Third Party Debt

[fixmycred14]

I am ecstatic to have eliminated my own debt collection calls. Now, I have debt collectors contacting me regarding a friend's debt...Does anyone know what the FDCPA says about this? I know they are not allowed to contact a third party.

[guiness56]

They are allowed to only contact you for location information and cannot, in any way, discuss the debt with you.  If they do that is a big violation of the FDCPA.

[fixmycred14]

Okay. Yes, they are going into details.

[RobertEG]

+1

In fact, they cannot even disclose that they are calling related to a debt, period.

They can only state that they are attempting to locate a party, and they are limited to one such call unless they have reason to believe the third party either was not forthcoming in a prior call, or has now obtained new information about that party. See FDCPA 804.

If they call more than once, I would ask them on what basis they doubt your prior response or beleive that you have secured new information.

[guiness56]

Nope, cannot.

§ 804.  Acquisition of location information  [15 USC 1692b]

Any debt collector communicating with any person other than the consumer for the purpose of acquiring location information about the consumer shall --

(1) identify himself, state that he is confirming or correcting location information concerning the consumer, and, only if expressly requested, identify his employer;

(2) not state that such consumer owes any debt;

(3) not communicate with any such person more than once unless requested to do so by such person or unless the debt collector reasonably believes that the earlier response of such person is erroneous or incomplete and that such person now has correct or complete location information;

(4) not communicate by post card;

(5) not use any language or symbol on any envelope or in the contents of any communication effected by the mails or telegram that indicates that the debt collector is in the debt collection business or that the communication relates to the collection of a debt; and

(6) after the debt collector knows the consumer is represented by an attorney with regard to the subject debt and has knowledge of, or can readily ascertain, such attorney's name and address, not communicate with any person other than that attorney, unless the attorney fails to respond within a reasonable period of time to the communication from the debt collector.

§ 805.  Communication in connection with debt collection   [15 USC 1692c]

(b) COMMUNICATION WITH THIRD PARTIES.  Except as provided in section 804, without the prior consent of the consumer given directly to the debt collector, or the express permission of a court of competent jurisdiction, or as reasonably necessary to effectuate a postjudgment judicial remedy, a debt collector may not communicate, in connection with the collection of any debt, with any person other than a consumer, his attorney, a consumer reporting agency if otherwise permitted by law, the creditor, the attorney of the creditor, or the attorney of the debt collector.

[fixmycred14]

Thanks!