In 2013, our family ended internet and home telephone service provided by Telus and switched to Shaw. I wanted to return the equipment directly to a Telus depot, but they said it could only be returned by using Canada Post. I sent the equipment off as instructed and made digital copies of the bills of lading provided by the post office.

Sometime later, Telus sent a final bill that included a charge for equipment they said had not been returned. After excluding the equipment charge, I paid their invoice and provided Telus with tracking information for the equipment return. However, the company failed to remove the wrongful charge of about $400.

Telus efforts to collect the amount escalated. The claim was eventually shifted to a collection agency. I again explained the situation, but they continued calling. I demanded they only communicate in writing, and I invited them to take the “debt” to the Provincial Court. I even threatened to sue them myself if they continued to harass me.

First-level collection agencies that lack evidence to enforce a claim don’t give up, they sell the claim to a sleazy participant in the debt collection business. Those people use various threats and offers of settlement, but they can be ignored.

Now and then I get a letter from a collector asking for payment. The amounts demanded keep escalating. This week, the claim was for something above $51,000!

But that’s not my only collection agency story.

Back in 1978, my employer had us make a temporary move to Edmonton. We rented our North Vancouver home to a business consultant and his family. Two winters and one summer later, we returned to BC and retook possession of the house.  Both parties were satisfied.

Sometime in the 1980s, our home started getting debt collection letters addressed to our former tenant. I didn’t have a forwarding address, so they were discarded.

Today, another demand arrived from an Ontario-based agency. They describe themselves:

MAC Financial Recovery is a nationally licensed Canadian collection agency that specializes in the purchase of delinquent consumer debt.

Passage of 40+ years has not ended the efforts to collect money from people who lived in this house long ago. In this situation, MAC threatens the alleged debtor with garnishment of bank accounts and wages and registration of a judgment, even though they don’t have a judgment and unsecured debts are typically unenforceable in British Columbia after two years of inactivity.

MAC has quadrupled the original claim and now wants $21,814.97 from our old tenant.

This situation involving the collection industry amuses me, but there is a serious issue here.

Some elderly citizens have their capacity for self-protection diminish as time passes. Extortionate collectors know this and threaten to begin impossible acts if payment is not made immediately. Those threats are usually accompanied by an offer to settle for some lesser amount. Victims not confident of their rights, or lacking judgment because of advancing age, may pay crippling amounts despite having no legal obligation.

I surmise that unethical collection agencies are particularly interested in buying claims that are decades old. Those are more likely to involve seniors who may be vulnerable.

I am reminded of another scam that was popular long ago. Scammers would mail thousands of invoices to small businesses for “directory advertising.” We used to get them often in my office. I talked with someone from the Better Business Bureau and was told the success rate for these invoices was between 2% and 3%. If they sent out 10,000 fake invoices for $200 each, the revenue might have been $50,000 against costs of about $5,000.

If we were to live in an unregulated business as advocated by some right-wing politicians, unethical behaviour as described above would increase.