Is it right for my brother's creditors to be calling ME?

[alarimer]

We live in different states. I am not exactly sure where he lives. NC I think. I am in Texas. This morning there was a message on my maching asking for him. I am assuming it is one of his (many) creditors. He has defaulted on nearly everything over the years. But I don't think it is right for them to call me. I have not spoken to the person so I don't know exactly what it was about but he has been in financial trouble forever.

[Spider Jerusalem]

1. No, it's not.

Tell them to piss off; they have no right to contact you at all.

[alarimer]

3. I will and I will not tell them how to contact him either

it's their job not mine.

[NewWaveChick1981]

2. The only time I know that a creditor might legitimately call you like

that would be if he's listed you as a reference on some sort of paperwork. You are not legally obligated to his debt, so any calls beyond the first one would be considered harrassment if you ask them to stop calling you. My brother got in hot water with one of the "payday advance" places a few years ago, and they called and harrassed my sister, my father, and my mother because my brother stupidly put them down as references. All of them insisted the place stop calling them, and they did (grudgingly). My brother finally paid whatever it was he was being hunted for.

[alarimer]

4. I didn't think of that

It might not actually be about collections at all. All the message said was that they were looking for my brother.

[NewWaveChick1981]

7. They might be looking for a way to contact him through you.

That's my guess. Whether you give them any info or not is your business. And you don't have to.

[MrCoffee]

5. i had the same thing happen...

my sister's creditors were harassing me big time over her debts. it got so bad that i got the State AG's office involved. they stopped calling me pretty quickly after that.

yeah, they can call you if your brother listed you as a reference on his credit application. that is not a reason to file a complaint. if they are hassling you, however, you should contact the AG.

[alarimer]

11. It has only been the once I think

I never answer my home phone; I use my cell phone exclusively. I don't care that he used me as a reference, if he did. And I don't care if they call me but I am not giving them his contact info, even I even have the current one.

[Gormy Cuss]

14. They probably called just for a current address.

It's a standard procedure to try to locate people. If you have an unusual last name they may be trying all the alarimers listed in any state where your brother has lived. If he used your address (current or former) as his own, a good investigator would try to contact you. It's a very effective technique.
You aren't required to tell them anything, however.

If they are calling you in an effort to collect a debt from him and you are not a party to the debt they can not tell you the reason for their call. It makes it seems very shady and mysterious, but that is the
safest way for the company to protect themselves from a violation of the fair debt collection laws.
They are also prohibited from contacting you repeatedly, but leaving a million messages for you is acceptable because they have not talked to you. If they call again, you can stop them by replying.

The FTC website has good Q & A on this topic if you're interesting in it.

[Taverner]

6. Creditors contact whomever they want

They get a cut of whatever $$$ they get, no matter how.

So they use intimidation, threats, etc...real sick shit.

[mikeytherat]

8. In college, we got harassed by Southland's (7-11) collection agency

because of someone who lived in our apartment years before us. They called all the time looking for this guy, and we'd always tell the truth, "He does not live at this address." After one of these calls the phone rang again immediately. The woman on the other end said, and I quote, "We know he lives there. Don't fuck with us or you're gonna be in big trouble." I told the woman, "Come on over and get him. Right now. I dare you." Well, lo and behold, about 30 minutes later, they DID come over. By divine provenance, we also had the police in our apartment, as we filing a formal complaint. Two honest-to-goodness "hired goons" had come to collect - beating on the door and shouting obscenities. They got to have a long, long talk with the very unamused police officers.

We all got formal letters of apology from Southland, along with several hundred dollars' worth of 7-11 Gift Certificates (yes, they really exist!). If we had been a bit older, we might have sued or held out for more but, as poor college students, we got a helluva lot of free beer!

mikey_the_rat

[ComerPerro]

10. You made the right choice. Free Beer

[alarimer]

12. Oh my..lucky you had the cops there

I got a call earlier this week from Bank of America, looking for someone named Oscar something. No one I knew. They said "your bank information has changed and you need to call and verify". Anyway I picked up the phone when it rang again and it was BofA again and there was an option to tell them they had the wrong number but I needed to stay on the line and talk to an operator. I figured they would try to sell me something so I didn't. It was a recording both times. Strange.

[mainegreen]

15. That story warms my heart just reading it.

I love come-uppance stories.

[ceile]

9. They can do whatever they want.

Discover was calling my sis and mom, no idea how they got the #'s. But just tell them to stop and they have to by law-it's considered harassment if they don't.

[ScreamingMeemie]

13. My father in law has been dead for 5 and a half years and we still

get collections calls for him. Sears tried to establish financial responsibility on our part by having him named and indigent living off our dime but they failed. :eyes: My sister in law stupidly called them all (his credit cards) to tell them he had died. She is such a dumbass that she (who was going to be a lawyer :eyes:) didn't realize that once he died, his financial troubles died.

[Maine-ah]

16. weird.

that's happened to me too.