the same ratio of income for them selves. Besides, there's likely a lot of accounts in collections for less than $5,000.

Better than this, this JDB (Junk Debt Buyer) has NO documentation to verify this debt! Normally in a transaction like this, all the JDB get's from the original creditor is an electronic file (MS-Excel) with basic data. If they bought it from ANOTHER JDB, they have less than that very likely. For them to PROVE this is your daughter (in court) would be tough.

[GoingDown]

4 years after charge off?

That debt might be beyond the statute of limitations. Which means they can try to sue her, but if you files a written answer to the lawsuit and claims the debt is out of statute, then she will win in court against them.

The SOL in Arizona is 3 years for credit card debt. In California, I'm not sure.

But if it is out of statute, I would include those words in the cease and desist letter I sent to them.

http://www.courtminutes.maricopa.gov/docs/Lower%20Court/012009/m3538792.pdf