Robo Calls from CAs - not my debts

[chasmith]

This may be painfully long but I'm wondering whether I have an cause of action already (are robo-calls for collections per se illegal and are there statutory damages), and what happens if these clowns try to post something to my CR based just on name and address.

I recently moved from Virginia to Baltimore, MD. I have an extremely common first and last name.

I have a Comcast Digital Voice phone number here. Have updated my address and phone with all my open accounts, my address has updated only on Experian (per USAA-CCMP). I've entered my new number in the donotcall system but 31 days hasn't elapsed. I filed BK7 and was discharged in 2009, absolutely everything is current since BK.

I've gotten robo calls from two collection agencies. I don't know whether they get some kind of phone updates from Comcast or a service from Experian.

First was from "Allied Interstate". Recording asked me to call their 800 number "regarding a debt". When I called back the person answering stated he is looking for a XX XX at some other Baltimore address and mentioned “skip trace”. When I asked for his name he was evasive and refused either a supervisor or their address. Calls back to supervisor and seeking further escalation were useless. A letter I've sent is reproduced below, FTC complaint filed.

Second was from "RPM", number searches to "Receivables Performance Management". Recording repeatedly asks me to hold, says I'm next in line, disconnect. FTC complaint filed.

Letter follows:

Allied Interstate, Inc.
3000 Corporate Exchange Drive
Columbus, OH 43231-7689

Via First Class Mail with delivery confirmation

RE: Call regarding some other XX XX, attempts by your staff to evade identification.

I received an automated call stating I needed to call 866-578-4773 regarding a debt. I owe no non-current obligations but called, the first contact stated you are looking for a [Edited to remove personal information-marinevietvet, myFICO moderator] at some other Baltimore address and mentioned “skip trace”. When I asked for his name he was evasive and refused either a supervisor or your address.

I had to call back in, spoke to Ms. AAA then “BBB” who gave me a partial address and when I overheard the first individual who had refused his name and asked her to name him she hung up.

Three subsequent calls were disconnected. On a third call I reached Ms. AAA again, she refused to identify BBB’s manager, or provide the rest of your address, and stated she was instructed to disconnect me.

I owe no non-current debts. I have never resided at any other Baltimore address.

You are forbidden to contact me by phone again under any circumstances.

I caution you that if you have some other item from some other XX XX you are legally prohibited from attempting to report it against my credit report.

Your representative’s identification of the address of another person named XX XX and statement he is a skip trace is a probable violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act against that person.

The reference number for the complaint filed with the FTC is 28736079.

[haulingthescoreup]

I hope this works for you! I'll be following it with interest.

My widowed mother is listed in the phone book as first initial only + incredibly common last name. She gets upwards of a dozen calls every day from CA's looking for people who share her initial and last name. Usually she ignores them, but sometimes she has tried to tell them that they have the wrong number.

I doubt that she can end this unless she changes her listing in the phone book, but it would be good if she could reduce the call volume.

Note to women who don't want their first names listed in the book: don't use "J. Smith." (Not her name, but just about as bad.)

[RobertEG]

There are two types of communications that a debt collector can make with you.  Calls trying to determine locator information regrding a party other than the consumer (FDCPA 804), and calls to you as the consumer who has the debt (FDCPA 805)

If a debt collector calls you  in an attempt to obtain locator information pertaining to another party, the pertinent limitations of FDCPA 804 are that:

They identify themselves, and if you request, also identify their employer.  Neither of these are optional.  If they wont tell you who they are and their employer, I would simply end the caLl due to their refusal to comply wiht FDCPA 804(1).

They must notify you that the purpose of their call is to get locator information on the named person.  You are fully jutified to inquire as the purpose of their call.

They CANNOT state that the person owes any debt.  All they can say is that they are trying to locate that person.

They cannot contact you more than once unless you request them to call again, or they have reasonable belief that your prior response to them was inaccurate or incomplete.

If you simply tell them you have no knowledge of the person, that should block further calls.  However, if you simply state that you have no obligation to tell them anything, that would, in my opinion, open the door to additional calls. 

If they used the magic words that they are calling regarding the owing of a debt, they can only say that IF they are asserting that YOU are the consumer who owes the debt.

Otherwise, it is a clear violation of FDCPA 804 to call for informqtion about another person, and state that it regards a debt..

Other than strictly to obtain "locator information" under the above provisions of FDCPA 804, a debt collector may not communicate with any party other than the consumer, the consumer's attorney, the original credtior, or a CRA.  Not with you.  See FDCPA 805(b).

[chasmith]

Thanks Robert, great information.

[llecs]

OP, I understand the frustration. I just dealt with a CA moments ago myself. In my case, I'm an employer and some of our employees do owe from time to time so we'll get those calls. However, all of our employees work in the field and never visit the office (except on payday). I don't know if I'm complicating things (I probably am) but I refuse to play messenger with any caller and usually end up ticking them off.

This morning I got a robocall from a CA. They called no fewer than a couple dozen times before. It was always a pre-recorded message saying "Press 1 if you are so and so; hang up if you are not so and so". Well, I got tired of putting them on hold and letting their recording cycle over and over while listening to my elevator music, so I pressed #1 today to pretend I was so and so. I asked them to read off my social security number and Mr. CA refused (kudos....one actually did that once) and then asked them to read off my address for verification and he read off my employee's address. Maybe a FDCPA violation there. Then I revealed that I was not the employee and then he raised his voice over mine and asked my why I lied before hanging up. Not one to walk away from a fight, I called him back and oddly enough it went straight to him again. I said that we must have gotten disconnected somehow and that I was a little tired of his robocalls. He asked me why I never bothered to remove the number from the list before and I said his recording didn't give that option. He said the number was removed and I told him that I don't believe him. I told him that a debt collector's word is never their bond. Naturally he got defensive and then accused me of being that employee before hanging up on me. My first instinct was to call again, but decided to let things simmer back down first. If he calls again, maybe we'll talk football next time or I'll ask him for comment on recent declines in the collection industry. Who knows.

[Anonymous]

It's an epidemic!!!

I think I just got manually "robo called" by the funniest debt collector ever!

My rarely used home phone was jumping off the hook this morning. I was bathing and feeding babies, and the number kept showing up as "Unknown caller"-- I was thinking, 'Darn it all, I knew I shouldn't have put my name in the hat for winning the HGTV Dream Home to serve as our 2nd home/ski lodge..'. especially since we don't ski, and I'd probably break my neck for trying, but, I digress...

So, after about the 8th or 9th call in less than 2 hours, I picked up, completely ready to lay into whomever it was who may have wanted me to give answers to a survey or sell me a timeshare. If I didn't know better, I'd have sworn it was Joad Cressbeckler who was on the other end!! If you don't know who that is, well... you'll just have to Google him.

I got as far as, "Hello..." before he shouted (not angrily, just LOUDLY) his otherwise polite request that I give him my name. Had he not interrupted, he would have at least gotten my surname with the standard, "..."Mirth" residence" that always follows, "Hello!" I politely reminded him that it was he who called me, and that the polite thing to do would be to introduce himself and state his business. He seemed genuinely mortified that he may have offended me, assured me that he'd retained at least some of the decent manners & decorum that his late mother had tried to instill in him, and that he would undoubtedly answer to his good father who would surely return from the hereafter should he ever intentionally insult a lady.

After my assurances that my sensibilities were indeed assuaged, he went on to give me a speech about how folks were falling into hard times, and what his father would have said about it, and his $.02 as well-- at least I think so, because I didn't 'get' some of his local and perhaps... ahem... antiquated & colorful colloquialisms. But, I got the gist enough to figure that he was winding up to a plea to pay some delinquent debt. He even went so far as to hint that I, as a woman, should be chagrinned at the lengths that men will go to & the debt that they will amass to win a girl gal's hand for marriage, then to 'take care of us' while we (women) virtually bankrupt our spouses shopping all day.

Fortunately for this guy, he was far too funny to raise my feminist ire much, and my dear mother always taught me to never waste logic on the feeble-minded anyway.

He finally got to the point to ask if "my husband" was home, because he was calling about a charged-off credit card. I asked him whose name was on the account, then told him that I didn't know of any such person-- wrong number. Not to be deterred, he actually started reading off a list of names, and asking if I knew any of the people! "No... No... No... No... Wait a minute. All of those names are associated with one account?"  Nope. He just had a list of folks to call, and he figured that that since I was such a nice lady he'd ask if I knew them.

Sadly, after not knowing anyone on his list, we had to say our goodbyes. He seemed really regretful about it too. But, it was for the best... I don't think I could have held in my laughter for a second longer.

[RobertEG]

Amazing, indeed, how they totally ignore the FDCPA!

If a debt collector calls you, and YOU are the one who owes the debt, they must, at the very beginning, disclose their identity.  FDCPA 806(6).  Further, they must disclose in any communication with you, be it an initial communication, or a subsequent communication, that they are a debt collector attempting to collect a debt that you owe. FDCP 807(11).

They must proviide their true business name, and not that of another.  FDCPA 807(14).  If they did not meet the check list of each of these items, and they refuse to comply, then then are inviolation of debt collection practices under the FDCPA.  Notwisthanding these provisions, at any time, you can block all further calls to you regrding their collection of the debt by simply sending then a letter under FDCPA 805(c), which they must honor upon their date of receipt of such letter.  Include in any such cease and desist letter the additional statement that your employer does not permit you to receive any such communications at your place of business, and thus that any calls to your place of business will also be a violation of FDCPA 805 (a) (3).

If a debt collector calls you, and you are NOT the party who owes the debt, then they are very restircted in what they can say.  Under FDCPA 804(1)-(6), they must identiffy themselves, but cannot state that the party they are calling in reference to owes any debt.  They may only state that they are seeking "location information" for that party.

"Location information" is defined under FDCPA 803(7) as being only that person's "place of abode and his telephone number at such place, or his place of employment."

Personally, if you answer a "location information" request, I would not suggest that you just tell them to "find him yourself."  Sure, you can do that, but that leaves the door open for further calls.  Just tell them you dont know his location information.  Once you tell them that, they are prohibited from further calls to you under FDCPA 804(3) unless they assert that your prior response was erroneous or incomplete.  Just do a one time shut down, and tell them you dont have the information.

If a debt collector calls you in regard to a debt they assert that you owe, and then asks, oh, by the way can I  speak with your spouse or someone else regarding any form of debt they assert that person owes, such as a charge-off or collection, that is a flagrant violation of FDCPA 804(2).