What's the best way to go about reporting a case of harassment from creditors for debts I don't owe?
I'm in Pennsylvania, USA. For the past two years, I have been threatened and harassed by various creditors for debts (at least three or four different ones) that aren't mine. They are in the name of a person who happens to have the same name (except middle initial) as me, but these companies have a different SSN and birthdate associated with the person and their debts. The person has mailing addresses (P.O. boxes) in my state, but I have never lived anywhere near the city those P.O.B.s are in. I have checked my credit report, and, so far, these threats have not affected my credit.
After two years, the phone calls and letters haven't stopped coming. I write disputes citing the FDCPA, and, for a while, things are quiet. Then, after a few months, I am contacted about a new debt. When I talk to someone on the phone, I do explain the full situation and tell them not to call me again, and they say that they'll remove my phone number from their database. I hadn't gotten a call since January, but I got a new one yesterday.
Here's my question: I've been told that I should report this entire issue to my state attorney general. Once I realized what was happening, I kept records of calls, and I have all my paperwork (letters received and sent) pertaining to this case. I was looking at the
PA attorney general's website, and I don't really know how to go about reporting this. There is a
consumer complaint form, but it doesn't seem to really apply to my situation. I've been procrastinating this step for a while, but I do want this taken care of. Or, at the very least, I want a paper trail started indicating that I have contacted some sort of governmental body disputing this entire situation. How would you handle this? Would you fill out the form (linked above), or would you write a separate letter? Or.. is it not worth it (Please don't tell me this.. This is affecting my physical and mental health; I need it to end already!)? I'm sorry if this is a really obvious or dumb question.. I'm clueless about how to deal with this whole situation, and I don't have anyone who can advise me.
[Also, I have asked questions relating to this issue in the past, and the information, help, and support I have received have been invaluable. I followed a lot of the advice given, and I'd be in a far worse place if I hadn't asked. So, even if no one has anything to say on this particular topic, I am so appreciative of everyone who has answered my questions in the past.]
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The basic problem is that there isn't one collector or one bad debt -- there are many of each. Every time your same-name-deadbeat defaults on a new obligation, and every time an old defaulted claim is sold or transfered, there's a new person, office, and/or company assigned to the debt, and your history of complaints and corrections is either ignored or not even available to the new collector. That new collector than starts a new effort to find the deadbeat and collect -- and finds you, all over again, and pursues you until persuaded or compelled to take you off the list.
(You should recognize that all of the tools that you are using to get the collectors off your back are regularly (ab)used by actual debtors to try to evade legitimate collection efforts, so collectors have a pretty high bar in terms of being persuaded or compelled.)
While this may be cold comfort, if you've managed to get the calls down to zero for five months, and have had no negative credit history or efforts to sue you, you're actually better off than many people who have the bad luck you've had.
posted by MattD at 7:50 AM on June 11, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]