How to Report a Skip Tracer

The business of skip tracing has been made easier in recent years as computerized databases have become comprehensive storage repositories for data of every type. It has also made skip tracers responsible for ever-increasing quotas of productivity. This sometimes tempts them to use illegal shortcuts. The federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), as well as various state regulations, are intended to eliminate harassment, threats and false representations by debt collectors by regulating such activities as the time of day (only between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m.), number of calls a skip tracer or debt collector can make to a debtor's residence and limiting the information they can disclose to friends and family who they contact in an attempt to find the debtor.

Instructions

1

Log all calls you receive from a skip tracer or debt collector. Write down the caller's name, and get the name and address of the organization for whom they work. Also write down the time of day the call was initiated and which debt the caller was calling about, as well as the pertinent details you discussed. If you're not home when a call is received and there is a voicemail message from the skip tracer, write down all of the information you can from that call as well. This log will be important later, as evidence for your harassment allegations.

According to the FDCPA, a skip tracer may not "engage in any conduct the natural consequence of which is to harass, oppress, or abuse any person in connection with the collection of a debt." These actions can include threats of physical harm, harm to the debtor's reputation or property, use of profanity, publicly announcing your debt, advertising the sale of your debt or causing your phone to ring or calling you with "intent to annoy, abuse or harass any person at the called number."

2

Inform the skip tracer in writing (using the address info you obtained in the previous step) you either refuse to pay your debt, if that is truly the case, or that you wish the debt collector to "cease further communication" with you. After that, the FDCPA prohibits further communication with you with respect to that debt, except in very limited circumstances. Send the correspondence via registered mail so you have proof the skip tracer received the letter.

3

File a complaint with your state attorney general or state Office of Consumer Protection. When writing your complaint letter, use the notes and copies of correspondence you've been keeping in your log to describe in detail the skip tracer's actions that are FDCPA violations or violations of your state's laws. Include pertinent copies of all correspondence, and make copies of the entire complaint letter before you mail it. Send it via certified mail.

4

File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). To do this, use the FTC Complaint Assistant on the FTC website. Be aware, however, that the FTC does not resolve individual consumer complaints. According to the FTC, "The FTC enters all complaints it receives into Consumer Sentinel, a secure online database that is used by thousands of civil and criminal law enforcement authorities worldwide." It takes action itself only for the most egregious abuses and illegal practices.

5

Hire an attorney to advise you. It may be time to file for bankruptcy. If you do, your creditors must stop all communication with you until the bankruptcy case is adjudicated.