Collection Agency Practice
 

I realize collection agencies spend a lot of resources tracking people down to get the money owed, but I am curious as to how they can find a cell phone number.

The reason I ask is because we were getting calls for a woman with the same last name as ours but different first name, once we finally took the call, the guy apologized, next day, he's calling my wife's cell phone asking for the same (different) woman. I have left 2 msg's now to speak with this guy, and now he won't return my calls. I am little bothered that he somehow got my wife's cell phone thinking it was still this other lady.

they use services such as Intelius - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There's a good chance they will keep harrassing you, on the assumption that you might be the person they are looking for and just not admitting it.

If they do, call an attorney...assuming that their harrassment is causing you stress, anxiety, and insomnia they might end up owing YOU money.

Hopefully it was only her cellphone number... and not her ssn or any other personal information. A similar situation happened to me and I got my credit report and found 2 different collection accounts from MCI and a medical something or other....never having any medical bills unpaid or ever dealing with MCI..... I called them and oddly enough they just took it off after a serious of validation questions.... a friend of the family in the business informed me that a lot of the time they will just "mistype" a number or tie you to previous address and put it on your report....

I once had a neighbor in severe debt and the agencies were calling me and a few others listed in the proximity of their address. It was at all hours of the day, sometimes several times a day. Even had a guy ask me to keep the line open while I went to the person's house to ask them to come to the phone. I had just jumped out of the shower at the time to answer the phone. I asked to speak to the caller's Supvr who was willing to explain their process and they did use Intellus. Needless to say I went unlisted and told them not to call me again.
These calls are recorded so if you tell them to stop calling, they have to otherwise it is harassment, a.k.a. CHA CHING! and make sure you tell them you will take action if their calls do not stop. Would also help to log the person's name and time of call too.

Get their address, then tell them "under the Fair Credit and Collection Act do not ever call me again regarding this matter." Note the call details.

Then send a certified letter telling them the same, and the fact that you are not the person they were calling about.

Once you're really ****ed at the repeated calls despite the notices, you can seek a lawyer and sue them for harrassment.

www.budhibbs.com for more details.