Debt Collection Laws

Even if you owe some money, it does not give a debt collector the right to call you at all hours of the night, the right to call your family, friends or neighbors, the right to call your employer. They cannot call repeatedly, they cannot use harassing language, and they cannot use profanity. Threats of violence, calling friends, neighbors and family—all of those are wrong, they are unethical and they are usually illegal. Tell them through a notice to cease and desist! It does not have to be a notice written by a lawyer. You write back to the collector and say, do not contact me anymore. You are now instructed to stop communicating with me, to cease and desist! If the debtor says, stop! Do not call me anymore, they have got to stop and not call them and contact them anymore. Several of the collection agencies who have, have been on the receiving end of some pretty large judgments. You can stop them from contacting you. Now if you do that and you do not contact the creditor yourself, the creditor is likely to take additional steps to try and collect by suing you or what have you. But that is separate from getting harassed by a debt collector. The Federal Bare Debt Collection Practices Act regulates what conduct is legal and acceptable in collecting a debt versus what is illegal and unacceptable. They are obligated by law to obey that and if they do not, you can take them to court. That is a different issue however from whether you owe the money at all and what I am seeing more and more is what is called zombie debt collectors or scavenger debt collectors where they will buy a debt that you might have owed ten years ago, but nobody ever collected it, you never paid it. Too much time has elapsed and the statute of limitations is right, which is really the expiration date by which somebody either has to pursue the claim or write it off. And it is now no longer collectable and I am seeing more and more people are buying those debts and trying to then collect money from you and that is wrong and you should not pay it. You should talk to a lawyer.