The national pandemic of telephone terrorism perpetrated by desperate criminal collection agencies is because they are trying to terrorize people who are naive enough to answer and submit to unsolicited telephone calls or written "collection" letters that have no legitimate legal debt associated with them or any of the companies, universities, or whomever else they claim to represent. Because most "little guys" were bankrupted by the criminal Wall St/Congress/Big Oil/Big Business/Military robber barrons, so the desperate collection agencies are attempting to collect unpaid debts from innocent people by terrorizing them into submission.
Word of advice. NEVER answer any calls you don't recognize or are not expecting. Use selective call rejection service if available, or switch to an Internet-based telephone service which provides comprehensive call rejection options. If rogue calls become chronic, turn off all the ringers on all of your phones except one, and set its volume to the minimum setting. If you don't answer the call and the caller is legitimate, they will usually leave a voicemail after the first or second try. Rogue callers never leave voicemail messages because that could be used as evidence against them if it came to a lawsuit. If you receive a rogue letter in the mail warning you of some "collection" action against you, if you don't actually owe it, reply with a short letter stating that you don't owe it, you've never done any business with them of any kind, and you expect the collection agency to close the matter, stop harrassing you and take any bad credit marks they've caused off of your credit rating, and furthermore, that any further contact from them must be in writing and signed on their official business correspondence letterhead. Send your letter to them a.s.a.p., always within thirty days, first class certified mail return receipt requested. If they refuse it and you get the letter back unopened, leave it unopened and save it in your files as evidence against them should they pursue legal action against you. If they did receive it and continue to pursue action against you, let them. The judge will throw it out of court. Warn all your friends about this rash of desperate collection agency terrorism, and how to combat it.
Above all, keep a record of everything, of every rogue call w/ caller ID information displayed including time and day of each call. Maintain a complete file on any snail-mailed intimidation from rogue collection agencies, including copies of all correspondences and postal receipts.
--
Start Here:
http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs27-debtcoll.htm
http://www.ehow.com/way_5849463_do-up-certified-dispute-letter.html
http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Defeat-a-Collection-Agency
http://hubpages.com/hub/Battling-Consumer-Debt-Collectors-Part-2-I-Do-Not-Owe-This-Debt
http://hubpages.com/hub/Sample-letters-for-disputes-to-creditors--collectors-and-credit-bureaus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FDCPA
http://www.fair-debt-collection.com/statue-limitations.html
Credit Report:
https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp
USPS:
http://www.usps.com/send/waystosendmail/extraservices/certifiedmailservice.htm
http://www.usps.com/send/waystosendmail/extraservices/returnreceiptservice.htm
Other links:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/personal/02/29/rogue.debt.collectors/index.html
http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Defeat-a-Collection-Agency
http://clarkhoward.com/shownotes/category/12/103/358/
http://clarkhoward.com/topics/drop_dead_letter.html
--
Information for filing complaints against rogue telephone calls,
telephone harrassment, false "bill collector" harrassment, etc.,
in the United States and Canada:
UNITED STATES
US National Do Not Call Registry, file complaint: https://www.donotcall.gov/complaint/complaintcheck.aspx
Federal Trade Commission
http://www.ftc.gov 1-877-382-4357
File complaint online: https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov
https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/FTC_Wizard.aspx?Lang=en
that is at www.ftc.gov
Federal Communications Commission
Telephone toll free: 1-888-225-5322
http://www.fcc.gov/contacts.html
File complaint online: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumers.html
http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm
FCC Abandoned Calls Complaint form:
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/1088D-R.pdf
email: fccinfo@fcc.gov
Better Business Bureau, Check out a Business, find owner, contact info; file a Complaint:
http://www.bbb.org/us/
INTERNET CRIME:
File report for Internet Crime at:
Internet Crime Complaint Centre
http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx
CANADA
RCMP Phone busters
Telephone toll free: 1-888-495-8501
Mon-Fri 8:30-5:20 pm (Eastern Time)
E-mail: info@phonebusters.com
RCMP Website is at: http://www.phonebusters.com
File complaint online: https://www.recol.ca/intro.aspx?lang=en
(Register with a password and then can continually file complaints)
Canada National Do Not Call Registry:
Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)
Telephone toll free to File A Complaint: 1-866-580-3625
(to withdraw a complaint is 877-249-2782)
CRTC online complaints form: https://www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca/pfplin-fccoin-eng
that is at www.crtc.gc.ca
Better Business Bureau, Check out a Business, find owner, contact info; file a Complaint:
http://www.bbb.org/canada/
