Shannon keeps getting calls from a debt collector that violate the law so she wants to catch them in the act. The collector calls herself "Investigator" and claims that Shannon is part of a "serious investigation" and has threatened her with jail time if she doesn't pay up. The "Investigator" keeps calling her at work and has also called up her coworkers and told them that Shannon is part of an investigation. Shannon needs help figuring out how to record these calls.
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15 comments:
does her number come up on caller id or can you do *69 to get the phone number. then call that number back to see who is doing this.
yes; this is harrasment and you can sue if necessary. the "investigator" is breaking the law.......
The person doing the recording needs to determine whether they are in a state that requires one party (ie just her) or two party (both people)'s consent to do the recording. If she doesn't she might face felony wiretap charges from the people that are harassing her. Maryland is a two party consent state.
Ask Billy Burke
In Maryland, if you record a call, you go to jail. It is illegal unless both people consent.
It sounds like all she needs to do is ask the investigator for permission to record the conversation. Most likely the investigator will hang up
pay your bill. you wont get called
Actually, she needs to read the Fair Collections Act. It gives her all the info she needs. This is in fact a federal crime, and she appears to have a case. What people don't know is that in most states, maryland included, there is a 6 year statute of limitations for debt collections. Debt collector of this nature usually get debts outside this limitation and attempt with results to collect debts they have no claim to.
Now 10:15 AM is right, but things do happen in life that are unforseen, thats why we have laws limitting what a debt collector can do or say. Read the act. You may need it to someday.
Tom Sawyer
Although 10:15 has a good point, I've been told if you tell the collector that you can not receive personal calls at work, they have to stop calling there. It stopped the calls for a workmate of mine. Unfortunately, I don't think there is anything you can do about calls at home.
Some good advice already has been posted. The best advice was the one recommending she pay her debt. If she can't pay it off then pay $5a week.
With all due respect my guess is the person is not paying the debt because he/she doesn't have the money. Othewise this would not be an issue. The point is this: what to do if a person doesn't have the money to repay the debt?
Stop advising him/her to pay the debt. You are not helping.
The government can't pay its debts to us "we the people". They owe us social security etc which they took from us. How should they proceed? that is a good quesiton
Should current congressmen and congresswomen go to prison for the theft? Should previous congresspeople also go to prison? If not, then why not?
However, you can record the call if you tell the person that you are recording the call.
If there is a 6 yr limit on debt collections, why are judgments good for 10 years and why are 'seal' contracts good for 12 years? And how can a judgment be renewed for another 10 years? They ARE debts....
I think it's *51 you push to lock the phone number up to allow the police access to trace the call.
*69 does not always work
if no one has contacted you about an "old debt" for 6 years the debt is legally dead. in other words there has been no activity on this account or no contact with the debtor for 6 years the debt is legally dead.
someone can try to collect this debt after 6 years and they can be successful if you as the debtor don't know of this "law". if you start making payments because you didn't realize the issue at hand then you have placed yourself in a place of being responsible for the balance of the debt owed.
if you owe this debt and there has been contact in the alloted time the collector is allowed to contact you at home between the hours of 9am and 9pm; no other time.
if you tell them not to contact you at work they must abide by that request.
if you owe this debt and they know where you work they can obtain a judgement and attach your wages up to 25% of your gross income. sometimes you can settle the debt for less and sometimes in good faith you can make arrangements to make consistant payments.
there are many options but you need to need to decide.
*57 is the tracing, you dial that after you hang up and it will mark it at the phone company level. Police are the only ones that can retrieve a *57.
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