Bankruptcy

Facebook: Not Just for Finding Hot Dates Anymore

By Nathalie Martin

In a case referred to as an ?invasion of privacy on steroids,? a recent debt collector used Facebook to contact a debtor and demand payment of a $362 car loan. The company, Mark LLC out of Florida, told Melanie Beacham's family and friends on the social network site to have Melanie call them. Now Melanie is suing the debt collection agency for  various violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practice Act, including the Facebook fiasco, calling her six to 10 times a day by phone, sending text messages, contacting a neighbor, and sending a courier to deliver a letter to her workplace.Beacham's attorney has asked a judge to prohibit Mark One from contacting her or her family through Facebook or Twitter.This is obviously not the first time Facebook has been used in this way. Jeffrey Hyslip, a Chicago lawyer, said he had one client who was friended on Facebook by a young woman in a bikini. The account turned out to be a debt collector's, something his client realized only when the "friend" posted a message on his wall: "Pay your debts, you deadbeat."

Full post as published by Credit Slips on November 22, 2010 (boomark / email).