How to deal with Debt Collection Agencies

And Why You Should Never Respond to Letters or Phone Calls from Debt Collectors

Disclaimer - This is not legal advice. We are not lawyers. If you have serious concerns consult a Consumer Protection lawyer.

#1. Never answer someone calling from a 1-877 number. They are usually scammers or debt collectors (or both). If you do answer and they identify themselves as a debt collector, immediately accuse them of running a scam and hang up the phone. If you have the option, immediately block all calls from that phone number.

#2. Avoid confirming your identity. If they ask if you are "John Smith", deny it and say they have the wrong number. Then hang up immediately.

#3. Never give anyone your date of birth or your social insurance number over the phone. They will try to trick you out of that by asking you to confirm your identity. Refuse. Say you don't give out that information over the phone due to privacy reasons. Even if they pretend to be from the government, accuse them of running a scam and hang up the phone.

#4. Debt collectors will often even try to collect on fake debt - debt that isn't even real and they are just making up. It is a scam they do.

#5. Debt collectors will also try to collect on old zombie debt - debt that has already passed the statute of limitations and is not real debt any more.

#6. If they try serve you with (bogus) legal papers, you should avoid service. You are under no legal requirement to answer the door or receive it.

#7. Do not sign any registered mail from an unknown source. If they try to serve you via registered mail or courier, refuse to sign and the mail will be returned to the sender.

#8. Even if they do manage to serve you, do not respond to any of their requests for you to mail them back and acknowledge the debt. You are under no legal requirement to answer their mail.

#9. If you do end up in court with a lawsuit somehow, demand proof that the debt is real. Repeatedly accuse them of trying to sue you using FAKE DEBT. Demand proof that the debt is real, that the person suing you actually owns the debt, the amount of the debt, the date of the debt, and when the statute of limitations wears off. And demand that they prove that you are the person they are looking for. If they are suing John Smith, how do we know they are not suing the wrong John Smith?

It all comes down to the following issues...

When debt collectors buy a debt all they are really buying is a spreadsheet document with the names, addresses, phone numbers, and amounts owed by hundreds or even thousands of people. They know very little about the actual person. They probably don't even have your social insurance number unless you make the mistake of giving it to them. Or the date of the debt. Or your birthday. Chances are they likely they don't even know your middle name.

And even if they do have your social insurance number, that doesn't matter. Because it still doesn't prove that the debt is real. If you demand full documentation and proof that the debt is real, they cannot do it because they don't any such documents.

All they have is a spreadsheet with your name and number on it.

They don't have a signed contract from you. Only the credit card company has that. Your contract was with the bank or credit card company. The debt collector is simply some hoser who buys and sells debt. They probably are not even Canadian. They are probably American.

Debt collectors will also try to threaten you with a lawsuit, but that is all it is. Empty threats. They will even go to lengths to make up fake lawyers who don't exist, fake law firm websites, try to serve you with bogus legal documents that aren't even filled out correctly / are not real, etc.

And you are under no legal obligation to answer any of it.

And even if you do end up in court, demand proof that the debt is real and refer to it as fake debt.

Because frankly they cannot prove the debt is real. Especially if they just made it up.

Below is a lovely video on this topic worth watching.

Twitter: Not as good as you think it is.

When it comes to promoting your website and your company's business there are a number of websites out there that are considered to be good investments in terms of advertising and promoting your company.

Twitter is one of those companies.

And it isn't as good as you think it might be. I shall explain why.

#1. According to Alexa.com (a website which tracks the popularity of other websites) Twitter is only used by approx. 8.5% of internet users. In other words it is really only used by the tech-savvy people who like tweeting to each other. The other 91.5% of the internet population apparently has no interest in Twitter.

What this tells you is that Twitter has reached its limit in terms of "market share" and would really only be good if you are trying to advertise directly to people who are tech-savvy.

Lets take for example the following company Twitter page for US Money Reserve, a company which encourages people to invest in gold and silver as the global economy grows and shrinks periodically. Whenever the economy turns sour the prices of gold and silver soar.

Now think of the type of people who would invest in gold or silver. Hmm. Business people. People with lots of money. Often well educated. Probably own stocks and a 401 K account. Chances are more likely that they're tech-savvy, own a BlackBerry or smart phone, and possibly on Twitter.

Thus a company wishing to sell gold and silver to investors would be wise to marketing via Twitter.

But someone who is marketing a small niche business, like 'Gary's Civil War Antiques Emporium', probably won't do so well on Twitter because it isn't the type of website that caters to American Civil War buffs. That doesn't mean that such a company can't try to promote their business via Twitter, I am just saying it is significantly less likely that Twitter will give them any edge advertising wise.

What does well on Twitter is celebrities like:
twitter.com/ParisHilton

Or renowned writers like:
twitter.com/MargaretAtwood

Or politicians like:
twitter.com/BarackObama

Or brand name companies like:
twitter.com/Microsoft

The point I am trying to make here is that for people or companies who are already famous or brand names, Twitter is added bonus. But it won't make your company famous on its own.

US Money Reserve Inc's twitter page does have lots of useful tips on it and news about the gold and silver exchange, prices, market valuations / predictions, etc... but by itself the company isn't going to see a huge benefit from its Twitter page. It will help it a little because its marketing towards the more tech-savvy people who are more likely to invest in gold or silver, but you first have to get people on to their website and/or Twitter page and that is the really difficult prospect which comes down to traditional marketing techniques and online marketing like Search Engine Optimization.

Twitter pundits like to claim that Twitter can help a website go viral. However the type of topics that do go viral are often not business related. They're always something funny and interesting, and therefore worth sharing on Facebook, Tweeting about, etc... But the problem is that most people on Twitter don't retweet things and even those that do retweet a particular topic aren't going to retweet something that is obviously an advertisement for a business.

"Oh but doesn't Twitter boost Search Engine Optimization"?

Actually no, it doesn't. Two reasons: Twitter links always have "rel=nofollow" in the link coding which means search bots don't follow them and it gives no benefit SEO wise. The 2nd reason is because most links are shortened using Bitly, which means the search engine doesn't even see any useful keywords because it is ultimately just a code like "http://bit.ly/QFytRk". So Twitter does zilch in terms of boosting SEO.

The only benefit of Twitter is to give a company or person the appearance of being tech savvy. Which ultimately can be an utter failure if the person isn't tech-savvy at all and just doesn't care.

Take for example twitter.com/sirseanconnery which shows what happens when an aging actor tries to use Twitter and gets bored with it quickly.

My review of Twitter?

0.5 of a Star out of Five. It doesn't even a full star because as a tool it is shamefully outmatched by Facebook which is a more effective social media tool and currently has a reach of 46% of global internet users and a growing base of active users. Twitter is a complete waste of time compared to the juggernaut that is Facebook.

Boycotting Scotiabank

This all started when I received spam from the Scotiabank of Canada offering to give small business advice.

I clicked the link, which led to a page with a phone number.

So I called it using my trusty Google phone...

And waited 18 minutes before someone finally answered.

And then the poor lady online was confused. She didn't know ANYTHING about the spammy email Scotiabank was sending me, nor the so-called business advice Scotiabank was claiming to be giving out.

So yeah, totally boycotting Scotiabank now.