Question:
Has this happened to anyone else?
Iıve had my current telephone number for about two-and-a-half years.
A few weeks ago, I started to receive automated telephone calls from a
Toronto bill collection agency demanding that (a voiced-inserted name
of the debtor) contact (a voice-inserted name at the agency) in regard
to their delinquent account at (voice-inserted: Peopleıs Jewellers).
I have never had an account at Peoples; and never heard of the person
they were seeking but figured the debtor must have had this number at
some time in the past.
I pressed the button indicating a wrong number.
The calls kept coming and filling my Call-Answer voice-mail box. Three
more times I pressed the button indicating a wrong number. You cannot
hang up on this thing. It just keeps on going or transfers to
Call-Answer. This went on for days.
I sent an e-mail complaint to Peoples (the collection agency is their
agent) figuring theyıd swing some weight with the bill collectors.
The next day, I received a phone call from Peoples head office in
Houston, Texas, asking for information, apologizing and saying theyıd
straighten it out. I gave them my phone number and suggested it be
removed from the collection agency database.
It seemed to work because the calls stopped.
Then ten days or so later, the calls started coming again ... even
more, four times on one day. And with a different debtorıs name and a
change in the Peoples name. It had now become Peoples-Mappins.
I suspected someone at the collection agency might be acting in spite.
Another e-mail to Peoples, this one hinting at some vague legal action
produced a phone response from the collection agency (into the
voice-mail), apologizing and assuring I would not be harassed again.
I have received no further calls over the past ten days.
Iım not against the collection agency using an automated device to
track down deadbeats. One suspects, however, that the actual purpose of
this machine is to pester the subscriber into calling their 1-800
number so that a live person at the collection agency might elicit any
information at all on the whereabouts of the debtor.
Their machine offers a button choice for a wrong number. When selected,
it should be the end of machine contact. (It is certainly simple to
align the number they have with the name of the current subscriber.) It
is not my job for any reason to call their 1-800 number.
I donıt know if my experience is unusual, or not.
I have no complaint at all with Peoples. They responded properly and
action was swift both times I contacted them.
Answer:
They may have invented the number, rather than having it at some point.
Many businesses don't actually do a credit check until after scam artists
have departed their premesis.
Have you contacted the phone company and local police regarding these
harassing calls?
According to
http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/files/money/collect.html
"Collection Agencies often use abusive and illegal means"
Despite the reassurance from Peoples-whoever you may not get any
relief until you take them to court or complain to police.
In 1981 I had to complain to the local fraud squad to get the
Victoria Times-Colonist collection jerks to stop harassing us
with 6:30 am Sunday morning visits for products that were never
ordered and which were not accepted on the 3 days that they were
delivered.
A bit after we moved into a condo T-C papers started piling up on
out doorstep. When the pile reached 3 high I left a note saying
that we did not subscribe and would not pay. The pile disappeared
and I thought that was the last of it until the collection jerks
started showing up trying to harass us into paying for 2 weeks of
papers we didn't order and didn't receive.
Each of them seemed reasonable and assured us that nobody else would
show up, but it carried on until I reported this fraud to the local
fraud squad, at which point their legal counsel must have explained
exactly how far they were exposed under criminal statutes and civil
statutes such as the credit reporting act.
The harassment ceased and I got a grovelling letter appologizing.
By coincidence I happened to be passing through the lobby when their
designated groveller showed up to appologize to the condo manager.
I hadn't realized that one strategy I could have used was to complain
about news paper delivery employees having access to what was supposed
to be a controlled access building.
The appology letter was cc'ed to the sgt. at the fraud squad and
mentioned that they had reminded their delivery employee's not to
let papers accumulate outside doors(sort of like a nobody home,
please break in and burgle at your leisure notice).
A report in a small circulation local weekly mentioned other cases
that made this seem like a wide spread pattern of fraud and harassment.
A student who rented an appartment in August to be sure of an place
in September arrived to find his door blocked by a month long
accumulation of papers and was subsequently harassed by T-C
collection agents, so it seemed to me that I should skip being
patient and polite and let the police deal with these repeat
fraud artists.
