Collection Agency wants someone else

They can, and sometimes will, do anything they think they can get away with, if you let them. But if you know it is not your debt, and the account doesn't even have your name on it, you should be able to get them to leave you alone fairly directly.

How are they contacting you?
By phone?
Letter?
On your credit report?

 

Note that if they repeatedly call you, asking for someone else, and you repeatedly inform them of that and to stop calling, you can sue under FDCPA for their harassing calls, since they are debt collectors under the law, are calling to collect a debt, and despite that you are not the correct party. If they don't have the right to abuse the actual debtor, neither do they have the right to abuse anyone else.

http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fdcpa/fdcpact.htm#806
"§ 806. Harassment or abuse [15 USC 1692d]

A debt collector may not engage in any conduct the natural consequence of which is to harass, oppress, or abuse any person in connection with the collection of a debt. Without limiting the general application of the foregoing, the following conduct is a violation of this section:

(1) The use or threat of use of violence or other criminal means to harm the physical person, reputation, or property of any person.

(2) The use of obscene or profane language or language the natural consequence of which is to abuse the hearer or reader.

(3) The publication of a list of consumers who allegedly refuse to pay debts, except to a consumer reporting agency or to persons meeting the requirements of section 603(f) or 604(3)1 of this Act.

(4) The advertisement for sale of any debt to coerce payment of the debt.

(5) Causing a telephone to ring or engaging any person in telephone conversation repeatedly or continuously with intent to annoy, abuse, or harass any person at the called number.

(6) Except as provided in section 804, the placement of telephone calls without meaningful disclosure of the caller's identity. "

 

Personally, if they didn't stop calling after time 2, I'd sue them for illegal third-party contact. I have very little patience with corporate idiocy, though.

 

Illegal third party contact would be what the actual debtor could sue for, or what you could sue for if they contacted others claiming you were the one who owed the debt.

Repeated calls after you have told them you are not the debtor, and not to call, are harassing in themselves. Sue under FDCPA for that.

 

How do you actually go about sueing them, then? I have a very similar problem as I'm always getting calls from CA's who are trying to locate my ex-wife.

I have told them time and again to not call me. I get letters all the time for her, but at my address. I've sent them back with "Does Not Live Here, Never Has Lived Here" written across the front, but they still mail them here.

I think she uses my address a lot in order to get credit and do other deceitful things (she is so evil ... she still uses my name and/or address and phone number as though it is hers ... cause her own personal credit file is SO bad ... but she acts like she lives here where I do and have for past 8 years ....) and so when she doesn't pay I get her CA letters and phone calls. Although I don't know how to prove she is doing this.

I've told the CA's time again over the phone to take my phone number and address out of their records.

I'm fed up with it. How do I sue or make them stop? I can't afford $1,000 or more for an attorney ... and how do I sue some company based out of some other state and I live here in NC?

See a new thread/post I'm making, where I ask a similar question about sueing Capital One for collection activities on some accounts that were included in Chap 7 back in Feb 2004 - and what can I do.

P.S.

If anyone can help me successfully sue these CA's for harrassing me or point me down the right path to get this settled myself ...any money I receive as a settlement (I think I've read before that each violation by then is worth a $1,000 penalty or something?) ... any moeny I receive I will glady donate over half of it back to anyone on this forum that needs to hire an attorney for some worthy reason ... It's not my goal to make any money sueing these dogs - I just want to punish these violating CA's and make them think twice before going on with their same old abusive practices.

 

If she is opening accounts that she is using, and receiving statements on them, then she would have to have some other address she is using for that purpose, unless statements are actually coming to your address and she picks them up there, which presumably you would not allow if you don't want to be her answering service and mail drop.

Any older addresses, including yours, may still be on her reports, and if she is not responding to bills and CAs, they might just be going down that list.

Have you pulled your credit reports, and are there any accounts of hers on there, or are there inquiries from companies with which you have not applied for credit? Is any of her other information on your reports, such as new addresses, etc?

Have any CA calls, or letters, gone beyond trying to politely locate her, to specifically harassing you? If so, you can send them a letter, CRRR, clarifying that your ex-wife does not live at your address, or receive calls at your phone number, that you are not responsible for her debts, and that they should cease and desist all further contact, or you will sue.

If they fail to observe that, sue in small claims court under FDCPA for the harassment and failure to observe the C&D. You will probably have to teach each one, one at a time.

Keep records of all contacts, get caller id to log all call numbers, dates, and times, and if your state allows single party recording and you are getting harassing calls, set up to record them. You want to be as sytematic in your documentation as they are in their harassment.

 

Thanks for the Advice!

Again OnTrack, I really appreciate it.

She isn't actually opening new accounts I don't think and using my address (unless she is and is swinging by going through my mailbox everyday before I get home - which I TOTALLY believe without a doubt that she would do something like that ...she is evil and very criminal minded).

But, I believe when she does other things, like apply for a new job or fills other other forms ... whatever they may be ... she lies about where she lives (and many times this is because she doesn't have her own address!! ... she lives from boyfriend to boyfriend ...for a couple of months at a time..)

She does this to avoid the law ... several Counties are looking to serve warrants on her and this is how she avoids them. Child Support Services is one division looking for her - she has not paid child support in over 4 or 5 years.

So, I think when she pretening to be someone else and filling out a form and putting down my address as her "previous" address .. in order to make it look like she is more stable and has had a permanent residence ... which she hasn't though ...is doing this as all part of a big charade to the rest of the world ... making pretend and falsely indicating to others that she has lived here at my address ... etc ... she figures I guess since I've lived her steady for about 8 years now ... and since she still uses my last name ... that no one will ever figure out we are divorced and that she has never lived her.

The other thing might be is that there was maybe a couple of old joint credit card accounts that had both our names ... that I included in the Chap 7, but none of them had my current address as far as I know. Maybe the CA's thru their investigating cross-referenced her name with my name and were able to find my current address and are just assuming we are still married and so send notices to her.

But, it's not any notices about any past accounts, these are new accounts that my es opened all on her own ... even medical bills she owes that CA's send letters and calls to me ... looking for her.

Anyhow, something has happened and there seems to be some database out there somewhere that has her name associated with mine, and then they do a lookup on my name and find my current address and then assume she lives here as well and I get all her flak ...

Is there anything I can do? When I call these numbers back, some won't even tell me who they are, I always tell them she doesn't live here and never has, even try to give them an address of where I think she last lived, the last couple of phone numbers (most of which are actually her boyfriends numbers or a cell phone or payphone number ... she won't actually ever let me know what her phone number is ... if she can even get a phone in her name!)

All that, yet they still call ... I would love to send a CRRR letter to them to tell them to stop, but I have no addresses. Can I record the phone call when I tell them to stop, and then next time they call record that off my answering machine onto my tape recorder and then use that as proof?

Like I was saying the other post of mine, I don't even really care to sue or get any money - I just want them to stop.

Again, thanks for everyone's patience and help!

 

Check your credit reports to make sure she is not going beyond just applying using your address as her past address. If she is having problems with money and getting approved for credit, it would only take adding you as "joint" to create real problems for you. She probably has your SSN and DOB, and if your address is on her credit reports, even as a past address, it might be enough to get it approved.

 

Regarding attempts by CAs to contact her thru you, you will probably have to deal with them one at a time. However, you don't have any reason to put up with their BS, on debts that are not yours.

If you get tired of repeated calls after you have already informed them the debtor does not live at your address, and cannot be reached at your phone number, you can respond to each contact with a letter to the same effect, sent CRRR, and include in it a "cease and desist" (see FDCPA). If they keep calling, or even sending letters, document and sue.

http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fdcpa/fdcpact.htm#805

"§ 805. Communication in connection with debt collection [15 USC 1692c]
...
(c) CEASING COMMUNICATION. If a consumer notifies a debt collector in writing that the consumer refuses to pay a debt or that the consumer wishes the debt collector to cease further communication with the consumer, the debt collector shall not communicate further with the consumer with respect to such debt, except --

(1) to advise the consumer that the debt collector's further efforts are being terminated;

(2) to notify the consumer that the debt collector or creditor may invoke specified remedies which are ordinarily invoked by such debt collector or creditor; or

(3) where applicable, to notify the consumer that the debt collector or creditor intends to invoke a specified remedy.

If such notice from the consumer is made by mail, notification shall be complete upon receipt.
..."

Note that there is no requirement that you be the actual debtor for you to have the right to tell them to cease contacting you. Even if you are not the debtor, you are a "consumer" under FDCPA. They are not claiming you are the debtor, and you are specifically notifying them that the debtor they are trying to contact cannot be reached at your address or phone number, so stop contacting you.

Should they continue, your claim is under both the "harassment" and "ceasing communications" provisions of FDCPA, and your letter is to document that they were notified and were therefore required to cease communications entirely regardless of whether such communications was harassing or abusive. The remaining final communications allowed do not apply since you are not the debtor (they have not said you were), and in fact should they now send you such a notice, they would be disclosing the debt to a third party, but that is your ex's problem.

There are attorneys who routinely deal with, say, "do not call" and junk fax litigation. If this problem becomes excessive, you might want to pass it off to one of them. Unless you like dealing with courts, the only one benefitting from you suing them yourself is your opponent, since you might collect reasonable attorneys fees, if you had an attorney. If they prefer to have your attorney help them comply with the law, they can pay for the privilege.

 

common names

The same thing happened to me because I have a common name. When I got my credit report many other and similar names were mixed with mine and it didn't matter that I didn't owe those creditors! What does the FCRA say about this issue?

 

Until you dispute thru the CRA, no-one has to do anything.

The problem might be with the DF erroneously attributing an account to you, or with the CRA erroneously merging other people's accounts under your identity, so FCRA doesn't hold either party liable until you have disputed and they have had an opportunity to fix it.

I would probably start thru the CRA, since if they determine that, say, all the erroneous accounts have some common address at which you never lived, or a different SSN but they had merged the identities, they could separate your file data from other file data on that basis, as well as prevent future similar mix-ups.

I would still put it in the form of a CRA dispute under FCRA, in writing, CRRR, in case I needed to go after a DF, or file a complaint with the AG or FTC should the CRA fail to respond adequately.