Deceptive collections companies

I don't know where this should go, but I guessed the lounge was a good place.

I just received a phone call from a guy representing himself as being from -- and I quote -- United Bureau. He was looking for someone I've never heard of, but the guy was a total dickhead and started threatening that this person I'd never heard of was going to be served and have to go to court. Then the moron threatened me. I'm not one to be intimidated, and especially not by a voice on the phone, and I didn't let him get away with it.

After he became pretty abusive with me, I told him to fuck off and stop pretending to be a government agent. That's a crime, didn't he know. He hung up on me.

Who the hell do these collections people think they are. And then I imagine if they called someone who was gullible to that sort of thing.

It seems like collections companies are pretty bold these days. Even when I was having money problems, I never sweated the collections calls because I figured the worst they could do is take me to court. None of my debts were ever big enough for it to go that far, however. And they wouldn't get anything out of me anway. I didn't stop paying for stuff because I *felt* like it. I missed payments because I didn't have any money. Duh!

Anyway, does anyone know if there's any recourse for this? I highly doubt it, but I'm hoping.

The company is actually United Collections Bureau out of Ohio. Slimy Mf'ers is what they are.

My sister is a manager at a collections company and we have knock down dragouts about the ethics. Now there's something she and I will never see eye-to-eye on.

Not a flame I swear, I'm just curious. I've always wondered how the collections people represent their side of it.

To me, it's indefensible.

She always says that there are a million people out there who run up debt without ever planning to pay it off. I tell her that's bullshit. She feels justified because she's got to think they're scum. How else could she ever do that job. In all actuality, it's the perfect job for her because she's a bully.

I love my sister dearly but it's one of our non-discussion topics.

She's non-political.

I also think it's selfishness. She gets a piece of what the company collects. They all do. So if you get a call at the end of the month, you can probably talk them down because the agent wants to get their hot little hands on their bonus and/or make their quota.

I think I'd rather be homless than be a collection agent.

looking for a former housemate of mine. They refuse to believe that she doesn't live here, or that I don't have a way to contact her.

They tried to intimidate me and threaten me as if I'm somehow responsible for her debts, and they refuse to stop calling me.

So now I know not to answer the phone every morning because it's them.

This may sound bad because people are losing their jobs, but I'd rather deal with the nice Indian man than the bitch at Discover, or Capital One or whatever. I've never been made to feel more like a total POS than with those people. How do they sleep at night?

They were looking for a similar name and a nickname for my real name that I never use and can be applied to both men and women. Our receptionist thought they were looking for me, so I got to speak to one of them, who referred to himself as "Detective." Now, I work in a law firm and I took two years of school as a paralegal, so I am versed in a few areas of the law and I know you can't define yourself as a detective in most states unless you're a policeman or have other authority.

This person started to threaten me with court and even an arrest for a debt of $200, saying my life would be ruined and that I needed to call my relatives to bail me out, because an arrest warrant was being issued and they were coming to get me. I made the mistake of pointing out that I wasn't who they were looking for and I made the further mistake of spelling their name for them.

Well, about 10 minutes later both my parents and my in-laws call me saying that a "Detective Bob" told them I was being arrested and I was in a lot of trouble. My parents were even told that I was a fugitive, living in another state to escape arrest. I'm sure that they looked up my information just by using my name, which is failry unique, the one I mistakenly spelled for this 'detective' and that is why they were able to contact my relatives.

I googled the phone number that came up on caller ID and, with a little bit of work, found out it was a sleazy collection agency based in Florida, as lots of sleazy agencies seem to be based there, in Jacksonville. I called them back, put them on speaker phone so my coworkers and lawyers could listen, and now I spoke with "Agent Mike" who began his very official script about my impending arrest and how embarassing it would be and how he didn't believe I wasn't the one he was looking for, how he thought I faked my accent (English is not my first language), etc. etc. At that point, one of my lawyer coworker buddies came on and asked this guy which authority granted him and his buddies the titles of 'agent' and 'detective.'

Guy hung up; never heard from him again.

These collection agencies are supposed to be governed by laws and regulations in the consumer's favor, but few follow the law. It's easy to be intimidated and you don't have to be old or uneducated or stupid to fall prey. Heck, you don't need to even owe money to feel like you've done something wrong.

I think the whole credit score/credit bureau/credit industry needs a massive overhaul. Just for instance, why should I, the consumer, fight like hell to get the credit bureaus to correct MY information? Shouldn't it be their burden to ensure they have the right information about me???? It has taken me several months to get the bureaus to delete a middle name that I do not have or never had. Yet, they are still not willing to do so.

I am so tired of having a credit score rule your life the way it does, yet no one is complaining about this. Everyone is up in arms when the idea of a national ID is proposed, yet no one flinches about the pervasive use of social security numbers and your credit score. I'm so over this!!!!