Under federal law, a debt collector is any person, other than the creditor, who regularly collects debts owed to others. This also includes attorneys who collect debts on a regular basis.

You can stop a collector from contacting you by writing a letter to the collection agency telling them to stop. Once the debt collector receives your letter, it may not contact you again except to say there will be no further contact. The collector may notify you if it or the creditor intends to take some specific action.

If you have an attorney, the debt collector may not contact anyone other than your attorney. If you do not have an attorney, a collector may contact other people, but only to find out where you live and work. Collectors are usually prohibited from contacting such permissible third parties more than once. In most cases, the collector may not tell anyone other than you and your attorney that you owe money.

It's against federal law for a bill collector who works for a collection agency (as opposed to working in the collections department of the creditor itself) to call a consumer before 8 a.m.or after 9 p.m. NY State law includes similar prohibitions.

Debt collectors may not harass, oppress, or abuse anyone. For example, debt collectors may not use threats of violence or harm against the person, property or reputation, use obscene or profane language; repeatedly use the telephone to annoy someone, and other violations.