Millions Are Hounded for Debt They Don't Owe. One Victim Fought Back, With a Vengeance
Retweeted by David Fahrenthold: https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold
Heck of a first sentence here (crazy story, too):
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Andrew Therrien wanted payback. He got it—and uncovered a conspiracy.
By Zeke Faux
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{Andrew} Therrien had been caught up in a fraud known as phantom debt, where millions of Americans are hassled to pay back money they don’t owe. The concept is centuries old: Inmates of a New York debtors’ prison joked about it as early as 1800, in a newspaper they published called Forlorn Hope. But systematic schemes to collect on fake debts started only about five years ago. It begins when someone scoops up troves of personal information that are available cheaply online—old loan applications, long-expired obligations, data from hacked accounts—and reformats it to look like a list of debts. Then they make deals with unscrupulous collectors who will demand repayment of the fictitious bills. Their targets are often poor and likely to already be getting confusing calls about other loans. The harassment usually doesn’t work, but some marks are convinced that because the collectors know so much, the debt must be real.
The problem is as simple as it is intractable. In 2012 a call center in India was busted for making 8 million calls in eight months to collect made-up bills. The Federal Trade Commission has since broken up at least 13 similar scams. In most cases, regulators weren’t able to identify the original perpetrators because the data files had been sold and repackaged so many times. Victims have essentially no recourse to do anything but take the abuse.
Most victims, that is. When the scammers started to hound Therrien, he hounded them right back. Obsessed with payback, he spent hundreds of hours investigating the dirty side of debt. By day he was still promoting ice cream brands and hiring models for liquor store tastings. But in his spare time, he was living out a revenge fantasy. He befriended loan sharks and blackmailed crooked collectors, getting them to divulge their suppliers, and then their suppliers above them. In method, Therrien was like a prosecutor flipping gangster underlings to get to lieutenants and then the boss. In spirit, he was a bit like Liam Neeson’s vigilante character in the movie Taken—using unflagging aggression to obtain scraps of information and reverse-engineer a criminal syndicate. Therrien didn’t punch anyone in the head, of course. He was simply unstoppable over the phone.
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One of these slimy debt collection companies came after my mother, stating that she owed $5,000.00. These companies usually come after elderly people who they know will panic and try to pay SOMETHING on this debt, even if they don't know about this debt let alone owe it. Once you promise payment and pay, they have you on the hook. These debts have already been paid OFF IE: Tax write-offs for the companies who are left debt owed by deceased persons.
Anyway, they started calling me every other day & night (Sometimes after 9:00 PM). Sent MORE scary letters stating that their big bad lawyers would sue my Mom and that the penalties would continuing escalating against her. I knew I had them, so I didn't panic. I got a copy of my Mom's DEATH Certificate showing that she was DEAD, and letters showing that my late Mom had 4 credit cards, and that ALL 4 of credit cards were closed 2 months after she died and before the time they stated in the letter that she ran up this mythical $5,000.00 debt. I also told them that IF they kept calling me after 9:00 PM trying to collect this debt she didn't owe them, and if they didn't stop calling and harassing me, I'd sue THEM. I sent the 2 copies of this letter/information registered to them.
Welp, I never heard from them again after I sent the 2 copies of that letter to them which someone there signed for. It's been almost 2 decades since my Mom passed away 
