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RE: My brother's bill collectors call me! - 8/4/2008 4:23:27 PM
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LCannon
Posts: 1257
Joined: 2/22/2007
From: Lebanon, OR
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If you have no responsibility for your brother's obligations write letters(registered or have an attorney write them) the creditors that fact and include your brother's correct address/phone for contact. 'Serious consequence can be felt when my wishes aren't honored.' Then contact the appropriate authorities.
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RE: My brother's bill collectors call me! - 8/4/2008 4:26:33 PM
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Miss Giggles
Posts: 4271
Joined: 4/18/2005
From: MI
Status: online
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You need to change your number and not let him have the new #.
Also pull your own credit report, and make sure he hasn't committed identity theft in your name.
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RE: My brother's bill collectors call me! - 8/4/2008 4:48:40 PM
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BlueAdept
Posts: 100
Joined: 4/18/2005
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You should not need to contact a lawyer, but you do need to tell every CA to stop calling. That you are not him, and make sure they have his address.
You can get an unlisted number and block the caller ID. So there is no way for him to get your number that way again.
It sounds like you need to find some way to get him charged with passing bad checks.
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RE: My brother's bill collectors call me! - 8/4/2008 4:54:58 PM
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garsyt
Posts: 2231
Joined: 4/12/2005
From: the bottom of the laundry basket
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You are not your brother's keeper. It is obvious that he is out of control and using you.
Change your phone number - don't tell him. Make sure it is an UNLISTED number. Only give it out to those that MUST know.
Contact those calling you via letter and let them KNOW your brothers whereabouts AND that you would appreciate greatly they no longer contact you.
Check your credit report. Like Giggles said - he has perfect access to destroy your credit and mess with your identity.
Then every time someone calls you trying to collect from your brother call them back and let them know that the person they are trying to collect from does NOT live at this number and they need to immediately remove your phone number from their files.
We had to deal with this for the longest time and still occasionally get a few calls for a man that moved out of town the same week we moved in. We just happened to get assigned the phone number that he had been using. I finally talked to the post office and got his forwarding address and looked up a phone number based on that information. I now direct all calls for the man to that number.
Does your brother work? Give them his work number.
Does he have friends? get those phone numbers and give the collectors those numbers.
DEMAND that your number be taken off their records as your brother does not live at this address and you are as puzzled as they are about how to get a hold of him.
Blessings,
Garsy
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RE: My brother's bill collectors call me! - 8/4/2008 8:18:30 PM
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MissGizmo
Posts: 7814
Joined: 8/12/2006
From: Roanoke, Virginia
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Caller ID will also help. Don't answer any call that is not clear as to where & who it is comming from. I have a dead-beat nephew that people are always trying to locate. His name is Russell & mine is Ruth. They see the R & think it is the same person. That is about all you can do until they actually serve papers which will come at some point. Been there, done that, & it is no fun to deal with.
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RE: My brother's bill collectors call me! - 8/4/2008 11:14:35 PM
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crownlaurel
Posts: 72
Joined: 2/15/2007
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First of all it is illegal for them to harrass you even if you had been the one who owed them. The fact that you are not the party who owes them should make it even less legal. You do not have to give a phone number or an address. You do not owe them and you did not sign for him. You need to answer the phone and tell the person who calls that he does not live there and he does not own that phone. Tell them you do not speak to him and do not know how to reach him. Tell them if they do call you again, you will report them and they may be fined. They will have to conduct all business through mail.
I agree for your own sanity, you may want to get an unlisted number.
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RE: My brother's bill collectors call me! - 8/5/2008 12:39:45 AM
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relady
Posts: 1286
Joined: 4/11/2005
From: Greater St. Louis Metro
Status: offline
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Yup, tell them he doesn't live with you, you don't know his number and to stop calling. Send them all a cease and desist letter, by certified mail, and if they continue the harrassment, turn them in to your state's attorney general and the federal authorities. What they are doing is against the law.
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RE: My brother's bill collectors call me! - 8/5/2008 10:31:47 AM
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BlueAdept
Posts: 100
Joined: 4/18/2005
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What is bad in this case, is you have less rights than if you owed the money. If you owed the money, you could send them a drop dead letter and they would have to do that. But because you don't owe the money, you really don't have any way to "make" them stop.
I had tried to post that you should contact, Clark Howard, he has a show that gives financial advice. In this case they have addressed this kind of situation on the air. I don't recall what they said at this point, but if you call them off air someone there should be able to help you.
Normally the collectors are not allowed to discuss this debt with anyone but the person oweing the debt. So just calling you would violate that, however since your brother is the one giving your number that makes it even worse.
You can use caller ID, but that only blunts the problem. And changing phone numbers only works until he gets your new number. It sounds like he is passing enough bad checks that someone should be looking for him. You could attempt to take him to court yourself. But it sounds like he has no money, so it would be a Pyrrhic victory.
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RE: My brother's bill collectors call me! - 8/5/2008 11:58:05 AM
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Sadey
Posts: 531
Joined: 7/25/2007
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Call your state attorney's office and see what the law says. They are very helpful and sometimes will take it on for you.
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RE: My brother's bill collectors call me! - 8/5/2008 12:19:12 PM
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earthless
Posts: 6209
Joined: 4/11/2005
From: where pigeons are wearing sweaters....
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Change your number - become a member of LifeLock, and stay away from him. If you know he has committed crimes then notify the police.
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RE: My brother's bill collectors call me! - 8/5/2008 12:35:19 PM
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fantom
Posts: 56
Joined: 4/12/2005
From: the emerald city
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I get calls for my daughter on some credit cards she stopped paying. She lived at our house when she got them and we still get some of her mail.
I was told by a collector that I use for my work that if I tell them she no longer is at this number, they can't call anymore without being in violation of collection/consumer laws. These may vary some state to state but a lot are federal law.
He said I was under no obligation to provide them with a number, an address or anything else. "she is not at this number, don't call again".
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Whenever I'm about to do something, I think, "would an idiot do that?" and if they would, I do NOT do that thing"
Dwight Shrute
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RE: My brother's bill collectors call me! - 8/5/2008 1:08:11 PM
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csl7037
Posts: 1755
Joined: 3/24/2008
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bluestone, are we related? I get calls all the time for my BILs or my MIL. I don't answer if I don't know who it is because I can be pretty sure it's either someone trying to sell me something or someone who stupidly sold one of them something. But if I do accidentally answer one, I usually tell them that I'd gladly tell them where they were if I knew. I don't know on purpose; the less I know the better. We do have Lifelock, though, because none of them are above using dh's name. Dh has talked about changing our number but I don't think it would do any good.
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RE: My brother's bill collectors call me! - 8/5/2008 9:07:34 PM
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Ps103
Posts: 11690
Joined: 4/16/2005
From: Here, now
Status: offline
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Report them to the FTC.
HERE is the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act. Read it and use it. That is what it is there for.
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RE: My brother's bill collectors call me! - 8/6/2008 12:21:00 AM
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GroupW
Posts: 2913
Joined: 11/16/2007
From: Up in the hills of Colorado (very BIG hills...)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: crownlaurel
First of all it is illegal for them to harrass you even if you had been the one who owed them. The fact that you are not the party who owes them should make it even less legal. You do not have to give a phone number or an address. You do not owe them and you did not sign for him. You need to answer the phone and tell the person who calls that he does not live there and he does not own that phone. Tell them you do not speak to him and do not know how to reach him. Tell them if they do call you again, you will report them and they may be fined. They will have to conduct all business through mail.
I agree for your own sanity, you may want to get an unlisted number.
I had a similar issue a couple of years ago. I generally took the calls, let them know that this was neither his address nor his phone number and that I considered it a violation of current law if I was asked about this again by anyone at the firm. I also let them know that I did not give out personal information on any other third party including either addresses or phone numbers and that they needed to utilize other sources for that information. After a few months the phone calls declined. I also made sure to get & record the name and phone number as well as the date/time of the call of the firm doing the calling (not the name/phone of the individual - they don't seem to inclined to give that info out.)
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RE: My brother's bill collectors call me! - 8/6/2008 5:54:58 PM
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relady
Posts: 1286
Joined: 4/11/2005
From: Greater St. Louis Metro
Status: offline
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quote:
I also made sure to get & record the name and phone number as well as the date/time of the call of the firm doing the calling (not the name/phone of the individual - they don't seem to inclined to give that info out.) many of them will fight giving out any way to contact the company other than an 800 number. it's enough to make you want to pull your hair out.
Right now I have two agencies calling my house for two different people, neither of whom I know and neither of whom live here. I have no idea how they got our number. But all we are getting is the recorded phone calls 3-5 times a day for two different people. I can't stop it because I don't know who is calling and I have no idea of the issue. It's very frustrating. I just wish a live person would be on the other end of the phone. If you have any tips for this particular problem, I'm open to hearing them.
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RE: My brother's bill collectors call me! - 8/7/2008 12:40:04 AM
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crownlaurel
Posts: 72
Joined: 2/15/2007
Status: offline
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There is a free (I think) block you can place on your phone for unlisted/unidentified numbers. It greatly reduces unwanted calls. Call the phone company and ask how to do it.
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RE: My brother's bill collectors call me! - 8/7/2008 12:18:45 PM
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BlueAdept
Posts: 100
Joined: 4/18/2005
Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: relady
quote:
I also made sure to get & record the name and phone number as well as the date/time of the call of the firm doing the calling (not the name/phone of the individual - they don't seem to inclined to give that info out.) many of them will fight giving out any way to contact the company other than an 800 number. it's enough to make you want to pull your hair out.
Right now I have two agencies calling my house for two different people, neither of whom I know and neither of whom live here. I have no idea how they got our number. But all we are getting is the recorded phone calls 3-5 times a day for two different people. I can't stop it because I don't know who is calling and I have no idea of the issue. It's very frustrating. I just wish a live person would be on the other end of the phone. If you have any tips for this particular problem, I'm open to hearing them.
They should be giving you a number to call and a reference number for the case. Call the number, give them the reference number and tell them they have the wrong phone number on the file. That you no longer want them to contact you about this matter, since you are not the debtor. That any additional contact is in violation of the law and will be considered harassment. That should be enough to get the message across.
You could also try to do a reverse look up for the 800 or phone number left. It MIGHT give a company name, and or phyical address associated with the collector. If so you should be able to handle from there as well.
Collectors are not all bad, but there are too many of them that really are scummy. It makes dealing with them on any level very unplesant.
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RE: My brother's bill collectors call me! - 8/7/2008 12:31:50 PM
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GregandJenny
Posts: 615
Joined: 2/16/2006
From: Near Seattle Washington
Status: offline
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quote:
Collectors are not all bad, but there are too many of them that really are scummy. It makes dealing with them on any level very unplesant.
Good point. However, most of this is caused by the sibling being dishonest.
G
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It does not have to be well with my circumstance to be well with my soul!
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RE: My brother's bill collectors call me! - 8/7/2008 12:45:54 PM
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GregandJenny
Posts: 615
Joined: 2/16/2006
From: Near Seattle Washington
Status: offline
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I understand what you are talking about. My wife and I get calls from people that I assume still use this phone number. I have had this number since 05. we just got persistent on telling them they don't likve here and they stopped calling.
I think part of your problem may be that your brother is still using your number. In other words when a new debt gets sent to the collection agency and uses your phone number again, it may in fact open up some of the other accounts because the phone number is active.
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It does not have to be well with my circumstance to be well with my soul!
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