Hey all,
So an interesting one. Today I received a message from an old school teacher on Facebook. He told me that a person reached out to him and told him that they wish to speak to me about "a personal matter" and gave me the number. I googled it and it was a debt collector. I haven't spoken to my teacher face-to-face since 2003 when I graduated, and the only way they could have realized there was a connection was because they stalked my Facebook profile and saw that I mentioned him in my latest post from a few months back. I had unknowingly made the post public. I have since gone through my Facebook and ensured that everything is locked down.
This ofcourse is super embarrassing and shameful to me not only because it exposes a possible debt to someone I haven't met in a long time, but also that somehow after stalking my FB and getting a name, they got his number and called him too, thereby involving him in the matter.
Whether the debt is legitimate or not, I'm not sure yet, as they refused to answer my questions when I called.
Is there any retaliatory action I can take in lodging a complaint to an ombudsman? I did a Google and sounds like it could be ASIC, is that correct?
Any direction forward with this would be great. Thanks!
EDIT: Turned out to be an old Video Ezy debt for late rental fees from 2006 for $75. I called and told them that I am unaware of the debt and that given the age it is statue barred. Placed me on hold and 2 minutes later, they agreed and closed the matter.
They read out the address, phone number & email they had; none of which belong to me anymore, not since 2007. Plenty of people here that seem to love beating others down for inadvertant mistakes made in the past. This being one of mine. I feel sorry for each and every one of you.
It is part of the skiptracing process to leave messages with third parties. You may ignore it and it may go away if nothing is showing on your credit report.
But if you've been given a reference number, you could call on private and seek clarification if it's actually your matter or someone with the same name. They may ask you to confirm details. Avoid confirming your full address as you can be served legal notices (if it's your matter). Another way could be to confirm your year of birth, state or something fairly generic. If you're not the person, you should stop getting contacted.