Curtis Krueger reports:
Melanie Beacham is on Facebook, the social networking site “that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them.”Unfortunately for her, those “others” include bill collectors.
Beacham, 34, of St. Petersburg, said she already had called her car finance company last summer to let people know she was on medical leave from her job, and getting a little behind on payments.
The company not only called her repeatedly to get her to pay up, she says, but it also looked at her Facebook page and found her sister and cousin.
Then the company sent Facebook messages to them, which worried the two, which led them to talk to other relatives, who got even more worried, she said.
“It was very stressful, it still is very stressful,” said Beacham. “It was humiliating.”
Beacham is suing Mark One Financial of Jacksonville seeking damages, and also seeking to prevent it from contacting “any friends and family members of the plaintiff, through Facebook, Twitter, or any other social networking sites.
Read more in the St. Petersburg Times. The company may find itself in trouble with the regulatory authorities if it violated any laws about contacting others.
And of course, if they violated Facebook’s TOS, that would be a crime, if you believe Facebook.