Doing it Wrong: A Shocking Turn of Events! (Plus, we'd like your feedback)

This is how Patrick Lunsford presented this link for today’s Doing it Wrong:

“It’s Doing it Wrong, but with IRONY!”

So, today’s Doing it Wrong is actually not the link Patrick IM’d me — but Patrick’s IM itself. (Also, guys, he finally paid me back for lunch. Unrelated, but I thought it was worth mentioning.)

The piece running on the Texas Star-Telegram site is actually an interesting read, and a 180-degree turn-around from how wrong-calls from the collections’ industry are treated in the press. (You can read one take on it here; also, the ACA’s Ask Doctor Debt site is featuring a related item as its Question of the Day.)

Theresa McUsic suggests that unexpected calls from a collection agency — unexpected because, as far as you know, you’re not past due on anything — might be the sign of a bigger problem.

“Around 41 percent of victims learn about an identity theft from a collection agency, creditor or law enforcement agency trying to take action against them,” McUsic writes.

She also suggests that there should be a conversation between the collector/collection agency and the individual on the wrong end of a collections call. Mark Schiffman, spokesman for American Collectors Association International, told her that a collector can’t just take a consumer’s word that he’s not the right Mr Jones being sought — just like a consumer should not necessarily take a collector’s word that the debt being collected is connected to that consumer. “Talk to the collector,” Schiffman tells McUsic. “You can’t get there by saying ‘Leave me alone’ and hanging up the phone.”

Three things a consumer should do to help with proof of a stolen identity:

(1) File a police report and make sure you keep a copy — or several copies — for sharing. This is good practice not just for taking steps to get off of a collection agency’s call list; you’ll probably need this report to dispute any weird charges that show up on your credit card statement or odd activity on your bank account. File a report. Make copies.

(2) Add a Fraud Alert to your credit report with the Big Three: Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. This is good practice, again, not just for the conversation(s) you’ll have with the collection agency, but any other creditor who might be looking at your credit report. The Fraud Alert is free, lasts 90 days, and can be renewed every 90 days for a maximum of three years. (If your identity theft issue is lasting over three years, maybe you should take the opportunity to just give your old identity up. This book will help.” Especially if you know where there’s a LOT of secret treaure buried. Make sure that we keep in touch though, new Best Friend!)

(3) Pick up an ID Theft affidavit from the FTC. It’s a quick, six-page form that will help you document the identity theft. Again, you’ll want to share this with the collection agency, and, more than likely, a host of other people who may be affected by your identity theft.

McUsic shares that “If the victim includes a police report with the dispute, the case is usually closed and turned back to the retailer or bank that hired the collector.”

So, what say you Collectors? Is McUsic on the money with her suggestions? How do you handle claims of identity theft? And what do your offices require from a consumer when that claim is made? We’d love to hear from you in the comments section or in the poll below.