Jan 24, 2008 5:38 pm US/Pacific
Handling Harassment From Debt Collectors
(CBS 5)
Collection agencies - they seem to call at the worst possible times - all in an effort to collect unpaid debt. Sometimes even if you don't owe them a dime.
Now, imagine being harassed to pay the debt for someone you don't even know. That problem is ringing true for one Bay Area woman.
Helene Class's phone is ringing off the hook, for the past three months.
"Early morning...dinner time when I'm trying to change the baby," said Helene.
And they are calling to collect unpaid debt she says, "When I'm trying to serve dinner at my house...when we're trying to sleep in on Sunday morning."
But, it's not Helene's debt or anyone in her families. It's debt owed by the man that used to live in the house that Helene is now renting.
"I think they must have connected my phone number to his old address and I'm trying to tell them I have nothing to do with him," said Helene.
"Debt collectors are going to try to find anyone that's going to pay them...they're not necessarily interested in whether or not you owe them money," said Joe Ridout of Consumer Action.
Ridout said to make it stop you must send a letter to the collection agency within the first thirty days.
Ridout explains "Once that debt is sold to a third party collection agency, there are certain rights under what's called the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act."
Here's just a few of those rights: -Collectors can not call before 8am or after 9 pm.
-They can't call another person in the attempt to reach you.
-They can't pretend they are a government agency or an attorney.
In Helene's case, since this isn't even her debt, "You have the right to demand that they prove that they own the debt and the debt is yours," said Ridout.
"I asked them to stop calling me that they were harassing me!" says Helene.
Rpm is the agency that has been calling Helene. We found websites dedicated to consumers who have had negative experiences with RPM.
"Three times they said they would take me off their list and they Didn't," said Helene. So she turned the table and threatened them.
"When I said I'm going to report them to the police for harassment, she said, 'Oh, I'm sooo afraid,'" recalls Helene. "After that she hung up."
We called RPM Collection Agency and when we told them who we were, they put us on hold for 15 minutes and then disconnected our call.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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