I just can't believe this happen!

[InLimbo]

oh my gosh, oh my gosh! Today I get a call from my sister-in-law that some man was looking for me and left his number to call me. Then my dad calls and says some guy from American Express called him looking for me and wanted my number. I called the guy back as soon as I got the message and sure enough he was some collection guy calling my family regarding my American Express account. 1st thing I asked was how in the heck did u get my families numbers?? He said "theres a great thing called the internet" I was so so furious! I told him not to ever call my family again and gave him my attorney name and number. Here's the thing....I checked my voicemail here at home and he called here around 10:30 this morning (we were at work) then mins. later called my dad, then mins. later called my older brother. If I haven't had found out, he would have called my whole family! THIS HAS GOT TO BE WRONG RIGHT??? My attorney said this was a lowlife collector that went to extremes to get ahold of us. Well he didn't even give us enuff time to get back with him! We have not yet filed bk but had already paid our fee to our attorney several weeks ago. Now im so afraid that our other cc collectors will go the same route as he did. Has anyone ever had this to happen before? Doesn't this seem wrong??

[JeepMom]

That's crazy. I'm sorry but this is too hard to belive. No one can look your parents names and numbers online or your brother.

I just have *tingles*...........

[Bobby'sGirl]

Unfortunately, it is all on line for a $$$fee.

There are several sites that offer subscriptions to anyone with the $$ to pull together all public info on you, including relatives, birthdates, death dates, all contacts family-wise with numbers PLUS current and former neighbors and associates. I had a test day to access my own info when setting up a business and deciding if it made sense to do my own background search on potential employees for criminal/legal problems. (Decided nope --- no thanks..) Scary what I found on my own site; all my addresses and relatives going back to my young adult days, almost 40 years ago!! Over past six months of moving towards BK my neighbors on both sides have been called by collection firms (they are all supportive of my probs, so no big deal) and my son, sister, sister-in-law, brother and my former MINISTER!!! He called and we had a good laugh over that one...we figured out it must have been because of using him as a character reference for a volunteer mentoring position a few years back. Truly the web is BIG BROTHERish in its reach.

[InLimbo]

I find it so hard to believe this is legal, but then again, nothing really surprises me anymore We won't be filing for about another month....crossing fingers that he was the last of the scrums that would go that far. No wonder identity's are stolen if you can get everything you want to know on someone with just one click of a key!

[NASCAR20FAN]

oh my gosh, oh my gosh! Today I get a call from my sister-in-law that some man was looking for me and left his number to call me. Then my dad calls and says some guy from American Express called him looking for me and wanted my number. I called the guy back as soon as I got the message and sure enough he was some collection guy calling my family regarding my American Express account. 1st thing I asked was how in the heck did u get my families numbers?? He said "theres a great thing called the internet" I was so so furious! I told him not to ever call my family again and gave him my attorney name and number. Here's the thing....I checked my voicemail here at home and he called here around 10:30 this morning (we were at work) then mins. later called my dad, then mins. later called my older brother. If I haven't had found out, he would have called my whole family! THIS HAS GOT TO BE WRONG RIGHT??? My attorney said this was a lowlife collector that went to extremes to get ahold of us. Well he didn't even give us enuff time to get back with him! We have not yet filed bk but had already paid our fee to our attorney several weeks ago. Now im so afraid that our other cc collectors will go the same route as he did. Has anyone ever had this to happen before? Doesn't this seem wrong??

Yes, they cannot call people that aren't signers on your account!

[NASCAR20FAN]

There's nothing illegal about calling people who might know where you are when you owe them money. This is the consequence of not paying your bills. If you had paid your American Express bill, no one would have been called. You're ticked off at everyone and blaming everyone but yourself. Keep it up, and you'll never get anywhere.

Umm... No they cannot! They cannot call people who are not signers on the account! And let's not point any fingers here! We all have made mistakes and paid the price! No one here has the right to sit in judgement of anyone! NO ONE!

[fellowpoorman]

They do call anyone, I had them call my neighbors and say there was a family emergency, and I had to call her back immediately. they do anything. file and it stops. Don't pay attention to "DR PHIL" hes the angry one. Probably a collector himself.

[edwards2]

wenderful you are exactly right...I have a number of friends who are attorneys and we got into a discussion about this very thing one night because I work for the BBB and we get a lot of calls from consumers complaining about CAs. They are not allowed to discuss the purpose of their call - even though it is obvious - but they do have the right to try and collect a debt. They also have restrictions about the time of day they can call but not the number of times they call. This is the price we all have paid or are going to pay when we decide to file BK. Not being judgemental at all - not in the position to - but the creditors who loaned us money or issue us credit cards in good faith have the right to demand payment. Collection agencies make a percentage of what they collect so they are not going to play nice when they call. However, they cannot threaten you or try and sue you because it would be a civil matter. FYI once you have a file # all bets are off. And by the way inflammatory comments about others who are posting on this forum are uncalled for. We are a support group not anyone's judge and jury.

[NASCAR20FAN]

I think wee need to know the wording of what was said... If the person calls, and says:
"Hi, this is Josh from American Express, I'm trying to reach Bill".
That would seem to be ok. However, if they call and say.
"Hi, this is "Josh from American Express, I'm trying to reach Bill about the past due amount owed on his account"
That would need to be looked at as stepping over the line.

They need to be very careful as to what they are telling people that are not signers on accounts. I work for a bank and we get calls from branches all the time who are getting calls from people trying to get information on accounts. We are to give our "0" information to none signers on accounts.

[InLimbo]

Thank you Nascar, that is exactly what I thought and is why his tasteless tactics hit me so wrong. We KNOW we owe the bill (we dicontinued our payments to our unsecured debts in June from the advice of our lawyer) so I have no problem with specking with anyone of them if they give us half the chance to do so. Our bills and bk is our own private business and we choose not to share it with our family and friends. The only ones that we have shared this with is my parents, they suggested that bk was our only option from the beginning.
BTW FEDLER: we are not deadbeats, as u suggest! we have always paid our bills on time then 4 years ago my husband was laid off for 4 MONTHS from his job. we lost over 10,000 in those months. Then 2 years later we were flooded (not in a flood zone at that time either) and lost all 3 of our cars and our A/C and heating system. These are things you never know will hit you and u do the best you can when they do. we thought we could somehow dig ourselves out thru the years, but have finally come to realize we will never be able to. I AM SICK of not being able to even keep up with groceries for my family and all money going to the credit cards. I AM SICK of my children going without. I AM JUST PLAIN SICK OF IT ALL! For 4 years I have worked with our credit cards to try to get them paid cause I knew it was the right thing to do, but I know now that because of our pride we have only made ourselves suffer WAY TOO LONG! We should have filed years ago when all the other employees that were laid off did. I know u could give a rats butt about me and my sitution, but u were gonna hear it anyway

[miss puff]

I know u could give a rats butt about me and my sitution, but u were gonna hear it anyway

Rock on Sistah!!!!! Take that Fedler!

I know exacty how you feel InLimbo- There comes a point prebankruptcy that we all kinda hit the floor and just crumble from the sheer stress and anxiety over whether we can feed or families or keep the heat on in the winter from week to week. Fedler is probably one of those that gets all his money from his momma and eats off a silver spoon-probably never broke a sweat from a blue collar job in his life.

[GoingDown]

I'm not trying to agree or disagree with anyone here or start a flame war, however, it is NOT illegal for them to call other people to look for you. It IS illegal if they discuss the specifics of the reason they are calling.

But by law, they can call whomever they please to try and track you down. They cannot say Hi I'm looking for Wenderful because she owes $5000 and she hasn't paid, but they can say Hi I'm looking for Wenderful, do you know how to get in touch with her.

I researched this at length due to the pending foreclosure on my house.

Totally legal. Not a nice thing to do, but not illegal.

This is correct. They can legally call your relatives and neighbors trying to find you, but once they find your address and phone number, it is illegal for them to continue calling relatives and neighbors. Find their address and send them (by certified mail so they know you can prove they received it!) a Cease and Desist letter demanding that they stop communicating with you and make sure that you put these words in your letter "it is inconvenient for me to receive telephone calls from debt collectors at any time and anywhere." Once they have been notified of that, it is illegal for them to try to contact you by telephone anywhere, including at relatives' homes, etc. It is your protection under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. If they continue calling, they can be subject to fines from the FTC, your state's attorney general, and you may file a lawsuit against them for violating the FDCPA. Most will stop calling you at this point. It has worked for me every time so far.

[InLimbo]

i do have a letter that the attorney gave me to send out to my creditors and will do that this next week. The thing that burns me is....he DID have my correct address and phone number and called me and left a message 5 mins before he continued down his list of my relatives. Its not like my phone had been shut off or that I moved. He didn't allow us any time to call him back. I totally understand someone trying to locate you if you could not be located, but we have had the same address and phone number for 13 years.
Oh well, hopefully this jerk won't be calling again.
Thanks so much for all of your respones!

[GoingDown]

i do have a letter that the attorney gave me to send out to my creditors and will do that this next week. The thing that burns me is....he DID have my correct address and phone number and called me and left a message 5 mins before he continued down his list of my relatives. Its not like my phone had been shut off or that I moved. He didn't allow us any time to call him back. I totally understand someone trying to locate you if you could not be located, but we have had the same address and phone number for 13 years.
Oh well, hopefully this jerk won't be calling again.
Thanks so much for all of your respones!

They are mainly doing it to harass you into paying. They know that it is very upsetting for relatives and neighbors etc., to get calls from debt collectors, and that it will often result in the alleged debtor making some payments toward the alleged debt. You have to remember that you are often dealing with very immoral and unethical debt collectors, many of them have just recently been released from prison and this was the only job they could find. Debt collectors are usually very horrible people and you should never talk to them or make any deals with them.

[FraggleRock]

Sorry to hear this is happening to you.