Judge: Debt Agency Can't Contact Woman On Facebook

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A Florida judge has ordered a debt collection agency to not use Facebook or any other social media site in an attempt to locate a woman over a $362 unpaid car loan.

Judge W. Douglas Baird also ordered Mark One Financial LLC of Jacksonville, Fla. to refrain from contacting the woman's family or friends on Facebook.

The order is part of a lawsuit that Melanie Beacham filed last August against the debt collection agency. According to court documents, Beacham said Mark One sent messages to her and her family on the Facebook networking site to have her call the agency about the debt.

Billy Howard, the woman's attorney with the Morgan and Morgan law firm in Tampa, said the debt collectors violated Beacham's privacy. He said they also violated a provision of Florida's consumer protection law that prohibits debt collectors from harassing people.

Howard said that in the past four months, nearly a dozen potential clients have contacted him because debt collectors have used social media sites to track them down.

"It's the beginning of an epidemic," Howard said, calling it "another weapon" debt collectors can use.

Beacham's claims Mark One contacted her six to 10 times a day by phone, sent her a text message, contacted her neighbor and sent a courier to deliver a letter to her workplace, according to court documents.

Mark One did not return a message Wednesday from The Associated Press.

Last November, the agency said it would not discuss Beacham's case and denied any wrongdoing. The company acknowledged that its collectors use Facebook to find people when they don't respond to other means, like letters and phone calls.

Social media experts and lawyers like Howard say that debt collectors are increasingly trying new tactics to contact people who owe money.

In one Chicago case, a man was friended on Facebook by a young woman in a bikini. The account turned out to be a debt collector's, something the man realized only when the "friend" posted a message on his wall: "Pay your debts, you deadbeat."

Comments

[Aaron Pozdol]

10:48 AM on 03/10/2011

I support privacy laws, and its the collections agencies own fault that people don't want to talk to them if they can't pay. But this is hilarious: "In one Chicago case, a man was friended on Facebook by a young woman in a bikini. The account turned out to be a debt collector's, something the man realized only when the "friend" posted a message on his wall: 'Pay your debts, you deadbeat.'"

[Pieter de Bruin]

06:10 AM on 03/10/2011

Maybe if she returned one of the first phone calls and tried to work out a repayment schedule, the collector would have laid off.

[Tmboy]

12:37 PM on 03/10/2011

not returning a call does not give the company a right to harrass. they could have sued her for what she owed and filed a lien against her.

[SaneThoughts]

05:04 AM on 03/10/2011

Makes no difference in the long run. These collectors have no real regard for the law. Consumers have no rights in this country. Why again did we lock up Al Capone? It he were alive today he would be laughing his a__ off at the corruption and would probably be the Republican nominee for President of the United Corporations of America.

[Rowena Keefe]

01:16 AM on 03/10/2011

I was wondering about the public/private relationship between Facebook and organisations.

While not debt collecting as such, the library world is in awe of FB being the answer to retrieving overdue library books - but for some, having receiving notification on social media would be like having the librarian stomp into the pub while you're having a drink - a definite violation of professional conduct.

But in a world where people increasingly "live" in the digital world more than the real world, are the lines starting to blur?

[tenderlung]

09:53 PM on 03/09/2011

wouldn't hiring the debt collectors to do this cost more than the amount that she owed them anyway...

[CallMeLucky]

09:34 AM on 03/10/2011

debt collectors get a percentage of what they collect.

[Jambala99]

08:34 PM on 03/09/2011

"Beacham's claims Mark One contacted her six to 10 times a day by phone, sent her a text message, contacted her neighbor and sent a courier to deliver a letter to her workplace, according to court documents."

All this for $362 dollars?!?!?!?!?....seems like their "Profit Margin" would have been pretty meager at that point....

[LawrenceRoth]

07:26 PM on 03/09/2011

I was once assigned a cell phone number that came with a company issued phone where I worked. The cell number had previously belonged to a person that a debt collection agency was looking for. That agency called several times a day and I told them that I was not that person, that I just got the cell phone number, and that the phone was a company issued phone.

They would ask who I worked for, where I lived, etc. I did tell them the name of the company and then they asked for an address. I told them to look it up, it a national company and easy to find on the Internet. One lady asked me to write them a letter explaining that I was not this other person. That p|ssed me off so I told her she was not authorized to call that phone number. Period. End of effing story.

My outrage didn't work. They kept calling, and I finally had to request that the company change the phone number. The company had to pay for a number transfer, and was going to charge the cost to that debt collection agency, but I don't if they did or not. I was happy with the new phone number, and no collection calls.

[Aimee Bellefleur Hogan]

09:07 PM on 03/09/2011

Wow! I am glad that you were able to get a new phone number. That stinks when the collection agency won't listen. I get collection calls all the time for my husband's ex-wife. It is not fun and I can certainly sympathize with you. I, too am in the process of getting my (home phone) number changed and having it as unlisted.

[Motorgoon]

07:16 PM on 03/09/2011

Well thanks goodness I live in California. The legislature just enacted a law in the penal code. If you use a fake unselfish to contact someone, you get arrested. If you even contact someone and its considered "unwanted contact" you get arrested. Its a great new law because if you get a message, post or message from anyone, be it social media, email or text, its noe a crime. Its quickly become the most used section for Internet crimes than any other. Thank you California legislature.

[idcsys]

08:28 PM on 03/09/2011

Bravo to California. There are federal harassment laws, but many debt collectors regularly violate the laws.