I'd tell the collectors that under NO CIRCUMSTANCE are they EVER to call me again. I've never heard of these folks attempting to get a neighbor to do their dirty work for them, but it's clearly nuts! This is not your responsibility in any way, shape or form. Tell them to "cease and desist" with the phone calls immediately!

auntjen,

I thought of that after the second one. But the third one caught me when I had my mind on something else, so I didn't think of it. Maybe I'll have my ducks in a straighter row for the next one.

I'm curious. Are they asking you to just give the neighbor their phone number with the message to call? Or something more?

The young adult daughter of a friend put me down as a personal reference on an automoblile loan. She did not ask me beforehand. So about six times in the life of the loan, they have contacted me to ask if I would pass along the message for her to call. I really did not want to know her personal business, but evidently theses six calls represented being behind in payments at least twice. I wish she would not have put me in the position of having to decide what to do.

I got calls like this for my neighbor's son - an adult who lived in another county. They had his parents name so to find me, they just used a reverse directory. Fool that I was, the first time I got the call, I went next door to convey this message of concern for them, embarassing us both.

I got one of those calls for an elderly person one day. I asked why the guy on the other end wanted the info. He told me to sue. I wasn't sure if it was fraud or an honest attempt to collect money so I called so I called lawyer son of the elderly person. Turns out parent was probably hiding considerable 'losses' in day trading from the rest of the family. In this case, I didn't feel bad because I didn't give the creditor any info and was able to get help for someone who desparitly needed it.

In your case, I'd tell the person to stop calling me.

Or ... simply hang up and tell them nothing. I figure if an intrusive phone call comes into my home, I have a right to hang up on the caller without explanation.

I've told telemarketers that I've "died", or if they've asked for my husband I've said, "Sorry, he's in prison." One of these days I'll work up the nerve to add the second part of that, which is, "...for killing a telemarketer!" ('Course, he's not really in prison! He's sitting in the same room with me watching tv when these calls come in!)

If you don't have caller ID on your phone, I do recommend it. I can look at my phone and know at once if I care to pick up the receiver or not.

Bottom line -- it's your home, and these are unsolicited calls that have nothing whatsoever to do with you. So you decide how to deal with them, but don't let anyone fool you into thinking that you owe these collectors anything whatsoever. You don't have to carry on any kind of a conversation with them if you don't care to.

Good luck!

According to a friend who works for a collection agency, say, "I don't know that person and don't call me again." If they call you again, ask for the name of the collection agency because this is against FDCPA regulations.

Thanks, everyone. It is good to hear all the stories. So far all three callers have asked me to put a message on her front door to have her call them. I have just said, no, I won't do that. I will add the part about not calling back.

I very rarely see these neighbors. We exchange friendly greetings, but have never really had a conversation. I have all sorts of speculation on their lives, but most of it is probably complete hogwash. So it's not very difficult to avoid mentioning these calls to them.

Hi Susan,

Ask them for the name and address of their agency, so that you can send them an invoice for interfering with your privacy and taking your time - to deal with an issue that has nothing at all to do with you.

And say that you are not willing to do anything to help them. It is completely none of your business.

If they continue - repeat your original message.

Over and over.

Happy telephone tag!

ole joyful

When (or if) they call again, I'll imagine all of you standing behind me. :)

Thanks,
Susan

Susan,

Oh, Lord!

Anything but that!

o j

Susan-
My response is to tell them I'll be happy to do that, but my time is vauable to me and I charge $1000 per message. I tell them I'll do their work for them as soon as they send me a cashiers check in that amount. And then I tell them to not call me again if they are unwilling to reimburse me for my services.

I like that, kudzu9. :)

I just found out a couple of days ago that creditors do this. I received a call & the person told me that they had called other neighbors & left messages. They wanted me to give the person a message. I couldn't believe it. I didn't know they were allowed to call neighbors. I told them that they needed to deal with the person themselves & I wasn't going to get into someone else's business.

That's a real stinky deal ...

... letting some/many/all? of your neighbours know that you have credit problems.

Have a great weekend, all.

ole joyful

Apparently, according to the Fair Debt Collection act, creditors can contact 3rd parties:
"May a debt collector contact anyone else about your debt?
If you have an attorney, the debt collector must contact the attorney, rather than you. If you do not have an attorney, a collector may contact other people, but only to find out where you live, what your phone number is, and where you work. Collectors usually are prohibited from contacting such third parties more than once. In most cases, the collector may not tell anyone other than you and your attorney that you owe money."

Hi terriks,

That looks like a set of Federal rules, isn't it?

Which means that it covers the whole country - U.S. only, of course.

Thanks for the info.

o j

Aren't you on the "do not call list"? Remind them of it and tell them to stop calling. Ask them for the name of their company, phone # and the callers name for future reference.
Kathy G in MI

HOW OUTRAGEOUS!!!!

I have never heard of such an invasion of privacy in my life. I would hang up on them IMMEDIATELY, after telling them "Do not ever call here again" in no uncertain terms. The time for being polite was over as soon as they placed the first call to you. Tell them you will report them to the authorities, as well.

This is called skip tracing. I did debt collections about 10 years ago. It's normally a total last ditch effort to track someone down.

You all may seem incredibly annoyed by it, but once in a while you get someone really chatty when you ask if they about someone's whereabouts and you get a good lead.

May seem annoying - but realistically they're trying to find folks that owe tons of money, this isn't to chase down debts under $500 it's normally for thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars.

Someone CANNOT say, hey I'm looking for your neighbor he owes money. They also are not supposed to tell you they're a creditor. The lines blur a bit state to state about what you can say, but all are covered by the FDCPA.

I remember one time I called to get info, and they were like, oh hey he's out in the yard I'll get him on the line. It works, that's why collection agencies do it.

One other thing, they may not necessarily be looking for someone's whereabouts. They may be looking to find out random things, where is someone working, etc.

Thanks, Pebbles, for that insight. If I do get another such call, I can truthfully say I haven't seen those neighbors for months. (I have heard them, so I know they are still there. But I don't need to mention that.)

I wouldn't be thrilled to receive phone calls from strangers poking their noses in my neighbors business. They probably are debt collectors. Or, they could be private investigators hired by someone to find a child support deadbeat or hunt down a domestic violence victim. If I knew the neighbors and were on friendly terms with them, I'd be sure to tell them someone was calling me to ask snoopy questions.

The next time they call, I'd get their name, address, phone etc. before even beginning the conversation.

I also liked what Kudzu9 had to say about charging them for $1000.00 per message!

Charge the collecting agency $100 each time you go find your neighbor. The collecting agency must PREPAY for your service.