BY Tripp Whetsell Monday, September 28th 2009, 4:00 AM http://www.nydailynews.com/money/personal_finance/2009/09/28/2009-09-28_ collection_firms_join_old_pals_looking_for_you_on_facebook_friending_you r_friend.html?print=1&page=all
Long Island food consultant Michael Bucello's credit card debt from his college years seemed gone, but they weren't forgotten. When Michael Bucello got his first credit card as a college freshman in 1994, he had trouble resisting the siren song of shopping. His spending sprees quickly led to a $1,600 tab he had trouble paying. "I was young and irresponsible," the Lindenhurst, L.I., food consultant, now 34, admitted, "but when you're 19 years old, you pretty much think you're indestructible." He eventually shredded his Visa card and, although he got several notices in the mail early on, presumed as the years went by that his old debts had been forgotten. While the mail had stopped, the debt hadn't been forgiven. And it turns out Bucello made himself easy to find - he had a Facebook page. Last year, workers at a debt collection agency in Maryland noticed his Facebook page and tracked him down. Bucello said the agency was aggressive, even contacting his mother and threatening that an unpaid debt could land him in jail. Bucello offered to pay $50 a month, but the agency wanted more. They had his bank account frozen and began calling the West Islip, L.I., restaurant where he moonlights as a chef on weekends. It was only after he hired a lawyer who handles consumer collection cases that the agency agreed to settle, he said. Bucello is hardly alone in finding his Internet presence brought him more than reacquaintanances with long forgotten high school friends. In the world of online bounty hunting, debt collectors increasingly turn to social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to go after people trying to forget their bills. "They just have to 'friend' your friends on Facebook," said Manhattan consumer lawyer Brian Bromberg. "A lot of creditors [are] turning to Google and other search engines to dig into people's past," he said. "You've got to be careful because, once it's out there, there's not much you can do to take it back." With the economy still struggling, tales like Bucello's have become all too common, according to city Consumer Affairs Commissioner Jonathan Mintz. He added that many collectors are pursuing people about debts already paid. "A lot of this has to do with the technology, which has not been as good for the consumer as it has been for the collector," Mintz said. "The biggest complaints we've been getting and finding to be true are about debt collection agencies who are trying to collect money that isn't actually owed." Several lawyers and experts agreed, saying that trouble easily arises when the results of an Internet search are used too hastily. "I think it is part of a much larger pattern that has evolved over the last decade where collectors and creditors are using technology to be more creative and aggressive," said Justin Baxter, an Oregon consumer lawyer who tells clients to keep a paper trail and, where legal, to record their phone conversations. (It is legal in New York State.) Jeffrey Hyslip, a former debt collector who's now a consumer advocate in Chicago, noted that "there's not a lot of rules governing how these debt collectors go after people as it relates to finding out about things such as where they live, work and what their most recent purchases are." In fact, this is exactly the type of info debt collectors look for because it's the easiest way to expose your vulnerabilities and build a case, he said. Collection professionals insist that looking for debtors online is no different than using a phone book. "Googling somebody is not unlike looking for someone in any other type of directory," said Jay Gonsalves, president of the Association of Credit and Collection Professionals. "It's public information and if someone has a MySpace or Facebook page and they've incurred a debt than there's absolutely nothing wrong with a debt collector using this information to locate them. "On the other hand," he acknowledged, "there is a clear line and if they are posting comments or disclosing this information to another person, than that's illegal." The Federal Trade Commission's Fair Debt Collection Practices Act does have guidelines aimed at protecting consumers. Bucello and others say they've become a lot more careful about what they do online - and how much money they spend. "What bothered me the most about this," said Bucello, who no longer has a credit card, "was that, outside of this one mistake I made in college, nothing like this ever happened to me before and I'm absolutely convinced they got to me because I had a Facebook page. "Now I'm a lot more vigilant about what I do on the Internet and I've also gotten a crash course about the importance of paying my bills on time." *********************************** * POST TO MEDIANEWS@ETSKYWARN.NET * *********************************** Medianews mailing list Medianews@etskywarn.net http://lists.etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews