Tonight I had a call from someone looking for my estranged wife, (seperated, not divorced). They implied they knew her and dropped a couple of her sister's names. I would not provide the number but got hers and said I would pass it along. I asked how she knew her and then I got the "well, I don't really know her" and I figured it was a collector. Well, the long and short of it, she dropped lots of names including my brothers, asked several times about the status of our marriage, refused to ID herself as a bill collector when asked directly, I asked what company she worked for and she said she was with DCS and I asked you mean Department of Child Services. She said, "I can't confirm that", and then went on somewhat implying that this is who she worked for. I pointed out that representing yourself as a member of a state agency is a felony and she did become somewhat defensive, all but admittd that she was a bill collector, and was rather insultive to me. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone has heard of a DCS or maybe recognizes the number she provided. It's 209-858-3712
Under FDCPA, debt collectors are not supposed to disclose information about consumer debts to third parties. They can, however, contact others to get information to locate someone they are trying to collect on. As you saw, that can place them in a bit of a legal quandry between FDCPA compliance and honesty. There appears to be a "Debt Collection Service" within the Dept. of Education that hands off collection of student loans to outside collection agencies. Or it could be some other outfit. Does your wife have any outstanding student loans in default?
She should follow up to make sure, probably directly with the lender, in case the records are messed up or any deferrals have been erroneously terminated, or payments are not being posted correctly.
