Most people know about debt collectors and their techniques. They use phone calls, mail and other forms of communication to collect the debts owed to them or their clients. The phone calls can be annoying and even harassing, sometimes multiple times a day, and the mail seems to just be a waste of paper. But now, debt collectors are trying a new tactic to try and get you to pay up. Social media! Yes, your Facebook and other social media profiles may be accessed and used by debt collectors to try and force you into establishing communication with them and make your payments.
In one lawsuit in St Petersburg, Fla., a judge ruled that it was a violation of privacy laws and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to use social media in collecting debts. This act provides protection against contact at work or on a work number; contacting an employer, neighbors or family, other than to get or confirm the debtor’s location; and other harassing techniques. These are just a few of the protections, but surprisingly, the act does not have a clause for social media ... yet. Debt collectors are using this loophole to contact friends and family through social media, asking for them to have the debtor contact the agency. In the St. Petersburg case, many of the plaintiff's friends and family were contacted with embarrassing demands from the collection agency.
Some of these agencies are going so far as to creating fake profiles, become friends with debtors, and then post on their account and message them repeatedly. In one case from Chicago, a man accepted a friend request from a profile with a picture of a woman in a bikini, only to have her (the debt collector) post on his Facebook wall, “Pay your debts, you deadbeat!”
With social media, and especially location-based applications like Gowalla and Foursquare, debt collectors have access to some of the most private and detailed information about our lives. Whether you’re at home or the grocery store, when you post this information to your profile, the collectors also have that information and can confront you, and even embarrass you in front strangers.
There are a couple ways to combat this if you are being pursued by a collections agency, or even if you aren’t and just want to ensure your privacy.
One, make sure you only accept friend requests from people whom you actually know. Two, set all of your privacy settings to the highest possible levels so your information and updates are only visible to those whom you trust.
Recently, there was another case in Florida in which a Melanie Beacham was contacted on Facebook for an unpaid $362 car loan. Beacham stated that the debt collection agency contacted her friends and family to contact her and let her know about the debt. Beacham's attorney said the debt collectors violated Beacham's privacy and also Florida's consumer protection law, which restricts debt collectors from harassing people. With the case open since November 2010, Judge W. Douglas Baird finally ordered the collection agency to avoid contacting Beachman, her family and and friends on any social network.
Collection agencies have plenty of tools at their disposal to try and recover debts but social media techniques should be left out of their kit.
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