dealing with debt collectors

hideouse • Feb 11, 2008 4:41 pm
I do not have any outstanding debts. I am getting phone calls from collector's looking for my brother in law. Any tips on how to get them to leave me alone?
My Bro in law is hard to track down. I don't like collections agencies and am reluctant to give them anything, they call me without identifying themselves and ask me who I am, they keep calling back after I've said than no one of that name lives here.
Hmph.
glatt • Feb 11, 2008 5:03 pm
hideouse;431565 wrote:
they call me without identifying themselves and ask me who I am, they keep calling back after I've said than no one of that name lives here.


Sounds like they are in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and can be fined. Read the link carefully, and also read the actual law, which is here.

If they call again, tell them they are in violation of section 1692d of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and that you will be reporting them to the FTC. They can be fined for each instance of violation of this act.

I'm not a lawyer, but I did study this act when someone tried to collect a debt from me that I didn't owe. It gives you powerful protection. (Of course, I don't know how seriously the Bush administration enforces this law these days.)
monster • Feb 11, 2008 9:58 pm
What he says.

When they call, ask them to state their name and purpose "for the record".
deadbeater • Feb 11, 2008 10:19 pm
Ask them who they are. If they refuse to answer, resort to all measures to block their calls.
Kind of sad that even glatt is doubtful of Bush's vigilance when businesses go bad.
hideouse • Feb 12, 2008 12:26 am
thanks everyone, you guys are great. This is just what I need.
glatt • Feb 12, 2008 8:50 am
They are also violating section 805(b) which covers communications with third parties. You are a third party concerning your brother's debt. They may not contact you about his debt. They are violating federal law.
lumberjim • Feb 12, 2008 9:08 am
i'd think there was some kind of HiPPA violation too....unless you just said that, glatt. seems like a person's debt is a private matter.

do us all a favor, and make them pay, hideouse.

hey, explain that user title, would ya?
TheMercenary • Feb 12, 2008 9:59 am
lumberjim;431767 wrote:
i'd think there was some kind of HiPPA violation too....unless you just said that, glatt. seems like a person's debt is a private matter.

do us all a favor, and make them pay, hideouse.

hey, explain that user title, would ya?
HIPPA only covers protected medical information for the individual. There may be a case if the bill is an unpaid hospital bill.
Undertoad • Feb 12, 2008 11:08 am
(that's an auto-generated user title)
lookout123 • Feb 12, 2008 12:49 pm
yeah, but maybe the newb can explain what it means.
lumberjim • Feb 12, 2008 2:12 pm
Undertoad;431794 wrote:
(that's an auto-generated user title)

i was actually referring to his/her user name......not clear the way i wrote it though.

is it hideous? as in unattractive?

oh, and june of 05 is hardly newbish
Flint • Feb 12, 2008 2:21 pm
you're banned from posting until you can start making some sense
Clodfobble • Feb 12, 2008 2:57 pm
lumberjim wrote:
is it hideous? as in unattractive?


My brain has always read it as hid-ee-owse, specifically imagining it to be the blending of "hideous" and "mouse." I'm certain that's not what the person actually intended, but that was my initial impression of the word and it's stuck.
lookout123 • Feb 12, 2008 3:06 pm
oh, and june of 05 is hardly newbish


HA! my bad. I didn't even look at the register date, I just had it in my head he/she was a newb.
lumberjim • Feb 12, 2008 4:51 pm
Flint;431830 wrote:
you're banned from posting until you can start making some sense

YOUR MOMMA IS BANNED
Flint • Feb 12, 2008 5:13 pm
lumberjim;431846 wrote:
YOUR MOMMA IS BANNED
your momma is boned

wait, let me guess, your momma died in the WTC on 9/11?
lumberjim • Feb 12, 2008 5:25 pm
as a matter of fact......

...i never said anything that time when that troll was pretending his sister died there.....because it was too painful, but ....well, yes...my mom....she did die on 9/11/01......but it wasn't in the WTC..... It seems she was one of the terrorists that crashed in western PA......FAIL. so sad.
lookout123 • Feb 12, 2008 5:29 pm
you assholes. how fucking insensitive can two douchebags be? seriously, this right here is what has gone wrong with the cellar.


fuck, insensitive fucking fuckers. didn't it occur to you that your words can hurt??? my mom died when a giant FAIL sign fell on her while walking through a field in PA. dicks.
lumberjim • Feb 12, 2008 5:37 pm
MY SISTER DIED OF DICKS! WAAAAAAA~!
lookout123 • Feb 12, 2008 5:43 pm
i told you to pull it out when you hear her gag. dumbass.
lumberjim • Feb 12, 2008 5:59 pm
oh, that's just hurtful.
lookout123 • Feb 12, 2008 6:11 pm
I'm truly sorry. Shall I start a thread to apologize or are you already working on your farewell?
hideouse • Feb 12, 2008 9:37 pm
I was about to explain my username when this thread degenerated into, uh , degeneracy so I'll wait until ya'll calm down.
tw • Feb 12, 2008 10:04 pm
hideouse;431931 wrote:
I was about to explain my username when ... I'll wait until ya'll calm down.
Guess how many in this thread are debt collectors?
xoxoxoBruce • Feb 13, 2008 1:10 am
hideouse;431931 wrote:
I was about to explain my username when this thread degenerated into, uh , degeneracy so I'll wait until ya'll calm down.
They were just amusing each other until you came back. Kind of, smoke if you got 'em, time.
lumberjim • Feb 13, 2008 1:47 am
yeah....dig...

we're like 5th graders....you know.

except for lookout...he's more like a 4th grader that tries to hang out with the 5th graders and just winds up getting wedgies and Indian Sun Burns...and then crying or peeing his pants or something.

so...do tell....the floor, as it is...is yours.
hideouse • Feb 13, 2008 2:24 am
Actually, It's a nickname given to me by a coworker in 1990. I had left the military and gotten a job in manufacturing during a period of massive hiring. So I was in a crowd of people my age, none of whom knew anybody in town. We were working a lot, 12 hour days, six or seven days a week if you could stand it. After a couple of weeks, Jeff said to noone in particular that he was going to get a beer after work, you coming? Before you knew it about fifteen newhires are out and carousing. We end up drinking and playing cards at Jeff's place, noone got out of there soon. The next day we were all laughing, and Jeff said,"And you! you're a hideous drunk!" It stuck to this day, mostly because I'm really a sort of gentle giant type.
Anyway, when I registered for my very first free email account "hideous" was taken. So I added the "e".
lumberjim • Feb 13, 2008 2:28 am
thanks for that

would you like a quiz?


i'll do up a special one for you since you're a 2.75 year veteran-newbie type
hideouse • Feb 13, 2008 4:34 am
lumberjim;432008 wrote:
thanks for that

would you like a quiz?


i'll do up a special one for you since you're a 2.75 year veteran-newbie type


LJ, i respectfully decline your offer of a quiz on the grounds that I am an intermittant and unreliable reader of the Cellar. Plus I don't post much so I don't feel like I'm contributing much past the reason the speed of sound varies with altitude.
lookout123 • Feb 13, 2008 11:17 am
lumberjim;432000 wrote:
except for lookout...he's more like a 4th grader that tries to hang out with the 5th graders and just winds up getting wedgies and Indian Sun Burns...and then crying or peeing his pants or something.

Having the big kids pick on me makes me cool.
LabRat • Feb 13, 2008 11:25 am
Clodfobble;431832 wrote:
My brain has always read it as hid-ee-owse, specifically imagining it to be the blending of "hideous" and "mouse."


I read it out loud in my head as hide-owse. I never even saw hideous in there... Like this is his/her hidey house. Secret hideout. Etc. etc.
hideouse • Feb 13, 2008 7:37 pm
Labrat, the wide variety of interpetations of my nick is part of what I like about it.