<q><div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: djheater
Collection agencies employ the shadiest mothergrabbers on the planet. They also offer bonuses to those employees who can collect on the debt.
Colleciton agents will lie and bully to get a collection.
<---worked as an IT consultant for a medium sized agency.</end quote></div></q>
I was a debt collector in the past and I'm a programmer at a collection agency now... Thats full of BS... They aren't shady and lie and bully to get a collection. And yes, they give commission to those who collect. So what? That doesn't mean they are gonna come hold your children hostage and whack people with sticks. Geez. They are hired to collect debt from people who don't normally want to pay back the money. Do you think its an easy job? Not at all. I'm sure everybody had friends who didn't pay them back and its usually hard to get paid back and thats your friends, imagine some people who don't know each other.
Anyways, as Random Fool mentioned, debt collections can't legally tell you a thing until they know they have the right person... Its against the law for them to even mention they are from a collection agency with a 3rd party. How would you like it if that debt collector called your work and said it was George from a Debt collection company and that you stole money from a credit card and refused to pay it back? Do you think you'd have a job long? Probably not. What if your name was "Jose Rodriguez" which there's probably about a million in the state of California and there was a case of mistaken identity.
You don't have to give out your social security #... That is just a practice some places use to verify the identity of who they are calling. There are other methods. Just tell the guy "I don't give out my Social #'s to random people over the phone. Is there another way we can verify?" If you say that they will more than likely say yes... Verify by address. Thats what I did when people did not want to give up their social #...
Calling the cops ? Hahaha for what? Someone calling you on the phone? I didn't realize it was illegal. Just call the guy back and see what he has to say...
BTW, collectors are legally allowed aliases for their protection. Its most likely not a real name of someone. My roommate used to use his real name when he did debt collections and he called someone local within the city and the guy threatened to come down to the office building and kill my roommate... (I had a recording of it at some point, even though its highly illegal for me to have it, so I can't share it)... But it was pretty funny "Are you gonna jump out of a tree and stab me in the back as I leave work?" "I'll do worse than that buddy, I was a Marine!" So now he uses an alias.