Expert: Jack Toomey - 7/26/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hello, I took out a 2nd mortgage on my Home a few yrs ago and I keep getting calls from the Automated Machine 3 or 4 times a day even Sundays. This has been going on for a couple of years and I am sick of it, it would be different if I was behind but I am not I am current and have been can I legally threaten them with a harrasment charge if they don't stop? I live in Illinois Thank You

ANSWER: In order for a crime to be committed there has to be criminal intent.  I doubt that an automatic system has the necessary criminal intent.  However you could pursue a civil action against the company.  If you have any legal training you could do it in small claims court but the amount of money that you ask for would be limited.  

I don't see where you have contacted the company and have alerted them to the situation.  Have you?

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello, if I contact them and the calls keep coming then do I pursue the civil suit or just ignore the calls? I have talked to these people before they told me I had missed a payment which ended up it was applied to someone else account they were not very nice even after the matter was cleared up
I guess what I am asking    is it worth the time Thanks

Answer
I forgot to ask you if you were on the federal "Do Not Call List"?  It applies to telemarketers for the most part and if you have done business with a company in the past then they are allowed to call you occasionally but not four times a day.  I think that if you put them on notice that their calls are not welcome then they are not allowed to call you unless you owe them money.  You can find the Do Not Call web page online and simply type in your phone number.  I haven't received a telemarketing call since the law was passed.

I can't give you legal advice about your second question but I'd think that a call to a supervisor would clear this up.  Sometimes these calls are made by mistake and a phone call to them will stop them.  Once I had a case where a company was receiving fifty calls a day from the same number.  It turned out that the calls were coming from an elderly man's home and were being generated by a cat that was walking on the keys of his cordless phone.