# "Help us contact your neighbor"- what's the real story? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 24, 2010, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-us-contact-your-neighbor-whats-the-real-story/540579 "2010-05-24T15:31:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2010, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-us-contact-your-neighbor-whats-the-real-story/540579/21 "2010-05-26T17:49:24Z")
> [@Haunted\_Pasta](#): > > I bet this is totally it. I’m not positive, but now that you ask, I think they only said “CPS.” Where I live, Children’s Protective Services really is the name of the agency, so I was automatically thinking it was them. Maybe not, though. > > Now that I’m back home, I have the toll-free number I was supposed to pass along. It doesn’t seem to turn up on any of several websites I went to that do reverse lookups of 800 numbers. So, no help there. > > As long as we’re talking about sleazy business practices, I should point out that one of the reverse lookup websites made a big deal of how the search was FREE! And it was, too. Only catch was, it would cost a dollar if I actually wanted to see the results. But yes, the search itself was FREE! Bastards. Just checking in to see if you used [800notes.com](http://800notes.com). It’s actually a site where people input numbers themselves. Every time I’ve checked to see what an 800 number actually is there’s been someone who went to the trouble to trace it. ---
**Author:** ![NOLA\_Cajun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea666f/32.png) [@NOLA\_Cajun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NOLA_Cajun)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-us-contact-your-neighbor-whats-the-real-story/540579/22 "2010-05-27T13:52:09Z")
Hello? What’s that you say? Leave a note for my neighbor? Well actually he’s standing right here and his message to you is to “go fuck yourself I ain’t paying you a damn thing”. What’s that? You want to talk to him? Unfortunately he’s a mute and can’t speak to you on the phone. Anything else? Didn’t think so. Buh-bye. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-us-contact-your-neighbor-whats-the-real-story/540579/23 "2010-05-27T19:32:21Z")
I read [an article](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122369424667425525.html) a few years ago about how this sort of “shame based debt collection” tactic was becoming widespread in Spain in particular, and thinking it was a pretty cool idea, even if it’s illegal in the US and the UK: > [@](#): > > ``` > "The idea is to make the delinquency public," says Juan Carlos Granda, a director at El Cobrador del Frac, which has been in business for two decades. "We have our professional uniform like anyone else," he adds.Other companies in the fast-growing field include The Scottish Collector, which threatens to send a bagpipe player in highland dress to debtors' homes, and the Monastery of Collection, whose employees arrive decked out as Franciscan friars. Others dress as bullfighters, Zorro or the Pink Panther. > > ``` > > “In times of crisis, companies like ours sprout like mushrooms after the rain,” Mr. Granda says. > > Not all cases call for costume. Sometimes, instead, the collector simply phones the neighbors. “I want the people around you to say: ‘The debt collector came looking for you.’ It hurts your public image,” Mr. Granda says. > He recounts one of his proudest successes. El Frac, as the company is known, was pursuing a wealthy Madrid couple who hadn’t paid the bill for a lavish wedding reception attended by hundreds. So one of Mr. Granda’s men obtained the guest list. "We called two or three people on the list and said: ‘We’re charging you €500 for the chicken you ate, for your part of the wedding cake,’ " Mr. Granda recalls. > The debtors paid up, he says. > > … > > U.S. law prohibits harassing alleged debtors with tactics such as telling friends or neighbors about their bad debts. Similarly, in the U.K., publicly humiliating debtors until they pay up would be considered unfair practice. > There are worse tactics out there, says a spokesman for Citizens Advice Bureau, a U.K. consumer-advocacy group. “We’ve also heard of debt collectors using live bears in Russia,” she says. Personally, I think America as a whole could do with a bit more “sense of shame”. Though using a live Russian bear is DEFINITELY going too far. ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2010, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-us-contact-your-neighbor-whats-the-real-story/540579/24 "2010-05-27T20:28:32Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > Heh. I always tell them that my freelance work rate is $125 an hour, minimum of 2 hours, payable in advance. For some reason, nobody has ever actually sent me my fee for this sort of service… > > Of course I’d do it for free for an actual friend or relative. But I see no reason why I should perform menial tasks for businesses just because they ask me to. Bill them for your time and when they don’t pay, sell the debt to a shady debt collector! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-us-contact-your-neighbor-whats-the-real-story/540579/25 "2010-05-28T06:14:55Z")
> [@](#): > > Personally, I think America as a whole could do with a bit more “sense of shame”. The problem is when a company latches onto the WRONG FRIGGING PERSON, and then can’t be persuaded that they’ve targeted the wrong person. This happens way, way too often. Also, some shady collection agencies have tried to collect debts that were either paid off in full, or charged off. Again, this happens way too often. Hell, my husband and I got targeted for this shit. We’d paid off a debt, and then some collection agency tried to get us to pay it again years later. The company was Camco, and this company had a history of illegal and unethical activities…including discussing the debts with third parties. [http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/03/camco.shtm](http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/03/camco.shtm) Oh, yes, I do think that we could do with a bit more of a sense of shame…but it should only be of offenses that we’ve actually COMMITTED. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-us-contact-your-neighbor-whats-the-real-story/540579/26 "2010-05-28T10:29:22Z")
Shame based debt collection won’t work in the US. For one, many people don’t ever talk to their neighbors, or even want to. Second, our economy is in the crapper, and we’re all in debt, so it’s not a big surprise if the neighbor has a bill collector after them. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-us-contact-your-neighbor-whats-the-real-story/540579/27 "2010-05-28T12:27:27Z")
Someone calling for Bank of America has done this to my sister. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2010, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-us-contact-your-neighbor-whats-the-real-story/540579/28 "2010-05-29T00:35:50Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > The problem is when a company latches onto the WRONG FRIGGING PERSON, and then can’t be persuaded that they’ve targeted the wrong person. This happens way, way too often. Also, some shady collection agencies have tried to collect debts that were either paid off in full, or charged off. Right, and in fact, the sleazy collection agencies rarely have a legit collectable debt. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-us-contact-your-neighbor-whats-the-real-story/540579.md?page=1)