Have you ever had a bill collector call like this?

[Sampiro]

I got a call today from who I assumed was a telemarketer (that damned two second pause), and then the person asked to speak to Charles (my middle name and the one the phone is listed in because I’m too cheap to pay for an unlisted line- nobody actually calls me Charles so it’s a tip-off that the person got my number from a database. “Hi Charles, my name is Karen and I really need to get in touch with your neighbor Steve Nelson*. Is there any way you can get a message to him? It’s very urgent.”

Well, I’ve only lived in my apartment complex for three months and I only know one neighbor, that one only vaguely, and it’s not Steve Nelson. Also, the way my complex is designed, unit 212 may be 20 feet away from unit 160 but a quarter mile from unit 210, so the person she mentioned even though he had a close number to me wasn’t in my section. I declined to take a message.

When I got back to work and mentioned it, my co-worker told me “bill collector— try living in a trailer park, I do and I get them all the damned time…”.

So is this true and is this legal? It’s damned irritating as now if I meet Steve Nelson I feel I know some of his business that’s none of mine.

Also, I’ve gotten several calls from bill collectors for somebody who has evidently at some point had my number. They won’t take my word for it that "I don’t know Bannerjee Patel… do I sound like Bannerjee Patel to you? " (The name they ask for is at least that ethnic.) I usually hang up (because these people are rude: “M-hmm, so you do not have an account with Computer Hut International under any name, is that what you’re telling me?” and it’ll stop for a few days, then I get it again.

Anyway, the point is bill collectors are dirty rat bastids.

• name changed

[Fear_Itself]

According to Section 805 of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act:

(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.

Sounds like they are breaking the law if they are a bill collector.

[Fear_Itself]

Or maybe not, if we check Section 804

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;

Sounds like they may have stayed just within the bounds of the law.

[Squink]

@Fear Itself

Sounds like they may have stayed just within the bounds of the law.

Some (most???) states have units within the attorney general’s office that deal with out of line bill collectors. If they keep annoying you, gett what information you can out of them and give the AG’s office a call.

[ZenBeam]

that damned two second pause

That’s not a bug, it’s a feature. It gives you a chance to hang up before they come on the line.