My hatred for debt collectors and all who side with them

[ADFSDF1996]

"Grrrrrrrr I hate this, I hate that!", the word hate is thrown around loosely whenever someone refers to a person, place or thing that he or she is not fond of. But most of the times, it is not legitimate hate what they feel for said subject but rather simple dislike or irritability. Real hate is a much more intense feeling of rage directed at said subject. It is usually the result of past experiences. So why do I hate debt collectors so much if I never actually had to deal with them? Well it's a long story but here it is.

It all began about three weeks ago when I noticed a certain spam caller on my home phone, the caller id read "PORTFOLIORECOV" in all caps. This caller had been calling for at least 2 months prior but I didn't think much of it until I got curious three weeks ago and decided to google the caller Id and much to my shock and anger, the name "Portfolio Recovery associates" came up which is the most despised debt collection agency in the US which has been busted on multiple occasions for their illegal debt collection practices, most recently 2 months ago. At first I wasn't really that worried because I know for a fact that I don’t owe debt, so I assumed that either they were calling the wrong number, which is something they are notorious for doing, they are trying to illegally associate a phony debt with my name or they are not actually debt collectors and are foreign scammers. Furthermore each call came from a spoofed number.

However, this reassurance didn't last as they would call for at least once a day or once every other day, which brought about a new fear. Being somebody who suffers from anxiety and OCD, I started to think "what if my identity got stolen and this is a sign?!!!!" and for the next three weeks my anxiety would reach it's peak. I would become hyper vigilant and save each one of those numbers to research them. And sure enough each time I googled one of those numbers all the results would label it as a "scam" "robocaller" or "fake debt collector". This would offer some relief but I couldn't quite shake off the feeling of what if I am a victim of identity theft?

For 3 consecutive weeks this worry would come and go. I even told my parents about it and they said to not worry because they are most likely scammers pretending to be debt collectors. Nonetheless I went as far as to download the Credit Karma and Experian apps just to make sure there was nothing wrong. And thankfully these apps showed that everything is okay. No collections and no accounts that I don't recognize. Nonetheless, the spam calls would still bother me. As i did more research on the debt collection industry, i developed a strong hate for them based on all the shady practices that debt collectors get away with.

• Suing identity theft victims
• trying to collect phony debts
• trying to collect debts with an expired statute of limitations
• Intimidation
• Sewer service

The fact people actually work in the debt collection industry absolutely disgusted me. I started to wish great misfortune upon every debt collector in the world. Because debt collectors are nothing more than hired goons who prey upon the most vulnerable. That's why most debt collectors back away, the moment a Consumer starts to punch back at them. At the end of the day debt collectors are primarily after easy prey.

Further more, I've also developed a strong hatred for US marshals as they are the ones who primarily enforce debt collection lawsuits. I view US marshals as being nothing more than a bunch of professional looters and bandits.

Long story short, I was soon able to confirm through the use of various anti robo caller apps that the spam callers were not "portfolio recovery" but were scammers using Interactive voice response(IVR) technology to mask their foreign accents. What gave them away is that all those spoofed numbers are primarily active in both the US and India, furthermore they have a lot of complaints to the FTC and they follow the pattern of a typical fake debt collector in which they spam call for about 3 months or about 100 days before they abruptly stop calling. These scum of the Earth scammers seemed to have finally got the hint that I ain't taking their bait.

Does this change my opinion on debt collectors? Nope, I still view debt collectors as being subhuman NPC scum who deserve to feel God's wrath. I hate debt collectors just as much as Indiana Jones hates nazis. Currently the only organizations that fight against debt collectors are the Consumer financial protection Bureau(CFPB) and the Federal trade Commission(FTC) but they can barely do anything to halt abusive debt collectors. This country needs an aggressive anti debt collection movement that takes the fight to debt collectors, protects the consumers and puts every debt collector on the FTC's banned debt collector list

I feel more relieved now. Writing and typing is therapeutic.

[worldscolide]

Oh I fuck with them I have zero debts on my credit report right now. And let me tell you, every time one calls they fail to do one thing, and that is announce who they are, which is an FTC violation. Regardless of if it is for debt collection, or telemarketing, if you're calling on the behalf of someone it's federal law that they announce them selves..

So they start with hey is this such and such.. My response is "who is calling", typically their next response is " this is a serious business matter" I repoond by saying "violation number 1 failing to tell me who you are. Automatic 50k fine, again who are you" and they usually hang up at that point. Nah dont fuck with someone who knows the fair debt collection act.. Then I repeatedly call the number back and harass them for like a week until they block my number.

[exitseven]

Yes, debt collectors are the scum of the earth. I worked for a small company and it was obvious they were going out of business so I left and went back to college. The owner stiffed some of threir vendors. The business folded but a couple of weeks later the owner died. One of the vendors tried to come after me for the debt. He called me at home a couple of times and I told him I no longer worked for the company and I was collecting unemployment and was a full time student. He was not convinced and a few days later a Sherriff's Deputy showed up to try an collect. He told me if I did not pay he might be back to repossess my car. I told him I keep it ;locked in the garage and I really hoped tha tnobody was going to get hurt if this happened. I looked him right in the eye and he saw I wasn't kidding. The vendor called me one more time and I told him I knew where he lived which he knew was the truth and I really had nothing to lose at this point and would not go down alone so he better back off. He said he would try somethng else but i never heard from him again. I was a little crazy back then so this guy was lucky he gave it up.

[Curmudgeon]

But what you describe is not legitimate debt collection - what you are describing is:

1. FRAUD,

2. Attempted Identity Theft, and

3. a form of extortion, scaring people who do not know better. I am surprised they didn't claim you owed back taxes and then offered to solve that problem - in return for your credit card number - as well.

[KostasKouvalis]

So you don't hate debt collectors, you hate scammers. Though there are plenty of reasons to hate debt collectors, marshalls and repo-men. Debt should be a civil matter. No one should have the right to simply come and sieze your property, especially if you happened to live with someone who has debt. Like you aren't responsible for their debt.

As for Marshalls, the whole reason people flee to other states/countries is to avoid extradition laws. No "law enforcement" agency should have any right to come to a foreign country and arrest you. Foreign authorities should absolutely refuse to work with these people. Cops only do this because they absolutely can't stand being outsmarted, and it only shows their incompetence and sensitive ego if they need to send Marshalls after you

[DeeDeeDeVour]

I've never been a target of debt collectors of any sort.

However, I think I can understand why many people despise them.

[Naydyonov]

Inherently, the problem then becomes: why pay back debt?

If it is due to bad credit, then the solution for a person becomes to take out as much debt as possible within the shortest time period (before any effect on credit-score), and then never pay back any of it.
If a person doesn't care about their score, then all the easier.

[MysticDevice]

Dept collectors should be illegal. Leeches. Every one of them.

[Curmudgeon]

But what @ADFSDF1996 is describing is NOT legitimate debt collection. It is scumbag scammers posing as legitimate debt collectors.

[MysticDevice]

Irrelavent. My statement stands. Real ones are scumbags too.

[HelpfulWoman]

So, you just ranted at how you hate scammers. Not legitimate debt collectors.

[ADFSDF1996]

Both are scum.

[HelpfulWoman]

In your opinion I guess. But your whole rant was on scammers, so a bit unfounded hate there.

[BigRed1987]

That’s why I started saying “loathe” instead of “hate”.

[strateguy632]

a challenging story