Free Republic

Debt collector stalking you on Facebook? Melanie Beacham says it's harassment, and took debt collector MarkOne Financial to court, trying to get the company to stop sending her Facebook messages about the debt she owed. The company also allegedly sent such messages to everyone else on her Facebook friends list. Behind on her car payments, Beacham started receiving as many as 23 calls per day from MarkOne Financial before it found her on Facebook, according to the Orlando Sentinel. A Florida judge put a stop to the phone calls and online messages in a preliminary ruling, barring the debt collector...

Threats included arrest, deportation Strong-arm tactics were standard procedure for a La Mesa man who ran a debt collection business out of El Cajon, posing at times as a lawyer or investigator for the district attorney. Edward Mitchell Davis told people he contacted that police were on their way to arrest them and the only way to avoid jail was to pay him immediately for debts the people often didn't even owe, prosecutors said. If he thought they were immigrants, Davis told them they could be deported if they didn't pay or could be arrested at the airport when they...

SAN DIEGO – City Attorney Michael Aguirre said Monday he planned to post on his office's Web site the names of people and companies who owe the city money, in an attempt to prompt them to pay up. The city will mail notices to about 30,000 individuals, companies and government agencies that owe the city $250 or more in delinquent debt, giving them 30 days' notice of the potential posting. More than 560,000 debtors owe the city money, city officials said.