It makes sense that as the economy has soured that the rapacity of debt collectors would rise, but this much?

More people have fallen behind their payments and companies have gotten more hardcore about collecting on overdue accounts or selling them off.

While customer complaints about threats of violence, cursing, and calling at inconvenient times have risen roughly in parallel with one another, complaints about repeated calls have spiked jfrom roughly 15,00 to 41,000, far outpacing all other complaints.

During the same time period, complaints about violence only rose from about 2,000 to 4,000; inconvenient calls from ~2,500 to ~10,000; and obscene language from ~8,000 to ~15,000.

CNN Money says that a 55-year old woman had a debt collector calling her house all the time, making personal verbal attacks against her and her hubby. When she stopped answering the phone, the collector then repeated the same against her sister, ex-boyfriend, and her husband’s ex-wife’s mother, anything and anyone to try to get at her.

“This guy was out of his mind and he kept calling and calling, telling me ‘you better talk to me, you deadbeat,'” the woman told CNN Money. “He was very threatening and the whole thing was just really unsettling — it made you wonder who was going to show up at your door.”

Most debt collectors do not work for the original creditor. Instead, they buy up charged off accounts from businesses, paying pennies on the dollar of the total amount that was owed. Sometimes in their extraction efforts, they break the law. It’s important to pay your debts, but also for collectors to follow the law and for you to know your rights so you know how to fight back when they’re trampled on.

Debt collectors get nasty [CNNMoney] (Thanks to FMA!)

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