How debt collectors find you...

[tobee43]

well....this is a bit ironic...

we got ours when we did get this land line now...LOL!!! you will not believe this..the OTHER people that USE to have land line number owe EVERYONE one and their MOTHERS...every major bank...chase, citi, b of a....LOL!!!!!! and when i pick up they do not believe me and call me by the other persons name!!!

talk about karma....this has been going on for months...we finally got on the fed no call list and i spoke to a few of the supervisors and explained they aren't even in the correct half of the alphabet!!! we aren't even in the same town as these people lived...because now i know their entire credit history, and they were worse off than us!! LOL!!!..i mean really i hate to see anyone worse off then us...but they just left everyone in the dust and split!

[catleg]

Curiously, when I was "on the run" from creditors I would login to my Chase account online and see what contact numbers they had listed for me (they would show up there for some reason).

They had the land line phone number for the guy who lived at our prevous address 6 years ago.

These skip tracers will try to connect you to anyone who will put them in touch with you, regardless of how much annoyance they cause for the innocent parties. It's really obnoxious behavior, but they don't care.

I always advocate putting your congressman's local office number as your contact number, maybe if they get enough harassment from collectors something will get done.

"Hello, office of Bwaney Fwank, can I help you?"

[tobee43]

I always advocate putting your congressman's local office number as your contact number, maybe if they get enough harassment from collectors something will get done.

PERFECT!!!!!!!!! that'll work!!

[wnguyen]

i always advocate putting your congressman's local office number as your contact number, maybe if they get enough harassment from collectors something will get done.

"hello, office of bwaney fwank, can i help you?"

lol

[ryan]

"Hello, office of Bwaney Fwank, can I help you?"

.."yes, how did you plan on taking care of this 3 trillion dollar debt, sir?"

...."uhh, just put it on my Federal Government credit card....I believe there's still room on it."

[tobee43]

.."yes, how did you plan on taking care of this 3 trillion dollar debt, sir?"

...."uhh, just put it on my Federal Government credit card....I believe there's still room on it."

GREAT ONE!!!!

[Unibrow]

Not enough info on me, but still scary stuff. I need to clear this up before my bk so moving forward, I don't have to worry about this.

[frogger]

They had the land line phone number for the guy who lived at our prevous address 6 years ago.

Phantom information is sort of like phantom debt. It never goes away, it just gets less accurate with time.

The database on information never goes away. There is no time limit or statute of limitations on information. A home phone number connected to an address never really goes away.

When skip tracers are looking, they are looking at each and every piece of information, because they don't know which one will be the one to help them find you.

A good skip tracer will probably locate you, regardless of what you do.

And remember:

The #1 item used for skip tracing is the social security number.
The #2 item used for skip tracing is family, friends, and neighbors that talk.

Someone, somewhere, will talk.

Guard your new private information very carefully.

[flyinbroke]

Which is cool if you live in a big city and the neighbors move a lot. You never really know each other and if you do, someone moves away.

I keep getting calls on my VoIP because the number used to be a business number of a serial defaulter.

[onthefence]

I am not sure which is more scary - what you can find out about yourself online - or all of the entries about finding "skips" on the forum link listed in the original thread posting! I mean, someone actually suggested trying to access voice mail! Totally scary!

[treehugger1]

Which is cool if you live in a big city and the neighbors move a lot. You never really know each other and if you do, someone moves away.

I keep getting calls on my VoIP because the number used to be a business number of a serial defaulter.

Same here, my neighbors are quite transient, but I live in the boonies.

Most of my neighbors got rid of their land lines a year or more ago. In addition, the majority of my creditors have applications filled out a decade ago or longer, so they have no current phone records. When I check for myself on any of the sites listed above, I can find almost no information related directly to me. I see the many, many folks who share my first and last name (even some local folks,) but there is almost nothing associated with me. About 80% of what i do find related to me is incorrect.

I really don't care if CA's call my neighbors as my neighbors don't even know who I am. I live in the freakin' outback of Oregon. Everyone here minds their own business except we are willing to help each other in emergencies.

Occasionally a CA/JDB/Creditor will call me, but after four years of not paying, I seldom hear a peep out of anyone. I certainly have lawsuits and judgments, but even they don't hound me. The judgment holders are still debt collectors in my state and have to cease and desist communications upon request.

[tobee43]

Phantom information is sort of like phantom debt. It never goes away, it just gets less accurate with time.

The database on information never goes away. There is no time limit or statute of limitations on information. A home phone number connected to an address never really goes away.

When skip tracers are looking, they are looking at each and every piece of information, because they don't know which one will be the one to help them find you.

A good skip tracer will probably locate you, regardless of what you do.

And remember:

The #1 item used for skip tracing is the social security number.
The #2 item used for skip tracing is family, friends, and neighbors that talk.

Someone, somewhere, will talk.

Guard your new private information very carefully.

actually because of the new privacy acts imposed by congress it has become much more difficult to locate people and get info the "legal" way than in the past...

and, just to add a bit of mystique and intrigue for fun....

one of us in this house did this type of investigation work in a "legal" format for over 43 years with government and or large major corps. even tho licenced....and with every type of computer system at fingertips...it was becoming harder and harder to dig deep into people's info.

of course we were dealing with people who didn't want to be found. NOT people exposing themselves on facebook, twitter etc....their lives are open books and info is easily found.

this family for one, always had to have unlisted information due to the nature of employment. so we used all of what we knew and applied it all to ourselves...no one found us...not even after almost 3 years now...not a one.

we lived in the same area for over 37 years and in one home for 33 years....we never spoke with our neighbors ....except when we left....when we were asked where we were moving to we told every single one of them a different part of the country....just so when they had their next neighbor party...(which we never were involved with anyway)...they could exchange notes and really be confused. LOL!! i could see a skip tracer now going to one neighbor and get into that we were in montana...and another neighbor saying NO NO they are in vermont...and another saying no they are in washington state...it was great!
so i guess what i want to express here is there is a way to go underground...and get lost even if someone is a GREAT skip tracer...LOL!!

[Fallonedward]

GREAT!! we both checked out our names and we ARE LOST!! we did a really good job of losing ourselves....i guess we are under ground before our time!! wow...i always wondered how criminals did it...i guess since one of us was in the law enforcement field we learned something through out all these years...i now feel like we are in the bankruptcy witness protection program!! LOL!!!!!!!!!!

be careful...they can trace your ip address!!

Not only am I lost, I'm being reported as being dead

sweet

[frogger]

Not only am I lost, I'm being reported as being dead

sweet

Until you get ready to apply for Social Security.....

[ryan]

Not only am I lost, I'm being reported as being dead

sweet

OK, If you're dead, then who's writing these posts, ...huh?