We recently discovered that bill collectors are using popular social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace to dig up very personal information on people in debt.
Recently a bill collector from a collection agency purportedly discovered new employment information published on a Facebook profile they didn’t originally have. Soon enough collection calls and threats of garnishing wages followed at this individual’s place of employment.
It’s probably a good idea to set your social networking profile to “private” in all areas, if a bill collector learns something about you through a social networking site you have no one to blame but yourself for publishing it.
Anyone with a Facebook profile is familiar with status updates; we had a bill collector contact us as we were in the midst of negotiating a massive reduction in an unsecured debt for our client. The bill collector discovered our client was boasting in their status update that they were “thrilled to have a new home”. The bill collector interpreted this as a home purchase; our client was actually intending to tell their friends that they rented a new apartment.
Their argument then became: Why should we take a settlement on our debt if the debtor has money to buy a home? Needless to say it had a crippling effect on our negotiations with that particular creditor and stalled our progress in finalizing a settlement.
Be careful with the internet. If you are using social networking sites, make sure your profile is kept private and keep those nosey bill collectors out of your personal life.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
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