Debt collectors have begun using Facebook to try to track down debtors. According to Alternet, it's unclear if the contact is�legal, while at the same time Facebook isn't happy about the matter, either.
Melanie Beacham, from St. Peterburg, FL, said she fell behind on her car payments when she fell ill, and took a medical leave from work. Although she explained the situation to MarkOne Financial, harassing phone calls, as many as 20 per day, began coming. After receiving a call from her sister, who lives in Georgia, she discovered that MarkOne was using Facebook to contact her friends and family.
Beacham has filed suit to halt the practice. Her lawyer, Billy Howard�said,
"Now Facebook does a debt collectors work for them. Now it's not only family members, it's all of your associates. It's a very powerful tool for debt collectors to use. It's getting the desired result, and that is to start a domino effect of panic and embarrassment among family and friends, and people will do anything to stop that."
Howard said he believes Facebook and other social networking sites will soon become a regular method for contact by debt collectors if something isn't done.
According to AlterNet, the FTC says that debt collectors are not allowed to get in touch with third parties, unless it is to get contact information. Since Beacham was already receivng phone calls, AlterNet believes that it is unlikely that the MarkOne simply wanted contact info. Here's what the FTC site says:
If an attorney is representing you about the debt, the debt collector must contact the attorney, rather than you. If you don?t have an attorney, a collector may contact other people ? but only to find out your address, your home phone number, and where you work. Collectors usually are prohibited from contacting third parties more than once. Other than to obtain this location information about you, a debt collector generally is not permitted to discuss your debt with anyone other than you, your spouse, or your attorney.
Meanwhile, Facebook isn't pleased with the use of its services in such a manner.�They�said:
There are state and federal laws and FTC regulations that govern the actions of debt collectors. The collector in the St. Petersburg case likely violates a number of these laws and regulations and we encourage the victim to contact the FTC and her state Attorney General. In addition, Facebook policies prohibit any kind of threatening, intimidating, or hateful contact from one user to another. We encourage people to report such behavior to us, only accept friend requests from people that they know, and use privacy settings and our blocking feature to prevent unwanted contact.
MarkOne has admitted that it does have a Facebook policy:
MarkOne's policy is to only use Facebook to locate customers when the customer has a fully public profile, and when the customer has not responded to MarkOne through conventional means. Our policy is to respect privacy disclosure requirements and no negative or account information is shared with third parties.
Lesson learned: use your Facebook privacy settings to the max.
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