Consumer complaint received 2017-08-10
Company: SQUARETWO FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: FL
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Credit card debt
Issue: Threatened to contact someone or share information improperly
Sub-issue: Contacted your employer

Complaint:
Last year ( XX/XX/XXXX ) i submitted a complaint regarding the same nature ; except this time, they contacted my employer ( HR office ) before contacting me. Please refer to my XX/XX/XXXX submission case # XXXX regarding my complaint of this same scenario. Today, Thursday, XX/XX/XXXX, my HR manager came over and to my office and handed me a message note stating " File # XXXX, call XXXX XXXX XXXX, Ph # XXXX ''. I asked her what is it about ; and she said i did n't inquire, but it sounds important. So, i contacted them immediately. A male answered " corporate office '' ( which sounds exactly how last years debt collector greeted me ).  I asked him, is this XXXX XXXX XXXX? And he said yes it is. I then gave him the file # XXXX. He asked me for my name. I gave it. He then wanted my last four digits of Soc. Security and date of birth to verify who i was. I refused to give him that information. So, he then proceeded to say " okay, is your social security XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and date of birth XX/XX/XXXX? '' Since he said the correct information, i said yes. I asked him, what is the issue. He then told me that i owe a balance of over {$19000.00} to XXXX and before i get court ordered, they were calling. This sounded exactly like the phone call i received last year ( almost to the day ), but at that time i only owed XXXX a little over {$3000.00}. I explained to the man from " XXXX XXXX XXXX '' that i received a similar call last year and i have never received any documentation ( bills, letters to intent to collect, etc ). He said he wanted to help me, so he told me to contact XXXX XXXX XXXX, which is the company that bought XXXX ( i believe in XX/XX/XXXX or XX/XX/XXXX? ) - he said call XXXX XXXX and tell them your account # XXXX. I explained to him that i did n't owe anything to XXXX, because i have a " paid in full '' letter. And that i had contacted CFPB and reported last years call about the same issue ... yet, i still have n't ever received ANY court orders, bills, letters to collect from anyone. I was very upset ; and he said, " ma'am i 'm trying to help you, just call XXXX XXXX XXXX and see what they tell you, but call us back within 24 hours, or else you will be served with court order ''. Again, i tried to explain to him that it was inappropriate for his agency to contact my HR - BEFORE contacted me. He did n't respond to that comment. He kept reiterating the he was trying to help me. After i hung up, i called XXXX ( XXXX XXXX XXXX ) and spoke with representative ( XXXX ) who looked up the account # given to me # XXXX and she said she could n't see anything about my debt, because it was in the " archived '' files. However, she mentioned that my account was sold to " SquareTwo Financial '', which of course it 's a debt collection agency. XXXX was very helpful and heard my story ( what i 'm writing here ) and she suggested that i contact SquareTwo Financial to find out why they have n't contacted me before. Before i call this debt collection agency ( SquareTwo Financial ), i want to be able to understand why does this continue to happen. I was threatened last year. Now this year ( XX/XX/XXXX ), they did n't even call me first, but went straight to my HR to confirm my employment and i believe it is an " indirect '' manner of threatening me. I feel that if this debt were true ( which it is n't ), why have n't they send me letters of intent to collect, or bills, or any kind of indication that this debt has been outstanding?!?!? Please HELP me ... what should i do? Why is this continuing to happen?

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation