How can collection agencies find you

Credit Reports Collectors trying to recover a debt may pull a credit report to find out more information about you and your payment history.

Data Brokers Whenever you sign up for something, fill out a survey or enter personal information online there is a possibility that this information is being collected by a data aggregator. Skip Tracers As a last resort, a collection agency may hire a skip tracer to locate a consumer. Next How to Stop Collection Calls? Other Articles. How To Make a Payment. How to Stop Debt Collector Harassment. Suing a Collection Agency.

Can you be sued by a collection agency? Smart Solutions for Dealing with Debt Collectors. How to Stop Collection Calls? How Do Collection Agencies Work? How to Dispute a Debt? Negotiation with Debt Collectors.

Call us By browsing this website, you agree to the use of cookies. Accept All Cookies. Customize Settings. Privacy Settings saved! Privacy Settings. Cookies set by the website visited by the user. The data collected is used for purposes like calculating page views, sessions, and the number of users. Google Analytics. This information would later be sold to interested parties such as a debt collection agency.

While most of your personal information is protected under privacy laws, there can certainly be occasions where a collection agency may be able to find you by inquiring about your information from a government agency.

Skip tracers are professionals who are hired by organizations in order to trace people that they have been unable to locate. Skip tracers are typically hired in order to locate individuals whose contact information on public records is not accurate anymore.

These people employ a number of different techniques in order to locate you. For example, if your debt was related to your car, then a simple inquiry with the DVLA would be enough to get your contact information. Pretexters are individuals that get your information illegally under false pretences. These individuals normally work alone and collect your information for their own personal gains. However, there have been cases where these individuals have been hired by agents that are trying to collect debt in order to get information about the debtor.

These people normally operate by calling you and posing to be a legitimate business. They may be able to elicit basic personal information from you under this guise. Once they have ample information, they would contact your financial institution and pretend to be you in order to get your financial information. As you can probably imagine, this is a serious offence and of course, illegal in the UK.

If you suspect that a debt collections agent got your information through the use of a pretexter, you have every right to sue them in court. Here are some things to consider before you take this step:. However, they're generally only allow to contact these individuals once. Collectors may simply search online to find your phone number listed in a directory, public records, or social networking site. You can stop collection calls from that collector by sending a letter asking that they stop calling you.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. TSI, Transworld Systems. Federal Trade Commission. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data.

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