How do bill collectors find you?

Bill collectors have access to multiple web site's that are geared to finding people, such as Lexis Nexis, Accurint, C.B.C, and traditional methods such as 411.com. Sometimes we will just google your name, and find a Facebook account, Myspace and try to generate leads from that too:

We are taught how to contact your place of employement and obtain information form your H.R Dept, we will "skip trace" you through 411 and try to obtain telephone numbers of your neighbors if we are unable to contact you. All bill collectors are required to take a standard issued by the government; it is the laws of the F.D.C.P.A (The Fair Debt Collections Practices Act)

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, often referred to as the "FDCPA", was passed by Congress in response to abusive conduct by collection agencies, and concern that the abuses were causing an increase in the filings of personal bankruptcies. The purpose of the Act is to provide guidelines for collection agencies which are seeking to collect legitimate debts, while providing protections and remedies for debtors.

The FDCPA applies to personal, family, and household debts, including debts associated with the purchase of a car, for medical care, for retail financing, for first and second mortgages, and for money owed on credit card accounts. Please note that most states have similar laws, which typically proscribe the same types of misconduct by debt collectors and which may cover a broader range of debts than the federal law.

The act regulates the conduct of debt collectors: any person who regularly collects debts owed to others. This definition includes lawyers who perform debt collection services on a regular basis. Even where money is legitimately owed, a debt collector's conduct is restricted by this law.

In-house collection agents are not ordinarily covered by the Act. For example, if you have a store credit card, and the store's own collection department contacts you, the FDCPA does not apply. However if the same store uses an outside collection agency to contact you in relation to that same debt, the outside agency's conduct is restricted by the FDCPA. Similarly, if the same store uses an in-house collection agent, but suggests to you that the collection is being performed by a third party, the FDCPA may apply to them as a result of that representation.

Please note that there may be other laws in your state which restrict the conduct of in-house collection agents.

The FDCPA restricts debt collectors from engaging in conduct including the following:

• Contacting a third party who does not owe the debt, such as a relative, neighbor, or your employer. Co-signers to the debt, however, may be contacted by the debt collector;

• Threatening to refer your account to an attorney, harm your credit rating, repossession or garnishment, without actual intention of action on the threat. Please note that a debt collector may warn you of an actual impending intention to refer your case to an attorney or to report your debt to a credit agency. What they cannot do is use a false threat to try to intimidate you into paying;

• Making repeated telephone calls or telephone calls at unreasonable times. The act defines unreasonable times as contat before 8:00 AM or after 9:00 PM, unless you have given the debt collector permission to contact you during those hours;

• Placing telephone calls to an inconvenient place. For example, contacting you at work in violation of a policy by your employer that is known to the debt collector or following a request by you that they not contact you at work;

• When placing a telephone call to you at work, informing your employer of the purpose of the call, unless first asked by the employer;

• Using obscenity, racial slurs or insults;

• Sending letters which appear to have come from a court;

• Seeking collection fees or interest charges not permitted by your contract or by state law;

• Requesting post-dated checks with the intention to prosecute if they bounce;

• Suing in courts far removed from your place of residence;

• Making certain false representations in association with efforts to collect the debt, including the false claim that the person contacting you in relation to the debt is an attorney, falsely claiming to have started a lawsuit, using a false name, or using stationery that is designed to look like an official court or government communication;

• Using false claims to collect information about the debtor, such as pretending to be conducting a survey;

• Threatening you with arrest if you do not pay the debt.