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In response to my post yesterday about Midland (Encore) affidavit claiming “personal knowledge ruled “patently false” by Michigan judge, I got this reader mail:

message: Christine, it has been a while.

I just read your comments on junk debt buying. I have been blasting these junk debt buyers, as you know, for years! I think the original creditor needs to be held accountable for selling/releasing personal identifiable
information to third parties.

That agency last year up in Buffalo, NY had a ex con getting debtors credit/debit card numbers and using the information to pay his rent, car insurance, and various other on-line purchases for himself and others. It turned out, the agency feigned shock and was in on the scam and was shut down by the NY AG.

NCO is another group that buys debt. NCO claimed they represented Bank of America on a collection matter and harassed my teenage neice (in my care while both her parents were deployed to Iraq) via her cell phone. NCO refused to state who they were looking for demanded the child’s social and other personal information. The girl was told she “was lying” when she tried to explain she was a high school student and they had the wrong number.

I chewed out NCO and reported them for harassment of a minor. NCO started calling the neice’s phone looking for me claiming I owed the bank money and demanding personal information such as bank account numbers, how much
did I have in my investment accounts, and other information. I called Bank of America to file a complaint. Lo and behold Bank of America did not contract this company to do business with them and had no idea who they were. They also confirmed they had no account in my name that was past due or in collection.

Problem #1 – Third party lenders/collection firms are not held to the same standards as bank owned lenders. These third parties are not required to conduct criminal background checks on employees, fingerprinting, or obtain bonding for employees. There are no specific guidelines to the protection and maintenance of personal identifiable information. This is why these disreputable agencies flourish.

Problem #2 – The banks that are regulated are required by Federal Law under the Bank Secrecy Act and the USA Patriot’s Act to KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER (KYC). You can google this for more details. The problem is there is no law
requiring banks to KNOW THEIR VENDOR. That is the people they are releasing consumer information to. In the case of Bank of America, who knows if NCO bought debt from another agency and just started to hound whoever answered the phone or if they were randomly dialing numbers phishing for information (as the bank suspected).

My NCO problem folded and went away quickly when I started asking these questions.

The other issue is who at the credit reporting agencies is handling your data. Equifax lost my entire file as of last count. Trans Union, ever since I started emailing their CEO has “lost” my identifing information much less frequently.

Not everyone is connected or spends the time unearthing CEO level emails and phone numbers. When they do, not everyone can handle “corporate speak” or write a well written document and are disregarded.

David Emery himself said there are no specific screening guidelines or policies in place with relation to background checks on new hires (other than drug testing) and no policies on how they secure/maintain personal indetifiable information THEY solicit from consumers as proof of identity.

You may wish to copy/paste my thoughts on the subject to the forum. Wishing you the best!

Thank you!  And you made some EXCELLENT points.

You really should have sued NCO.  It’s incredible what large debt buyers like NCO get away with.

I also recently had a collector claim that their client was Chase when in fact Chase had sold the account last year and the collector was representing a debt buyer. 

And I’m beginning to wonder how banks can LEGALLY sell your personal information.  There is no “know your vendor” law, but we do have PRIVACY laws.  Banks or any businesses ARE liable for the acts of their agents.  While the FDCPA specifically EXEMPTS original creditors (and that needs to be CHANGED), I’m not aware of any law giving immunity to banks for violating privacy laws.

And I really don’t see why a bank can sell your personal data at all.  There are lots of data sharing and privacy regulations and I have no idea why the sale of your personal information to a scummy debt buyer would be legal.

If a bank can’t sell your personal data to a telemarketer, why can it sell your data to a debt buyer?

Of course most privacy legislation is ONLY enforceable by regulators and you don’t have the right to sue them.  But this is something to look into, especially for people who are subjected to illegal collection practices and/or sued by debt buyers.

Don’t I wish I had more time and money …

FYI, I’ve been trying to set up a NEW site with multiple blogs about “Liars and Cheats” for weeks, just been so busy.  But I hope that SOON I’ll be featuring MANY of the collectors and scammers of all sorts on individual blogs and anyone can post THEIR experiences too.

And if you have any information about the legality of the banks’ sale of customer data to criminals, please post.

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