Bloomberg BusinessWeek has published a must-read story about a man who was being hounded by collectors for debts he did not owe. But rather than make payments or just stop answering the phone, the man started digging. And he ended up digging all the way until he found Joel Tucker. Tucker, and his brother Scott, have gotten into a lot of trouble for selling fake portfolios of debts that have been attempted to be collected by a lot of different individuals.
In trying to track down Tucker, this man was insatiable. Calling collection agencies, loan brokers, and even Tucker’s mother at one point, he didn’t stop until he got Tucker on the phone. But even that wasn’t enough. The information eventually ended up in the hands of the Federal Trade Commission and the rest is part of legal history.
This man believes his information was sold 21 times to different people, even though he had paid off his only payday loan in full. He’d received more than 100 calls from collectors. The one that sent him over the edge, the one that sent him on his quest to catch whoever started this, was the caller who threatened to rape his wife if a payment wasn’t made.
In the end, it was Tucker calling this man, asking for mercy.