Is this legal?

[yonit]

My sister is having some financial difficulties right now. She and her DH are in danger of losing their home, and are starting the process to declare bankruptcy, etc...

She is in her late 30's, married for 15 or so years with 2 kids. She also lives on the other end of the country so I only see her every couple of years, but we IM at least once a week. I believe I am the only one in the family who knows she is having money troubles.

A few weeks ago her bank starting calling me looking for her -telling me that they are trying to let her keep the house, but that I need to convince her to work with them! Is it really OK for them to be telling me her personal business?? They have now called me 5 times in the past 2 weeks, mainly because she isn't answering the phone. This last time I finally got angry and told them that I don't owe them any money and am not responsible for my sister's mortgage, and that they had no business calling me and that if they called again their would be harassment charges made.

I am not a co-signer or anything on any of her debts. Can they really be calling me and telling me her personal info like that? Never mind the fact that they would have to do some major digging to find my sister's maiden name, then that she had a sister and then my married name, and then where I was and my unlisted phone number!

My Dad (in a 3rd corner of the country) also called me today since he didn't know what was going on, because the bank was calling him as well. And he wanted to know what I knew. I told him to call her.

I have never even heard of this before. This is a large national bank -but I don't even have an account with them.

And if it is legal, how can I get them to stop calling me?

[Contrariety]

Have you asked her?

Sounds to me like you got put down as a reference or an alternate contact.

[yonit]

Yeah, I asked her and she said that my name wasn't used anywhere as a reference. And I believe her. It would never even occur to me to use her as one. Besides I do have a new unlisted phone number since she took out the mortgage anyway. I doubt she even knows it. We really only IM.

The bank caller also doesn't have my name (at least he claims) just my phone number. Whenever they call they ask for her and say that this is the number she gave as hers. She lives 3000 miles away - I don;t think so.

[library lady]

It is not legal. They are just fishing and trying to put pressure on your sister through her relatives. It is a violation of privacy. By law, they are not allowed to divulge any information other than that they are looking for your sister over a legal matter. One of my creditors contacted my MIL about some of my outstanding debts. I told her not to talk to them because she has absolutely no legal reason to talk to anybody about me. She can give them my house phone and my e-mail address but beyond that, there is no reason for them to call her. I think they finally left her alone when she told them that she had no idea who I was and not to call again.

[milletpuff]

It is not legal. It is a violation of the Fair Debt Collections Act:

Fair Debt Collection

FTC Site about the Act

[SleeplessMommy]

They have access to her "maiden name" through her credit reports, along with her former addresses.

[jennlyn]

Major digging? Not in these days- you can look at peoplefinders.com and find that type of info.

[yonit]

Originally Posted by SleeplessMommy

They have access to her "maiden name" through her credit reports, along with her former addresses.

Except that the mortgage is only in her DH's name. Her name isn't on it.

I am going to file a complaint with the FTC later today when they open. I tried doing it online but the form they have just didn't work for this situation.

[CarrieMF]

Honestly, it sounds more like this has gone into collections and it's a collections agency calling you claiming to be her bank.

[phatchristy]

I would keep records of all the calls, etc. She can absolutely sue them and win money.

[MamaChel]

My neighbor's car co used to call me--apparently they did a map search of the neighborhood and started calling people who lived on the same block. I told them I never spoke to the woman and to leave me alone.

What's really strange is that someone looking for my husband's EX-wife once called my AUNT (maternal-no similar names) looking for her.

[Iris' Mom]

Originally Posted by CarrieMF

Honestly, it sounds more like this has gone into collections and it's a collections agency calling you claiming to be her bank.

Do mortgages go into collections? I would think the bank would just start foreclosure proceedings.

I'm glad it's illegal, though. That's just crazy. I know relatives get harassed for some debts. I think they figure someone might just come up with the $500 or whatever just to make the calls stop. But I don't see how somebody's relative would come up with thousands and thousands of dollars to bring a mortgage current to avoid the nuisance.