Okay, here is the situation... forgive me if it gets a bit long winded.

Apparently there are at least three people in our manufactured housing community who use the same mortgage company, including my husband. Two of the three couples are listed in the phone book.

When we got our loan, we used family and friends for contacts because we did not know anyone else here as we had just moved here. When we went through a bad patch with our mortgage company where we were refusing to answer the phone when they called, they called our neighbor, Mr. A. We were friendly with him so it didn't seem that unusual that he took a message for us. We had used him as a reference for other things after we moved in.
Again, we thought nothing of it at the time.

Today, I got a call from our mortgage company (just seconds after hanging up from talking to them!) and they were looking for someone who lived on our street they said. They gave me the couple's name and said they were their mortgage company and they were having trouble getting ahold of them. I told her we didn't know anyone by that name and she asked us to pass the message that the mortgage company needs to speak with them if we come into contact with them.

So, we got to thinking... and realized the same thing happened with Mr. A. So we know they called Mr. A about our debt with them even though he was NOT listed as a contact and they called US about the debt of Mr. and Mrs. W even though we didn't know who they were and would not be listed as a contact for them. Mr. A is in the phone book as are we. Mr. W is not. HOwever all three of us have the same mortgage company.

Now, as I read the Fair Debt Collection Act, isn't this method illegal? Whether they found us via phone book or their own records... when they call us looking for someone else, it is obvious that it is because they are behind on their payments. If Mr. A had not become such a good friend, I would have been mortified that a perfect stranger knew that much about us!

Am I wrong in thinking this is illegal debt collecting practice? If I am right, what do we do about it? The incident between us and Mr. A was two years ago, we can't pin down dates, times or names, especially since Mr. A has recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

And do we notify the other couple about the call? We now realize who they must be but we only knew their first names these past two years.