Do not ignore letters from debt collectors

By Sheryl Harris, The Plain Dealer

February 02, 2009, 12:22PM

Sheryl Harris writes this column in The Plain Dealer on Sundays.

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Your rights when a debt collector calls

The callers eventually tell us the last four digits of the person's Social Security number, and it doesn't match my husband's.

I just got a letter yesterday saying he owes $517 to a company I've never heard of.

Is this a scam? Should we just ignore this letter?

Bernardine O'Neill, Lyndhurst

A: Don't ignore the letter.

Chances are the debt collector has simply confused your husband, who has a fairly common name, for someone else.

That could be a result of sloppy tracking by the collector, but it's also possible that someone else's information erroneously wound up on your husband's credit report -- a mix-up that could explain the sudden influx of calls you're describing.

Stray debt collection calls also can be an indication of identity theft, but since the collectors are giving you a different Social Security number than your husband's, that's less likely in this case.

You should do two things right now.

First, alert the debt collector in writing that he's got the wrong man.

That ought to stop the collection efforts.

Next, have your husband get copies of his credit reports, just to make sure no errors have crept in.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act protects you from, among other things, being hounded for a debt that isn't yours.

Under that law, a debt collector has to send you a written notice of the debt within five days of calling you.

That notice must tell you that you have 30 days to dispute the debt if you believe it's not yours or that, for example, the amount is incorrect. You must dispute in writing.

Your dispute obligates the collector to go back to the company that originated the account and verify the debt is yours. The collector can't attempt to collect again until it completes this investigation.

The collector is required to let you know its findings. It can't simply drop the matter and sell the debt to someone else, says Cleveland consumer attorney Ed Icove.

If you fail to write the dispute letter, all is not lost: You can't be held liable for a debt you never owed, Icove said.

But, ideally, the dispute letter will permanently stop collection efforts.

Failing that, it will help you enormously if the matter goes to court, whether that's through the collector's choice or yours, he said.

Icove has graciously written a sample debt collection dispute letter that anyone can use. Here is a sample letter from attorney Ed Icove and you can download a PDF.

Icove recommends you include your date of birth and the last four digits of your Social Security number in the dispute letter if you have a common name and are certain it's a case of mistaken identity.

That usually resolves the matter quickly.

"You don't have to give them that information ... but it will save time," he said. Otherwise, he said, you could be in for several rounds of correspondence and may still wind up having to provide the four digits anyway.