I’ve been dealing with an original debt that I fell behind on a few months ago after some medical issues. I’m not ignoring it, but the calls from what I think is their in-house collection team have gone from annoying to straight-up harassment.
They’ve called my elderly mother (who is not on any of my accounts) and implied she was financially responsible. They also called my workplace's main line and asked for me by name, which is incredibly embarrassing and puts my job at risk. When I do answer, the agents are rude, threaten legal action they probably can't take, and refuse to give me any basic information in writing.
I know they can't just do this. I've read about sending a formal cease-and-desist letter, but I'm worried it will just make them sue me. Has anyone actually sent one of these letters to a collector like this? Did it stop the calls, or did it make things worse? Any advice on the exact wording or next steps would be greatly appreciated.
I hope this post captures the real frustration and worry you were looking for. If you have a specific letter or detail from the article you'd like me to try and work into a revised version, feel free to share it.