Debt Collectors Calling the Wrong Person May Break Federal Law

Debt collectors calling the wrong person is a common problem. Being on the receiving end of these calls can be infuriating and the unintended recipient can feel helpless to make them stop.

The reasons behind the repetition may be varied, but the technology which allows debt collectors to place multiple calls is highly controlled by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)—giving legal recourse to the citizen caught in this loop.

Why Debt Collectors Call Wrong Numbers

As part and parcel of modern life, a number of U.S. citizens carry significant and sometimes burdensome debt to purchase educations, cars, homes, and incidentals. Along with incurred debt, lean times due to job loss or medical bills can make the debt load difficult to carry. Making payments can be prohibitive and, in the world of automation, communicating with the loaner may be the most difficult process in the world.

Sometimes a loan goes into default and harassing phone calls from debt collectors start automatically using a pre-recorded message and autodialer. Maybe the debtor has done everything to communicate their situation to the lender via their customer service line, but nothing works and debt collectors keep calling.

What is the solution? For some consumers, changing their cell phone numbers has stopped the daily deluge of calls directed toward them, but their previous number gets reassigned and the debt collectors calling the wrong person start. The harassment merely gets passed forward to an unsuspecting consumer, although this is not the fault of the debtor.

Another reason for the problem of wrong number debt collection calls is that the recipient may have the same name as the intended debtor. This is forgivable, but no less forgettable or frustrating when someone’s privacy is invaded by lenders in this manner.

Finally, financial institutions can just plain have poor record keeping practices leading to their contracted debt collectors calling the wrong person.

Why Certain Robocalls Are Legal

If a consumer provides permission for a company to call using an autodialer or automated phone system, the robocalls are legal, whether they are pre-recorded or live calls.

Some companies will ask a customer on hold if they would like to take a survey after their calls are handled. If the customer answers yes, the recording asks for permission to call the caller back by an auto-dialer or recorded message in order to take the survey. If the customer does not grant such permission, they won’t be called to take the survey.

Political organizations, non-profit associations, survey collectors and bill collectors who follow the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act are allowed to use an autodialer to reach consumers.

Unfortunately, many robocalls are not only violating TCPA, but also are promoting illegal scams in the process. Robocalls that originate from other countries may “spoof” a U.S. phone number, which means a technological trick is played on Caller ID to make it appear the phone call is coming from someone in the United States. These scammers prey on vulnerable consumers who may be victims of theft if the perpetrators trick the consumers into providing credit card or debit card numbers or other personal information.

Last year, perpetrators of a major I.R.S. phone scam were convicted and sent to prison. The scam originated from call centers in Ahmedabad, India, where callers pretended to be representatives of the I.R.S. or U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. They threatened their targets with fines or imprisonment if they did not immediately send in a payment.

The call from India had its origin hidden by spoofing the phone call so that the caller’s true identity was unknown. Auto-dialing services then routed the call to thousands of phone numbers over VoIP servers. The re-routing was able to portray on Caller ID that the phone number was from the consumer’s local area code, even though the call was from India.

The TCPA and Autodialers

The TCPA is a federal law that allows consumers to sue telemarketers over certain kinds of robocalls. Particularly regulated is the autodialer—a piece of equipment which can store phone numbers to dial and at times even sequentially predict them for mass marketing purposes.

When a consumer receives one of this calls on their mobile device, it is of special concern because he or she has purchased the cell phone and is paying for monthly service time. The marketing or debt collecting autodialed call is a cost they are shouldering without permission.

It can also be very difficult to get autodialers to stop calling. This type of intervention requires the involvement of customer service personnel that care.

Last January, a debt collection service company known as NPAS Solutions LLC offered a $1.4 million settlement to end class action litigation against them for alleged violations of the TCPA.

The original complainant in this case was a consumer who was on the receiving end of mistaken identity debt collection calls from the defendant. The plaintiff was unable to successfully get the intrusive calls to cease.

Join a Unknown Debt Collector Calls Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you received debt collector calls meant for someone else, you may qualify to participate in an unknown debt collector class action lawsuit investigation.

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