Debt Collectors: HuffPost Readers' Weirdest Harassment Stories (AUDIO)

Debt collectors perform a useful function. They recover scads of bad debt for creditors -- an estimated $40 billion worth in 2007 -- that helps keep lending costs down for credit card companies and others. And, per the industry's reputable trade group, ACA International, "debt collectors often get flowers and thank you letters from grateful consumers."

Last week the Huffington Post asked readers for their weirdest debt collector stories. We received many tales of harassment, but none of flowers and thank yous. (We would like to! Send 'em to [e-mail].)

One woman wrote that debt collectors had been calling her over a debt that belonged to her husband's previous wife ("No need to tell you how mad it made me feel getting phone calls about my husband's ex's debts"). Another reader wrote that collectors were on his case for a credit card debt his dad allegedly owed when he passed away.

"They only stopped after I sent back a bill, unopened," the reader wrote. "I had left my father's name on it but had crossed out my address and wrote in the recipient's new address as: #1 Cloud Way, Heaven."

One of the best stories came from Billy Green, 47, of San Francisco, California. His debt collector troubles date all the way back to 1991, when he had some trouble leasing a trombone.

"I tried to rent a trombone and they ran a credit check on me," he said in a telephone interview with the Huffington Post. "They said, 'We wanted to ask you about this problem that you have when you were living in San Leandro.' I'd never lived in San Leandro."

William Green is something of a common name, it turns out.

Here's Green's letter to HuffPost:

I have had several instances of companies request credit reports for me and receive the report of a different "William Green" instead. I have been told variously that I have tax liens against me, that I'm a serial check bouncer, that I have defaulted on home loans and any number of other credit sins that I've never performed.

Story continues below

advertisement

Several years ago, my bank sent me a notice that they had cut the credit limit on my Visa card to $1,000 because of a credit report they received. Trying to find out what the credit report said was like pulling teeth. For a week or so, they refused to give me any details of my alleged sins that had caused them to reduce my credit limit. When they finally told me that it was because I had defaulted on a home loan when I lived in San Jose a couple of years earlier, I nearly lost it. I asked if it had ever occurred to them to check their own records -- having banked with them for many years, they should already know that I have never lived in San Jose, and that I've never even bought a house anywhere, much less defaulted on a home loan. My credit limit was restored in a matter of minutes.

Every few years, a collection agency contacts me regarding debts owed by "Wiley Green." After a few calls, they admit that they considered it a long shot based on similarity of names (thinking if I'm not him, maybe I'm related), and they give it up. But every couple of years the letters start arriving for "Wiley Green" again, and the cycle starts anew. At this point, it's more of an annoyance than anything else, kind of like mosquito season.

Poor Wiley Green, wherever he is. But collectors have an ingenious trick for foisting a phony identity on the real William Green:

The most current tactic seems to be for collectors to use an automated dialer and a recording. In the calls I have received on my answering machine in recent weeks, the recording begins by saying "We are trying to reach Wally Green regarding an unpaid debt. If you have not hung up by this point, we assume that you acknowledge that you are Wally Green." I've not heard any more of this recording because either my answering machine or their calling machine tends to hang up around this point.

Here's audio of the voicemail for Wally Green:

As for the trombone, Green said that the rental went through in the end.

Comments

[dpiyjrtmfr]

Flashbacks to my time as a credit card debt collector.
I do not know if the same info applies to other forms of debt.
How to make the calls stop: DO NOT hang up. If you do, they will just call back in a few days. Identify yourself as the owner of the phone number and request firmly that they cease calling. By law, they are supposed to immediately remove your number from their system. You can do this even if you do owe them money and it is a legitimate attempt to collect a debt. If you tell them to stop calling they are supposed to stop immediately.

Reading some of the comments here makes me wonder how much these debt collectors are trained. If they reveal your private information to a third party they can be held liable legally. For instance, if they call your neighbors and tell them to have you contact them you might be able to sue them. Maybe. We were warned not to do anything of the sort while we were in training due to liability issues.

Some of you are being contacted by "skip tracers". These are collectors who attempt to trace people who have skipped out on their debt. Unfortunately, I do not know how to tell you to get rid of them. A favorite tactic is to call debtor's old numbers and to contact their old places of residence in hopes that the current owners will know their whereabouts.

[CaveatMagnusFrater]

They usually don't listen The debt that I receive calls for is an ex-girlfriends phone debt at a place I never lived. I have one trick that seems to get alt least solicitors to stop calling. They ask for me, I say just a minute. When I pick up the phone a few minutes later, they've given up.

[ethelthe]

A few weeks ago I answered the phone, and a debt collector asked if I knew the people a few doors up the road. I don't really, and explained that. The debt collector asked if I'd go see the neighbour and pass on a request to have him call the debt collector.

I said no, I wasn't getting involved. Then came the response, in a very snotty voice, 'It's in your best interest, Sir, to help us resolve this matter'.

I said my goodbyes, and haven't heard from them again. But they've called multiple times in the past, so I am sure that I will.

[naschkatze]

Creepy. I'd report that. It sounds threatening.

[retrobeck]

Document every one of these calls and give the documentation to your neighbor---they can sue the company for violation of the FDCPA, $1K each violation. This is HIGHLY illegal.

[PunKinPai]

Last week on the Clark Howard show a guy called about a debt collector in another country (the Philippines, I think) had called and threatened his wife with severe bodily harm if she didn't pay on a loan that had been paid off years earlier. Debt collection companies sell outstanding debt just like banks do. When they get sold offshore, rules and laws don't apply.

[oneCTvoter]

Currently I have Allied Interstate/Capital One Collection Agency calling for someone that has never lived at this address or had this phone number. The last time they called (the last of maybe 20 calls) I said oh yes - that person doesn't live here but I know their work number and tell them just call and ask for her. Then I give them the phone number of the Consumer Protection for the state they are located in. I haven't heard back from them but give them time.

[WSAY]

"Per the industry's reputable trade group, ACA International…" Who do you people think you are kidding? The ACA is merely a lobbying group of thugs that would take away every right consumers have. They are a mouthpiece for debt collectors. As part of their jobs, they disseminate this kind of propaganda. The fact of the matter is, that collectors are abusive. Not some of them, not many of them, not a few of them - all of them. It goes with the job. How are they going to get you to pay a bill you don't want to pay if they don't harass you?

The good news is there is a federal law that protects people from this kind of abuse and harassment. Even if a debt collector merely lies to you they violate the law, and lying is their stock in trade. The ACA hates this law. The ACA has worked very hard to try to either overturn this law or modify it to the point that it has no teeth. Anyone who believes that the ACA is a reputable group is naïve. If consumers are being caressed by debt collectors they need to take action. There are lawyers out there that will sue abusive debt collectors do not charge anything for it. These lawyers will not only sue these abusive debt collectors they will put money in the pockets of consumers. One such organization is this one: www.westcoastlitigation.com

[Davwbaird]

HaHA the feds rarely pursue complaints especially during the Bush reign. We have been keeping track. When we ask them to prove they we owe the debt it takes quite a bit of time for them to follow through fever.

Remember these crooks are why we are all in these dire circumstances due to their poor decisions, us we were able to pay our bill until our business tanked and we ran out of reserves.

[LooktotheLeft]

I get calls nearly everyday from collectors looking for some goldbrick that, evidently, occupied my office space before I moved in.

[DMEEPhD]

If my Caller ID shows up any 'Unknown Caller' or 'Unknown Number' I simply so not answer. If they persist, I tell them that they have the wrong number. If the name on the Caller ID does appear and it is either a law firm or some 'service' bureau, I have learned that it is more than likely (99.9%) a debt collector, and I simply tell them that they have the wrong number.

Letters in the mail I mark as 'Undeliverable, please return to sender' and mail them from my workplace - which uses a different post office - and the letters stop.

I to have a very common name, and these a$$h0les buy these old debts for pennies on the dollar and try to intimidate people into paying them off.

[PunKinPai]

I thought of doing this but realized that many people, including myself, have blocked numbers for privacy reasons. If I needed help I sure wouldn't want to be ignored because my name didn't pop up. Also, if your child/frie­nd/husband were in trouble somewhere and you didn't recognize the number they were calling from, then what?

[ldsb]

Friends and relatives will leave a message.

[marsglow]

I got harrassing phone calls and letters demanding the sum of "$0.00" to settle a debt (which speaks for itself). I finally called them and they told me that in order to clear the matter up, I would have to send them a check for $0.00. I refused, and told them to just sue me. They never did, tho I really wanted them to.

[Puzes]

makes we wonder if they just wanted your check so they could rip off your bank account!

[PalaceOfWisdom]

For a solid year I was getting calls for someone with a Hispanic name, despite my own being decidedly white. I patiently told these people no less than fifteen times they had the wrong number, and they never updated their records until I finally chewed them out. It has become all too common that the only way to get someone to act competently is to berate them. I hate yelling and cursing.

Thankfully my last name is quite unusual so that's the worst that's happened to me.

[sunshinerain]

FYI, if someone else's name is "Hispanic," then your name would be "decidedly European" - not "white." "White" is not an ethnicity or country or continent of origin.

[CherrySpring]

Add to that, too, that Spain is a European country and many "Hispanic" names have a Spanish origin.

[cindyw]

I got collection calls for two years for a man whose previous phone number was assigned to me as a "distinctive ring" number, which I hadn't ordered and didn't know I had. The calls came at least three times a week for those two years, no matter how many times I told them I had no knowledge of the man they were looking for. Finally, the phone company sent a tech to my home, and he discovered and corrected the problem. Shortly after that, I saw in the paper that the man they were looking for had died after an extended battle with cancer, so in retrospect, I'm glad I was the one taking those annoying calls instead of a dying man.

[cyclobenzaprine9]

=)

[RedGinger]

This might be a little off topic, but this phone # [phone] will opt out your name from getting any credit card solicitations by mail for 5 yrs. My whole family has done this.

[DeeDeeDaGumby]

some companies ignore those laws.. heck they will laugh at you when you tell them you are on the do not call list...

[Gwen R]

When I added a second phone line, I found the phone number used to belong to someone with numerous debt problems. Even _my own bank_ called me several times demanding that I leave messages for this guy. I started with polite explanations, but after months of calls I lost it. They refused believe that I had never heard of the guy or that the phone number was new to me. I called my bank's main office to get the harrassment to stop. It did, thankfully.

[SOLERSO68]

all they can do is call. i have the habbit of not answering calls from anyone "not on the list". i hate "phone span" and no matter what company or what the purpose of the call they always call at dinner time. i love call ID.

[BlackYowe]

I haven't taken out a loan of any type in 18 years and paid off and threw out my credit cards 8 years ago. I however get calls every week from credit card services in Florida wanting to talk to me about my credit cards intereret rate!

[naschkatze]

We own our home outright, but we get calls and mail all the time asking us to talk to someone about our mortgage.

[tre]

I've received calls from banks trying to reach my brother. When I told them that my brother and I weren't speaking anymore that got them off my back then.

I personally have not had any payment problems or had trouble with debt collectors. But, someone attempted identity theft on me once. I received a credit card for which I didn't apply in the mail. When I called about it, they were asking me all of the standard security questions. They kept coming back to my mother's maiden name. When they figured out what was happening, they advised me on what I should do then.

[Hansy Peguero]

I am glad I have a very unusual name.