A Florida judge has ordered a debt collection agency to not use Facebook or any other social media site in an attempt to locate a woman over a $362 unpaid car loan.
Judge W. Douglas Baird of the Florida 6th Judicial Circuit Court also ordered Mark One Financial LLC of Jacksonville, Fla., to refrain from contacting the woman's family or friends on Facebook.
The order is part of a lawsuit that Melanie Beacham filed last August against the debt collection agency. According to court documents, Beacham said Mark One sent messages to her and her family on the Facebook networking site to have her call the agency about the debt.
Billy Howard, the woman's attorney with the Morgan and Morgan law firm in Tampa, said the debt collectors violated Beacham's privacy. He said they also violated a provision of Florida's consumer protection law that prohibits debt collectors from harassing people.
Howard said that in the past four months, nearly a dozen potential clients have contacted him because debt collectors have used social media sites to track them down.
"It's the beginning of an epidemic," Howard said, calling it "another weapon" debt collectors can use.
Beacham's claims Mark One contacted her six to 10 times a day by phone, sent her a text message, contacted her neighbor. and sent a courier to deliver a letter to her workplace, according to court documents.
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Source: law.com
By: Tamara Lush
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