Harassing calls from a debt collector? Here is what you need to know

I am getting calls attempting to collect a debt from someone other than me.    I have explained several times to this collection agency that they have the wrong numbers (including calling me at work).    However, they keep on calling and calling.    How do I stop them?

Many times I've written about the "not me" problem, arguably the one most commonly generated by the collection industry, whose members display no motivation to control. It's cheaper and easier for your collector pals to assume that the hunted person is hiding below your kitchen sink, or that the alleged debtor is you playing like Richard Kimble with aliases.

I link below to a little essay from 7.5 years ago. The hyperlinks and price quotes are a little outdated, and the unmentioned CFPB was open for business two months later, but the rest holds up. The general idea is to get on a paper trail, invoke laws that help you, and make the offenders pay if they don't obey.

https://800notes.com/forum/ta-34af6a034ba34b6/unending-collection-calls

You notice I'm not discussing call blockers. Blocking is not stopping, no more than an umbrella can stop all rainfall. This is the part the block 'n' ignore crowd never understands. A commission-starved debt collector will call everyone and the neighbor's parakeet until someone opens a wallet or purse. You can't tell them all and your boss to "just get a call blocker". No, the point is that debt collectors should not get away with their lazy man's detective work or offloading their drama to a dozen people they've never met. They caused the problem, they need to control it, or else you will via summons and complaint.

They will continue to hound you until hell freezes over or until they think you are somehow able to pull money out of a body orifice.

Sad, but true.

There's more to do besides resigning oneself to continued pestering. I suggested as much one year and two weeks ago in my own reply to Mrs. Johnson.
https://800notes.com/arts/harassing-calls-fro ... -know?page=c290

A judgment collector and its counsel are expected to play nice and pay heed to FDCPA provisions. The Johnsons could have asked the opposition to stop writing and/or calling, or limit the times and means of contact to what's convenient. The couple could let their attorney handle all the crabby demands. What's the creditor gonna do, sue Mr. Johnson again?

Too many collectors post senselessly here or try and remove posts that appear to expose them after they open an account, they are the ones who have avatars beside their alias and advocate paying debt, even if it is too old to collect on in the courts with statue of limitarions running out, they are reptiles who seek almost pure profit on what they paid peanuts for from suckers who believe their BS or rude harassment.

Sorta defeats 800 Notes' mandate to allow these reptiles to join and make and account to remove posts doesn't it?

It is now illegal to call ones neighbor in Ontario.  Get your facts straight. An umbrella prevents you from getting soaked and a lawyer can play god to stop the rain. Your analogies reflect the mentality of those mental schleps who enter the trade of harassment for money. You're a gas!

Thanks so much for the rude update, Fraud Buster John. I notice that everyone who has ever demanded that I "get my facts straight" suffers from some form of fact dyslexia or reading disability, and soon relies upon ad hominem attacks in place of a reasoned argument.

Given that Walt never disclosed his location, it was reasonable to assume he lives in the States, not Canada, along with the vast majority of 800Notes users. His question concerned debt collectors who refuse to quit bothering the wrong person, a very common problem which crosses international borders. I'm so happy for Ontario residents that their government tries to protect them. The US also has laws to punish false skip tracing. Yet this bad practice remains the one which people all over North America most complain about in their dealings with the collection industry. This is despite the fact that a US citizen can sue for relief and your Ontario-ites cannot.

Why won't the bullies stop calling, John? That's what Walt wanted to know, and I gave one perspective. Where's yours? What straight facts do you have to resolve this which we have all been missing?

} Too many collectors post senselessly here or try and remove posts that appear to expose them after they open an account ... allow these reptiles to join and make and [sic] account to remove posts

Do you mean this single slow-moving thread or all of 800Notes? Maybe you should point us to the "senseless" debt collector propaganda in the former, because I'm having difficulty locating any over the past couple years.

As to your novel post removal theory, Admin powers are not granted here instantly upon site registration. I see no evidence of any secret agent for a debt collector tampering with any of this site's content in its entire history.

What "defeats the mandate" around here is to sling inane accusations in a weak attempt to seed distrust of 800Notes as a resource for an often vulnerable population. Some "Fraud Buster", what a hoot.

They are required by law to give you their company name which in the case of a telemarketer may be their client's name, contact information and a mailing address, this is the same for any telemarketing company.  I worked for a legitimate telemarketing company, while our outgoing calls were strictly business to business sales or customer service follow up calls for our non-business to business clients, we still had to follow the same laws.

Here is the drill. Never answer. Never give information, money or purchase anything. Just get a phone the blocks calls. You can block range of numbers too. The best thing to do is block before your phone picks up. It totally foils robocallers.

BTW. Panasonic makes a good phone with great blocking features. I'm sure most others also do the same thing. There is no reason why you need to ever talk to debt collectors.

Several years ago I paid a collection agency for a medical bill.  I later learned that I had never actually owed that bill.  Although I requested that they return the money I had paid them, they never repaid me.  Therefore, it is my policy to never pay a collection agency.  I once had a supervisor at an agency tell me that I was not allowed to pay the collector--I had to pay them.  As it turns out, the onus of the debt was on my health insurance.  I never paid this agency and it turned out that I did not need to.

I get dunning calls for my ex-wife every now and then. I tell them that she doesn't live here, never lived here, has remarried and changed her name. Usually once I tell it's my ex, they back off, especially when go into what a train wreck she is, credit wise.

Depending upon which state you live in might have bearing on it, but 7 times a day?  Pretty sure that is at the very least questionable, if not straight up illegal.  Check your local laws.

Let's see if we can pile up another couple dozen replies to Jennifer from eleven years ago to make an even hundred, since we lack satisfaction with the existing supply of responses.

https://800notes.com/arts/harassing-calls-fro ... 653121328514764
https://800notes.com/arts/harassing-calls-fro ... 605618756852748