Tying together the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s proposed debt collection rule and a comment from New York Attorney General Letitia James, a local news outlet in Rochester, N.Y., is warning individuals about how collectors are turning to “social media to collect money owed.”
The report quotes the director of counseling operations from a local credit counseling service who warns individuals about the information that collectors can find when browsing an individual’s social media profiles, and what can be done with that information.
“With social media, they may reach out to family and friends within your friend circle in an attempt to get your contact information,” she said.
To try and keep collectors at bay, the director recommends that individuals should not accept Facebook friend requests from people they do not recognize and to review their credit reports annually to make sure any paid debts are reported as such.
One individual who is mentioned in the report says that allowing collectors to use social media to collect should be considered an “invasion of privacy,” because the individuals are not providing consent to collectors to use their social media profiles.
Once again, like many media reports which are targeted at the general public, this report fails to include any comment from anyone in the credit and collection industry. I can understand that it can be difficult to find a collection agency in some media markets, but in Rochester, N.Y.? That seems a bit of a stretch.
