If You Thought Debt Collectors Were Nasty Before

You ain't seen nothing yet. The Times reports complaints about debt collector practices are WAAAY up and that, more and more, these companies are freezing accounts and ruining lives even without proof that the people they're going after are indeed the folks who defaulted on lines of credit/bills, etc.

A snippet:

Stephanie M. Clark, 36, and her husband sued the Triad Financial Corporation of Huntington Beach, Calif., and Verizon Wireless in Federal District Court in Santa Ana, Calif., in August 2004. After they fell behind on their car payments, the suit alleged, Triad hired a collector who threatened them with arrest, posed as a Verizon Wireless employee, changed the password on their cellphone account and obtained their cellphone records. According to the suit, the collector called dozens of the couple's relatives, friends and business associates, posing as a law enforcement officer and telling them that there was an arrest warrant for the Clarks.

I once had some third party outfit call and leave a message with my boss that they were contacting the U.S. Department of Justice to arrest me (along with a cute little addition that I could be tried as a terrorist) for failing to pay a student loan I not only had paid, but I'd provided proof to them I'd paid.

When I called them, they acknowledged that they had the proof of payment but - and this really floored me - that they had decided I had not paid enough interest on the debt and (they were quite bold in stating this) there was nothing to prevent them from making my life very uncomfortable if they decided, after the debt was paid in full, to extort more money from me knowing I wouldn't like my boss contacted again.

I got this cleared up and contacted my congresscritter, but I've always wondered what happens to those who are less proactive.