Facebook Warns Debt Collectors About Using Its Service
theatlantic.com
theatlantic.com
When I started in my legal career over 30 years ago, debt collectors could declare open season on their victims and pretty much harass them without limit: calling up at all hours of the night, lying through their teeth about what might happen if you did not accede to their demands, pestering friends, relatives, employers, and anyone else in reach once they had exhausted their arsenal on the hapless debtor, and when all that didn't work, cynically start the process up again the next day until the poor soul was worn out from the continuous beating.
All of this has radically changed in the past several decades, to the point where debtors (and, dare I say, deadbeats too) now pretty much have the upper hand with collectors when it comes to fending off their efforts to win through harassment or intimidation. A fascinating write-up on this appears here (http://www.dallasobserver.com/2010-01-21/news/better-off-dea...) and that piece in turn sparked an interesting HN discussion on the topic (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1075903).
Essentially, there are now innumerable laws that permit debtors to sue debt collectors who slip up on even small issues in the way they handle their collection efforts. What is more, the entire industry depends on hiring low-skilled workers whose main talent is to intimidate and such persons are normally not astute enough to avoid the legal traps. The hope is that most people will remain ignorant of the laws protecting debtors while the harassment continues.
Accordingly, this game turns on playing the percentages. I have dealt with people at the wholesale end of this business and, believe me, the amounts they pay to acquire debt packages are miniscule in relation to the size of the debts involved (often as low as 1% of the face amount of the paper). Thus, it is rare that any of this ever winds up being pursued in court (at least for the low-quality packages) because that would never pay. The goal, rather, is to scare people into paying. This means, of course, first finding the person so that the process can begin. And this in turn places a huge premium on whatever data might exist by which a debtor might be tracked.
So, yes, the debt collectors will use all forms of social media available as well as any accompanying tricks that might lead to finding their targets. Facebook may adopt policies to try to limit some of this but I would doubt that this would be effective except against flagrant offenders. Anti-harassment laws likely would be more effective, assuming the debtor is savvy enough to know about them and to use them effectively.
In the meantime, this cat-and-mouse game will continue on and on, as it has for eons, only it will now involve the new playing ground of social media.
If you are using our service in any way to contact a client of yours who owes you money, you agree to forgive the debt in the entirety.
This is not the type of debt collector than can provide the promissory note or judgement documentation.
Could you buy Facebook ads that target the person's friends? All the data you need is there for the debt collector's taking. You wouldn't need to intimidate anyone or say anything hateful. The ad could be as simple as, "Get $5 in Facebook Credits. Have Your Friend Melanie Call Me." Not sure if that ad would actually work, just thinking out loud.
From Facebook's perspective, you don't want people to stop creating accounts (or quit using them) because of fear of debt collectors, but debt collectors are a business that could provide them a revenue stream.
It's already a known fact that some employers check potential hires on Facebook and I don't think that's had much of a chilling effect on the growth of their social network.
You don't see anything slimy with contacting your friends and family to embarrass you? They are threatening your reputation with friends, family, and employers.
It sounds easier than it looks, but that's how you get your money as a debt collector. The ones you can't find are probably just as like to be no shows in court. Once you have a greviance, it's easy to garnish. All that involves is contacting their employer.
In most cases, any amount under $10,000 is not going to be worth going to court over. You will pay lawyers that much just to get the case to trial.
They can until someone takes them to court over it.
Having inherited the phone number of someone who owed money, and dealt with the fallout from that, I can personally testify that collectors do not consider themselves bound by the law unless/until a court fines them some obscene amount of money.
Now, unlike a phone call at random, in the case of a Facebook contact, it would be pretty easy to figure out that the stranger who messaged you is trying to collect on a debt.
Facebook gives you all the data you need to use people's friends to sell stuff. This is what makes advertising on Facebook attractive to a great degree. If you're trying to reclaim a debt, could you not buy an ad to target someone's friends?
Especially if that ad is simply "Have your friend call me." There is no mention of debt. No shaming in a public forum. It's just a simple message. Is that illegal?
Even if you try to conceal where you're from, short of lying, you can't hide it if someone asks "Uh, why? Who are you?". Boom - you've violated Melanie's privacy. And what if you've yourself been "contacted" by an agency in that way, and you now see those ads for your friend?
These people have a bad reputation, but debtors too are reneging on a contract. It's terrible to be a business owner (not just credit-related) and to have one of your customers stiff you on a bill.
It doesn't take too many of those 'innocuous' messages for someone to figure out what they are. If your friends suddenly get 15 messages from strangers asking them to have you call, it's pretty clear what it is.
I get calls from debt collectors all the time. The problem is it's not me they are looking for; I just happen to have the same fairly unique name and live in the same city. I know it's not me because it's for a credit card debt from when I was 7. I really don't want my friends all getting messages from strangers asking me to call them. Sure, the example cited in the article was pleasant sounding, but I can guarantee you they will quickly degrade into threatening/harassing messages if Facebook gives debt collectors the signal that it's okay to use their service. I know because I deal with them on the phone all the time yelling, calling me a liar, etc. when I try to explain it isn't me they are looking for.
If I have the time, I make it a game, and see how long I can keep the debt collector on the phone, simply by making various grunting noises w/out any actual speech.
These are not nice people.
(family law systems and sex-offender registries are both fairly widely known to be disgustingly broken)