This isn’t even a recent development. I took an IT job with a debt collection agency in the early 90’s. (I was in immediate need for a job and they did offer me what I thought was a good rate at the time, before I calculated the cost of SAN loss, of course.) I was only there a year before I was (thankfully) fired. I’m more than reasonably sure the reason I was fired was because I started pushing back on a lot of the more unethical practices. I was very happy to be fired from there, but decades later the thought of that experience leaves me feeling dirty.
To be clear: when I say this agency was criminal, I’m not exaggerating. When they started asking me to alter audit trails, I insisted they send me the requested changes in writing so I could “get the details correct” (and I kept personal copies offsite, although I didn’t tell them that.) Before that or after, I’ve never been in a company where the CO and some of the managers openly discussed their ongoing cocaine habit.
It’s telling how you say “something”. Personally, I’d rather we not tear down the entire system before we have a working model for an alternative. Reform the system, sure, but revolutions tends to lead to too much misery for my taste, and usually you just end up with an even worse dictator at the end. You get a Stalin or a Napoleon.
A debt collector kept calling, wanting my late mother’s money to which they were not entitled. They wouldn’t give me any info when I bothered answering, claiming they could only give that info to a legal representative of the estate. Being her only child wasn’t good enough. They finally had a very nice black woman call me (the rest had been karens), so I calmly but firmly told her what was up. I explained that none of her coworkers would apprise me of the situation nor amount, and weren’t even interested in speaking with my probate lawyer. I have no income. There is no estate besides the house, which has been in probate well over a year. When my name is finally on the house (thanks a lot, mom!), I refuse to sell it in order to pay off unsecured debt for which I am not legally responsible. I told her I hoped that cleared things up, wished her a very good day (and meant it), and hung up. They haven’t called since.
Thank fuck I never bothered with social media other than tumblr and European microblogging sites! That phone shit’s bloody bad enough!
[ETA: Oh, and the obviously Subcontinental drugs peddlers have quit calling since I began briskly answering with, “Joe’s Auto Repair, how may I help you?” They actually sound embarrassed AF as they apologize and wish me good day before they hang up.]
