I had this firm call my neighbors, and threaten action if they didn't get me to call them back. Now THAT is illegal. So I had a friend draft a legal letter and send it to them, the debt wasn't even mine, but an old roommates of mine. We had the same address. Sure enough, they stopped calling me. Flash forward to 10 years later (today) I just started getting calls from them this morning. They are illegal scammers. Don't let them get your money!
These people have been calling me for a really long time. I don't owe anything or have collections but they still bug at odd hours which is really a pain.
They called today from this number. Normally they use 1 of 5 different 800 numbers that I wont pick up on. Now they figure Ill talk to an unblocked number in Kansas.
They think they are clever...but my cell number NO longer has voicemail...so I only scan calls I dont want and wont answer. Most of us need to use these tricks against Portfolio and the others.
Draft them another letter and inform them you will be suing them for TCPA and FDCPA violations if the calls continue:
Generally, the TCPA does not apply to debt collectors making collection calls to debtors. However, if you are subjected to calls from a debt collector and you are not the debtor, you may file a lawsuit against the debt collector under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and the TCPA.
This right was recently recognized by Judge Legrome D. Davis in a case called Watson v. NCO Group, Inc. NCO Group is a debt collector that uses automated prerecorded collection calls. In this case, Mr. Watson alleged he was getting hundreds of calls from NCO Group after he got a new phone number. Mr. Watson claimed he owed no debt to NCO Group, Inc. Mr. Watson filed suit under both the FDCPA and TCPA.
David Israel, defense lawyer for NCO, argued that the TCPA should not apply to debt collectors. Judge Davis rejected the argument made by David Israel. The judge ruled that Mr. Watson had a right to sue NCO Group Inc under the TCPA for $500 for each call. Judge Davis wrote;
[The] Court is convinced that a non-debtor's rights are in fact violated when he is subjected to repeated annoying and abusive debt collection calls that he remains powerless to stop.
Judge Davis' ruling was based upon his interpretation that collection calls to non-debtors violate the privacy rights provided by the TCPA.
So what can you do if you receive "wrong number" calls from debt collectors?
1. Sign up for the Do-Not-Call registry.
2. Save the calls captured by your voice mail or answering machine.
3. Contact a consumer lawyer.
Every day for the last 2 weeks between 9AM and 1PM I've been receiveing calls from random numbers I don't know, but don't leave messages. When I Google them, they're always Portfolio Recovery.
They finally left message, which tipped me off that they're calling for the wrong person. I called them to remove my number; the woman that took my call was a total [***] and didn't believe I don't know this person. She "removed" my number from their system - we'll see how that works.