Father's creditors calling me

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I don’t know where to post this, but, I have been called by my father’s creditors a couple of times already.

The last one called very familial and got me very upset.

They said, “Hi ______ how are you? This is so and so…”

I was like “Who are you?”

“Well, I am actually calling looking for so and so…” “He is your father, right?” “Yes…” I said.

They said “It is very important for him to call me so, please give him my number so that he can call me…it is very important…”

I said, “Ok, but I am going to ask you that let it be the last time you call him here looking for him…he does not live here…”

They said, “But, why?” (grrrr that just ticked me off totally!!) :mad:

I said, “Look it is none of your business, you know what, just never mind and don’t call here anymore…” and hung up on them.

I was super duper duper upset!!!

I just calmed down…

Has anyone ever had an experience like this…this is the first time for me and I really don’t know what exactly happens with these kind of deals.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.
 
My mom was in a similar situation, but rather than creditors looking for her father they were looking for her ex-husband… who had remarried, but still gave out my mom’s telephone number as the one coinciding with his address. While she could have ratted him out (deservedly so, in my opinion) and given out his accurate phone number, she simply stated, “I’m sorry, there’s no one here by that name. You must have the wrong number.” And hung up. 🙂
 
The Consumer Protection Act of 1996 strictly provides for stop contact notice. Even if your father did live there they can’t call you or send mail if you tell them not to contact you futher. A few years ago a friend that had listed me as reference on a car loan ran into some financial trouble and the bank wanted the car back. After telling a PI not to call my home again, I had no clue where he was and even if I didn’t I wouldn’t have told them, she continued to contact me. So I reported it to the authorities and she was arrested and charged with harassment. Any agent of a creditor has to stop contacting someone when they’re told to.
 
I had an even weirder situation.
When I moved to Modesto I put my name in the telephone book with no address. I did so because I am in a 12 step program and I wanted people to be able to find me ( I use my last name to other members of the program). Within three days I started getting phone calls from collection agencies. It seems there is a man with the same name as mine (I am a woman) who has papered the Central Valley of California with bad debt!

I got a telephone call as recently as this YEAR about this guy. The collection agent was very nasty and accused me of lying when I said he had the wrong Leslie K. When I asked to speak to his supervisor he refused to allow me to do it and tried to engage me in an argument. What he had forgotten is that I was RETURNING his call (I did so in order to clear up the mistake).

I hung up on him and called back, asking to speak to the manager. I got someone on the telephone. I told him I was reporting the company to the FTC and to the FBI and why.

I received an apology letter from the company. I still reported them.

The reporting probably doesn’t mean a thing but I do it anyway.
 
LSK said:
I had an even weirder situation.
When I moved to Modesto I put my name in the telephone book with no address. I did so because I am in a 12 step program and I wanted people to be able to find me ( I use my last name to other members of the program). Within three days I started getting phone calls from collection agencies. It seems there is a man with the same name as mine (I am a woman) who has papered the Central Valley of California with bad debt!

I got a telephone call as recently as this YEAR about this guy. The collection agent was very nasty and accused me of lying when I said he had the wrong Leslie K. When I asked to speak to his supervisor he refused to allow me to do it and tried to engage me in an argument. What he had forgotten is that I was RETURNING his call (I did so in order to clear up the mistake).

I hung up on him and called back, asking to speak to the manager. I got someone on the telephone. I told him I was reporting the company to the FTC and to the FBI and why.

I received an apology letter from the company. I still reported them.

The reporting probably doesn’t mean a thing but I do it anyway.
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Actually it does, the CPA of 96 requires enforcement. When collection agencies and agents pile up a number of complaints an investigation begins. A pattern of harassment will result in jail time and the collection agency being fined out of existence.
 
When we first moved to the Phoenix area, we started getting collection calls for some guy who has the same surname as we do. I guess they figured we all know each other! Now granted, our particular version of this common German surname is fairly rare. I once looked it up in a surnames of the U.S. listing, and there were only something like 12,000 people in the entire country who spell it the way we do.

However, that doesn’t mean we know everyone who has the name! The people calling us would get a really suspicious, rude tone when we said we didn’t know the guy. Like we were lying to them. I finally got to the point where I started telling them that he doesn’t live here, we have no idea who he is or where he is, and stop calling or I will take legal action. Thankfully, we haven’t gotten a call in a couple of years now, but this whole situation lasted for at least a couple of years after we moved here!

What I would do in your situation would be to tell them that as you are a legally separate adult identity from your father, they have no right to call you about his credit issues. You are not involved in any of his credit decisions. (Unless you co-signed on something…then you may be stuck!) Since that is the case, they should contact the correct person who is legally responsible…your father. And then tell them if they keep harassing you that you will take legal action.

I understand creditors need to get their money, but jeez…some of the people who call just seem so awful.
 
The previous post is right that they cannot continue to call you if you tell them not to. Next time they call, get the company name and address and send them a letter, certified mail with return receipt (green card), telling them not to call your phone number again.

Also, if this is a collection agency, your father can also send them a letter informing them not to contact him or his family/ friends by phone again. If they do, he can sue them for violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

Refer your Dad here for advice on how to word the letter and what steps to take:

creditboards.com/forums/index.php?act=idx
 
When I was still living with my family, we received letters from a lawyer who claimed that my father owned their client money and now he wanted it if not my father would be taken to court.

This lawyer was bluffing. He was trying to find someone that has the same full name as my dad who lived in some other town that my dad never lived in. :eek: There are many Vietnamese names that are exactly the same.

Do you know what else this lawyer asked for? He asked us to fax my father’s signature to him so that he could compare my dad’s with some other guy who had the same name. 😃 We told him we would never do it - he was threatening us - but we just ignored him. This lawyer never called back again.

That was about 4 years ago.
 
We had 2 situations like this. My husband’s name is Kevin, and last year we began getting calls for a Kevin with a completely disimilar last name. Each time we would explain that no one by that name lived at that number. As it turned out, a creditor for Kevin Notmyhusband had wrongly attached debts to my husband. Other creditors, assuming somehow that my Mr. Notmyhusband had changed his name, assigned debts to him as well. We got that cleared up.

We also had calls from creditors looking for my husband’s ex-step-daughter. Apparently she had listed us as next of kin on a credit application. That one was solved when we found out where she was and gave them her number.

These people are really difficult and frustrating, aren’t they?
 
Thank you to all for all your replies! I feel much better. Did not know what to think.

I found this, too answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060827125106AAf3ha2

The thing is that now a days there is so much information available to the public throught the internet. I have come across a couple of websites that “supposedly” sell people’s personal information. There are some that proclaim to sell criminal background checks as well.

I once came across one particular one that I decided to test by entering my name and came across some information that matched me! That’s right! It had my parents names and my place of birth. Of course, if I wanted to find out more I had to pay a fee. I think these agencies use that. My parents live in our other home, therefore, the house is under my name so I am guessing they investigated and came up with the right information about me and how I was related to my father, so, they began to call me looking for him.

Yup, they can be very nasty and make you feel like you are guilty of something horrible. Worst when you don’t even have anything to do with it.
 
Yes! They can make your life miserable!

One time they called me asking for my sister-in-law (my DH sis). They were particularly asking for me (not for my DH). That was kind of weird so I took down their info and told them I would get a holf of my SIL. I was naive and did not know what it was all about. So I called my SIL. She took it ok. She called me back about an hour later and told me that she called them back and told them not to be calling me anymore and they got pretty nasty with her. She was a month late on her mortgage and she had already talked to someone to make pay arrangements and still they were bugging her.
 
Do your father and SIL a favor - tell them they’re dead.

And note to the wise: don’t ever co-sign with anyone.
 
ltbpoe43 said:
Do your father and SIL a favor - tell them they’re dead.

And note to the wise: don’t ever co-sign with anyone.
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That is the strangest part of all! I did not co-sign anything. I have checked my credit reports and all and nothing appears. I just think the creditors find ways for people to respond. I think they try to embarrass us or something by calling relatives around and then our relatives come and tell us that they called them looking for me or whatever.

It is a subtle way of harrassing,… I would think…

But yes, you are absolutely right, one should never co-sign. I never have and I think that I never will unless I intend to pay for it.
 
Creditors who do skip-tracing don’t just call those who have co-signed on an obligation. If they are trying to locate someone, they might call neighbors, other creditors, persons who are likely to know the person they are trying to reach.
 
We used to get calls asking us to tell our NEIGHBORS to call such-and-such a bank/creditor back. The creditor used a Crisscross or Bressers register (publically available) that provides addresses and phone numbers of neighbors.

We live in a semi-rural area and do not really know any of our neighbors, certainly not well enough to say, “Hey deadbeat! Call your creditor!” One of the creditors was really rude to me when I said I would NOT give a message to my neighbor.

Thank goodness it’s been a few years since I’ve gotten such a call.

'thann
 
Ok - I have one for the strange books - this is long but amazing…

Shortly after I moved into my current home (I’ve been here six years) my neighbor took me aside and told me “in confidence” (more like gossip) that the other neighbor had been speaking to a police detective about my fiancé. The detective was asking if fiancé’s name was Mark R., and the neighbor told him it was!!! (Fiancé’s name was Mike M.). I told her that I know my fiancé, his entire family, and I KNOW he’s not the guy they are looking for.

Fast forward about two months. It is about 4am in the fall, still dark as night outside. I hear noise outside, so I go down stairs to check it out (I lived alone at the time). There were men shining flash lights in all my windows - men dressed in dark clothing. A dark car blocked my drive way. I crammed myself in the corner of the downstairs back bedroom, away from the windows, and called 911. I had never been more scared in my life! The 911 operator, after getting some info from me and placing me on hold, said that they were police!!! I told her that I would NOT open my door or approach the door until a uniformed officer appeared. So she sent a patrol car.

I went to the door, but still did not open it. I opened the window next to the door - I was still scared to death. They told me that they have a felony warrant for this guy named Mark R., and that they were told that he lived here!! :eek: I absolutely blew a gasket!! I told them everything about my fiancé - who he was, where he worked, offered to give them his license plate number, phone number, business card - you name it. I told them if they wanted to know anything about what’s going on in MY home to ask ME and not my nosy neighbors.

Well, it appears that this deadbeat went gambling at a local casino and won big. You have to list an address so you will pay taxes, and his listed my address. He was friends with the drug dealers who owned the home before I did. :mad: And he was known to sell cocaine, and that was how they got the warrant somehow.

To this day - five years later - I still get collection letters in the mail with his name on them, and phone calls from agencies looking for the deadbeat. I tell them everything I know - I’m more than happy to tell them if it will help them track him down and put him in jail.

~Liza
 
When I moved about 10 years ago, I got a new phone number and started getting creditor calls for someone who I didn’t know, but who must have had the number previous to me. Anyway, I moved again about 5 years ago and got a new number at that time. Just the other day, a creditor called asking for that same person I didn’t know. They must have followed the number. I know they can track forwarding numbers, but five years? Wow.

When I was living at my old address, I would tell them to stop calling and most of them just stopped. But there was one that was automated and it took multiple calls to that collection agency to get them to stop because they said they didn’t have my number in their files. Well, there computer did somewhere and it was calling me. It eventually stopped too, so I assumed they figured out their error.
 
ltbpoe43 said:
Do your father and SIL a favor - tell them they’re dead.

And note to the wise: don’t ever co-sign with anyone.
Click to expand...
Might not be such a good idea. After my wife died, I had a joint gas card switched to my name. The company closed the account, issued a new card and noted on their report to the credit bureau that the account was closed because the creditor was deceased. Being a joint account, the credit history also followed me and the entry on my credit history simply said “deceased” without identifying who was deceased.

Not needing any additional credit, I made no effort to clear this up. It got amusing when I applied for a store card to take advantage of a six months same as cash deal on a large purchase. Some “underwriter” in a far away place simply couldn’t understand how he could be talking to a dead man. Anyway, that entry eventually dropped off because of its age, but I occasionally had a little fun with it. If you or someone you know needs credit, though, it’s not a good idea to tell anyone that a person is deceased if they’re not. It could follow them for many years.
 
Thanks geezerbob - I retract my earlier statement - I wouldn’t want to be aiding and abetting in the commission of what could be a felony. You are right. Best just to agree to pass on the message and ask to be removed from their calling list.

But perhaps collection issues are different since it is not really you that owes the money.

My dad and 3 brothers and I all have the same initials and very similar first names. I can’t tell you some of the stories of calls I’ve gotten from creditors (and expectant mothers - yikes!!).
 
Well, time to let the cat out of the bag. I work for a major financial company as a collector on personal loans. I work in our charge off dept so I am the last resort before a loan is charged off on a persons credit and it is sent out to our attorneys. What most of you here are experiencing, or have experienced, is called skip tracing. I have several tools I can use to pull up a persons neighbors, relatives ( these includes in laws etc) and sometimes even close friends. One of these sites is called www.skipease.com/mobile . This is free to the public. Try (name removed by moderator)utting your address or phone number and see what comes up. Sometimes it works sometimes it does not. The one I use the most is the reverse phone search as many people change their numbers to escape creditors. Now, there are state laws for each of you as to how often a creditor can contact you. If they are simply trying to contact you in order to contact the one who owes different states vary on the laws. Some states you can only call every 30 days, some states you have to stop asap if asked, some states you cannot contact certain relatives. It all depends. Usually when a person asks me to stop calling in no uncertain terms I would notate the account to no longer call this person. Unfortunatley a year later someone else can be skip tracing the account, miss that note and then call you anyway. Usually if you are nice and polite, explain why you are calling ( It is against the law in EVERY state for a creditor to tell you they are calling about so and so’s account, that they are behind, or any other personal info) then usually everything is ok. I just say something like I’m sorry to bother you I am trying to reach so and so but could not get through on the number he gave me I have you down here as his mom and was wondering if you know how I can reach him. Most of the time no one will just hand out a number but most of the time the person will call back because they don’t want their family contacted. That is the whole point to contacting family, friends or neighbors…to get the person to call back so we can talk to them. Any other questions?
 
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