Obama Defict Reduction plan Proposes Allowing Banksters Debt Collectors to Call Peoples' Cell Phones

[chill_wind]

The $648 Monthly Fine for Not Having a Job
Posted on September 19, 2011 by emptywheel

As part of the President’s deficit reduction plan, he proposes changing the rules to allow debt collectors to call people on their cell phones.

Allow agencies to contact delinquent debtors via their cellular phones. The Administration also proposes to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to facilitate collection of debts owed to or guaranteed by the Federal Government, by facilitating contact of delinquent debtors who are most readily reached on their cell phones. This provision is expected to provide substantial increases in collections, particularly as an increasing share of households no longer have landlines and rely instead on cell phones.

As soon as I read this, I thought of the widow in Hawaii whom Bank of America called 48 times a day because her late husband had missed one mortgage payment.

So under Obama’s proposed rules, BoA might call someone 48 times a day on their cell phone? Say each one were billed as a 1 minute call, that would amount to 1,440 minutes a month–maybe double a pretty normal 700 minute/month plan. The remainder of those minutes might be billed at $.45 per minute, or a grand total of $648 a month, all so a debt collector can get money for Uncle Sam.

more: http://www.emptywheel.net/2011/09/19/the-648-monthly-fine-for-not-having-a-job/

ETA Edited for clarity re: "debt collectors"

[villager]

1. interesting how a lot of pro-banksters on this site unrec such items...

n/t

[TwilightGardener]

2. I wish they could do that, because then maybe the collectors would

stop calling my home phone for a deadbeat that used to have my phone number (or fraudulently is giving people my phone number)--80% of my phone calls are actually not for me, or my family. They are for someone I do not know who is running from a TON of creditors.

[hobbit709]

4. they'll do the same with cell numbers.

[TwilightGardener]

7. I almost never use my cell, so it doesn't matter to me. However, many people

ONLY have a cell phone--how would collectors and creditors reach them? I don't see why cells are off limits.

[ThomCat]

36. Because people PAY for cell minutes.

Do you want people calling you without your permission when you are going to be forced to pay for that call?

[no limit]

6. Why would this proposal fix the problem you are having?

I don't get it.

[villager]

30. Not everyone in trouble with banks and creditors is a "deadbeat." They just don't have tax bailouts

...waiting for them when the economy tanks, the way the companies hiring the debt collectors do...

[TwilightGardener]

34. I'm not complaining about people who can't afford to repay debt.

Most people "man up" and deal with it, make arrangements, whatever. I'm talking about people who purposefully evade collectors and creditors, so that they're calling ME instead, because apparently I have the last known contact number of these folks.

[hobbit709]

3. among many reasons to NEVER give your cell number out.

[Horse with no Name]

5. Heavy sigh.

Is anything worth standing up for?

[emulatorloo]

8. Self delete

[QC]

9. Exactly how would this reduce the deficit? n/t

[emulatorloo]

10. Doesn't make sense to me either. Are we sure emptywheel has her facts straight?

[chill_wind]

16. Page 28 of the WH document, as linked in the OP

And as quoted exactly by emptywheel.

Here's the whole 80 page plan, again:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2012/assets/jointcommitteereport.pdf

[emulatorloo]

37. Ok. See post 14 below then.

[frazzled]

14. Because it's about money owed to the government

Not private debt.


The Administration also proposes to
amend the Communications Act of 1934
to facilitate collection of debts owed to or
guaranteed by the Federal Government,
by facilitating contact of delinquent debt-
ors who are most readily reached on their
cell phones

Frankly, if you're going to allow phone calls for collection of debt, it only makes sense to me that if you can call land lines you should be able to call cell phones. Most younger people do not have land lines anyway. With new technology comes new responsibility. You can't exclude one form of communication, especially when it has become the predominant one.

[newspeak]

22. yeah, those with no job or a below living wage job

is just going to run out and pay that debt. You can't squeeze blood out of a turnip. So, living on the hill must insulate some, who think we're all out here attempting to not pay our debts because we have such decent jobs now with all of those cadillac benefits.

[KansDem]

11. Got this in my email last month--

REMEMBER: Cell Phone Numbers Go Public this month.

REMINDER..... All cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sales calls.

.... YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS

To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone: [phone]. It is the National DO NOT CALL list It will only take a minute of your time.. It blocks your number for five (5) years. You must call from the cell phone number you want to have blocked. You cannot call from a different phone number.

HELP OTHERS BY PASSING THIS ON .. It takes about 20 seconds.

https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx

Please forward to family and friends.

One supposes this would prevent such calls...:shrug:

[TheWraith]

12. That's a chain letter, and it's bullshit. Emptywheel's article is also bullshit.

Debt collectors already call cell phones.

[Chan790]

23. Call the FCC and report them.

It's actually still illegal for them to do so and a fine of up to $50000 per incident.

I actually enjoy asking them if the call is being recorded then screaming "cell phone" at them and hanging up. Once they call back they're breaking the law...and they know it.

[Mass]

13. They already do that (private companies). I just got a new cell and I am receiving

a daily automated call from a debt collector aimed at the previous owner of the number.

I do not see why the federal government should not be authorized to do what private companies like Walmart and COmcast do.

[frazzled]

15. The headline for the OP is wrong

This is about the collection of "debts owed to or guaranteed by the Federal Government." It doesn't allow Target or Sear's siding to call you.

[truebrit71]

17. "Owed to or guaranteed by the Federal Government"...does NOT mean ALL debt collections..

..just those debts owed to the Feds...

[tridim]

18. My prepaid cellphone is a nightmare of collection calls for the previous owners.

99% of the calls I get are from collection agencies calling for Lee Hunsucker, who is apparently the deadest deadbeat in history.

[TwilightGardener]

21. No, I'll bet my deadbeat is deadbeatier. God, I wish the collections people

would find THEIR ACTUAL PHONE NUMBER. I am tired of being caught in the net of others' dishonesty.

[Horse with no Name]

31. My deadbeat is worse than all

He has skip tracers and bail bondsmen chasing him...and they don't believe me when I say I have never heard of him and they continue to call..and call...and call...

[TwilightGardener]

33. LOL--All right, you win. I have not met any bondsmen, etc.

[Proud Public Servant]

26. My mysterious debt collection phone calls

I went through that same thing with a prepaid cell phone in 2008: relentless calls for someone named "Donna." I finally got fed up and, instead of saying "she's not here," demanded that the callers identify themselves. Callers would then ask if I were Donna's husband. I'd again refuse to answer any questions until the callers identified themselves. The callers would then, to a person, hang up.

That really confused me. I'm sure the calls were from collection agencies; why would they refuse to identify themselves, even giving up a tantalizing shot at the elusive Donna rather than give me an identity?

[tinkerbell41]

19. So don't answer?

I never answer any call that I don't know.

[AngkorWot]

20. Oh no, I'm terribly upset.

For some reason, apparently. I guess.

[Enrique]

24. i wonder how that got in there

i'm beginning to suspect that the banking industry has some influence inside the White House. :shrug:

[chill_wind]

25. LOL

:-)

[JDPriestly]

27. Why do they want to do that?

And some of these debt collectors call old people who don't owe anything. You had better make sure you have an unusual name. Even then you are not immune from bogus debt collection calls.

Debt collection should be done some way other than by telephone.

It is especially troubling that they call some of the very elderly and scare them about nothing.

[JNinWB]

28. Individuals, who owe the Federal Government (us taxpayers) money, shouldn't be bothered?

[Maven]

29. Yay! Torture student loan debtors even more!!!

[TheMadMonk]

32. I guess 'twould all depend on how Uncle S obtained the number.

And also how porous legislated chinese walls are.

As a general rule different departments can only "share" essentially non-volatile information about a person, name, DOB, and similar fixed data. The more ephemeral such as address, phone numbers, has to be amassed separately from the individual in question and can't be shared except under special (and normally court ordered/approved) circumstances.

If you provide the number as one of many possible contact options on a form to any entity public or private, expect them to use that number when and as needed.

If this is part of a larger merging of cross departmental government databases (or a backdoor avenue to achieving that end) then it is almost certainly a very bad idea.

[Taverner]

35. And cell phones never have a feature called "call blocking"

Nope...

:eyes: