I agree that if a person died penniless, that's that.Heirs or relatives shouldn't have to deal with the debts. However, if he left an estate that has value, the proceed should be used to pay those debts. It is an honor of a man to pay his debt. This is why the world is full of cheaters, corrupts, immorals, especially those riches like CEO in wall street and banks.

most states have limitations on time frames allowed for collection.you may check on

your state at www.bankrate.com under credit cards hence they may only collect

within a certain time frame and write them and tell them to stop all correspondence

with you or you will sue them under the fcra act.at the closest federal court house.

this stops them cold in their tracks........this tactic may be used prior to the finished

time frame or after. in michigan it was 6 years written,oral,cc.

We kept keeping calls for a person with the same last name as ours.  I told the callers several times that that person did not live with us and I could not tell them how to reach this person.  They always said they would make a note of it.  Fianlly, I asked for a supervisor as soon as they asked for this person.  I told her I had told the callers repeatedly that person is not at our number and if the calls did not stop, I would contact the state Attorney General to report harassment.  The calls stopped.  

JIM K said - There aught to be a law.  THERE IS

Its called the Fair Debt Collection Practice Act - which a lot of Collection Agencies choose to ignore.   In some cases they get away with it - because the people they are harrassing have no idea about the law so do not know what they are doing is illegal.  

As in Jim K's case - all he needs to do is send a Cease Communications stating they are calling the wrong number, letter via Certified Mail - Return Receipt.  Once received they have to stop calling him about someone else's debts. If they do not he can sue them in Small Claims court for FDCPA Violations - He will get $1000 + court costs. Keep a log of every call.  

As for Zombie debt - this is another area where our elected officials need to address.  They need to ban the sale of ZOMBIE DEBT, that will put a lot of Law-breaking collection agencies out of business.  

The FTC receives thousands of complaints against debt collectors who violate FDCPA - but does nothing to stop it and put the law breakers out of business.  They leave it up the state Attorney General's to do it for them.  In most cases they just open a Collection Agency under a different name but same illegal practices- this needs to be stopped as well

On the flip side, if people didn't default on their bills like they do, there would be no need to have debt collection agencies, and these agencies wouldn't have to resort to other methods to get the money.  Can you imagine the flip side of being the debt collector and hearing every single sob story in the book about why someone is not paying their bills.  After hearing things from a friend of mine who works for a bank reviewing loans, I can understand the stance these people take.  Not everyone is blindly innocent about the debt and I'm sure that there are a lot of people who tell the debt collectors that they've died so they won't get the calls anymore.

I agree that if you owe the money, collection agencies have the legal right to attempt to collect it, BUT they don't have the legal right to go after debt that has been written off either by the creditor or by the statute of limitations, or call your neighbors or threaten you.  Most collection agencies, once you inform them of your rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practice Act, will back down.  They'll also back down if you request, in writing, what debt you actually owe, since as someone mentioned, it is usually debt that has been bought from another company.  Also if you work out a settlement agreement, first get it in writing and never, ever send them a check, always send in a money order.

I get calls from debt collectors because my phone number was at one time the phone of some dead beat.  I enjoy these calls because it gives me a rare platform to give these scumbags the big run around.  I usually let the caller hear me pretending to talk to the debtor, so they think he's really there.  Then I string them along.  I usually force them to talk to the debtor through me.  I come back with the most irritating answers to their questions.  I make sure they think the debtor has the money to pay so they keep the case alive.  (That way they will call me again - So I can mess with them more. )  You can literally hear the steam coming from the callers ears.  It's really fun.  Sometimes I let them know I'm messing with them.  But at that point they don't know what to think, so they keep calling back.  There was one firm that had to be into me for some 10 labor hours - I had to have taken calls from everyone in the company.