Debt collector calling my home looking for SIL - what should I do?

msoulz wrote: Anyone have experience with this? We keep getting calls from SRA Associates, which I continue to ignore as I figure it is a sales call. Well, one time the answering machine got it and there was a message looking for my SIL. So I look the place up and lo and behold, it's a collection agency. Now my phone number has been unlisted from the beginning and as far as I know she has never provided it to anyone. I assume there is a big ol' database where they cross-referenced DH and SIL's childhood home and somehow got my unlisted number from that. DH has no ties to her financially, i.e. never cosigned anything or any other arrangement.

Apparently they were calling DH's parents too. I don't know what they have done about it.

DH and I were discussing what should we do - give them her cell phone number (she disconnected her home phone) or claim to not know her and demand they never call me back? I fear if I give them info they will call back in 6 months looking for more information. What can I do to get them to stop calling here?

PrairieMom replied: Answer the phone and tell them she doesn't live there, and if they don't stop calling you, you will sue for harassment. Get the name of the company, and the person you are dealing with.

msoulz replied: Ok sounds good. Will that make them go away? Should I not give them her number?

PrairieMom replied:
Personally, I wouldn't give them her phone Number. But that is JMHO. She is obviously dodging them, otherwise they would have found her by now, and I wouldn't feel like it was my place to give her number out if I were in your shoes.

It is ILLEGAL for debt collectors to harass you, and it is ILLEGAL for them to threaten you that YOU are responsible for the debt. Some collectors will do any and everything they can go get their $. However, you can't claim that they are harassing you if you don't tell them to stop

msoulz replied: The reason I would like to give her phone number is because her financial and other irresponsibility has caused us and others pain, which doesn't seem to matter to her because it's all about HER. That is why we considered giving the number; let the irritation go where it should, not to me, not to her mother, to her.

But that doesn't make it right nor will it likely change anything. I realize that too.

Thanks again for the advice.

mummy2girls replied: i actually had this happen a couple months ago. Someone called here asking fi my brother lives here. we both have the same initials so they just figured they were calling his place. I said i dont know where he is, that he vansihed from my life ( which is true) and that to nto call here again please. and they didnt. If they do call u again after you tell them youd ont know where she is then you can threaten harrassment , that should make them run...

boyohboyohboy replied: mary, this happened to use to with dh's brother
we told the collectors we didnt have an address for his brother and we didnt talk to him, which we didnt, and the collectors got rude and threatened us, they told us that if we were not going to be helpful then we would be prosecuted for what his brother did..
it was all a lie to get us to cough up info..but after a while they stopped calling.

kimberley replied: this happens to us a lot at work. it just means she used you as a reference and the collectors hope the calls to you will get to her. just tell them you have no contact with her and to stop calling you or you will report them. they are obliged to leave you alone. ask for their supervisor if they are rude about it. that will shut them up.

cameragirl21 replied: Tell them that you don't know where she is and that they are not to call you again. Ever. If they threaten you with anything at all, from the simplest, like they won't stop calling unless you pay her debt or reveal her location to the most obscene, like they'll have you arrested or whatever, tell them that they are violating FDCPA and that you will sue them if they don't stop.
That should work like a charm. Debt collectors think they're above the law and that is precisely why so many of them are getting sued. Not enough if you ask me.

msoulz replied: So they finally called a while ago - and when I listened to the message it says "if you are not (name) then call us back at this number" so I did and I get ANOTHER answering machine that tells me to leave the name, number and time of the call and they will do something....so I leae the number and name and told them they have called countless times, she has never and will never live in my home and if they call again I will sue for harassment.

I hope that works. The whole automated thing is interesting and even more irritating!!!!

Des10ed2b replied: this happened to me with my old room mate. she used my cell phone to get everything set up in our apartment, swearing that she would have everything switched to the home line once it was set up. we had a big falling out, i moved out. low and behold she was evicted and everything was unpaid. they kept calling me like crazy, even though i was legally signed off of everything because she said my number was hers. i eventually just started saying, "this is not her phone number. it never has been her phone number. i do not speak to her. quit calling me." and hanging up. that finally did it!

TrulyBlessed replied: Even if you give them her number, they will still continue to call you and if you let them know you are family, this is more incentive for them to do so and continue to call you. They KNOW they can get to her by getting to you. This happened to a family member and they said the worst thing they did was let them know they were related. They should have said she does not live here, remove my number from your database.

msoulz replied: I didn't say we were related, just that she does not and has not ever lived here. I hope that is enough!! But I did not talk to a person, it's all automated. Thanks!!