Widow: Debt collectors hounded husband to death

[snopes]

A widow claims that debt collectors hounded her husband to death with as many as nine caustic calls per day, causing stress that contributed to his fatal heart attack. She's suing the Florida couple's mortgage company in a unique wrongful death case.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...TAM&SECTION=US

[hoitoider]

It's actually pretty simple to stop debt collection phone calls. From the FTC website:

If you decide after contacting the debt collector that you don’t want the collector to contact you again, tell the collector – in writing – to stop contacting you.

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/cons...dit/cre18.shtm

As the site says, it doesn't make your debt go away and they will still try to collect but they won't call.

[Jahungo]

The wrongful death lawsuit should be thrown out immediately. There is no way to prove that the calls caused or even contributed to the heart attack, and given that he already had a heart attack previously, he probably would have had one anyway.

Maybe she can sue for something else, but wrongful death is ridiculous.

[snopes]

Originally Posted by hoitoider

As the site says, it doesn't make your debt go away and they will still try to collect but they won't call.

Well, technically it means they'll be violating the law if they continue to call. Whether that is enough of a deterrent to actually keep them from calling is another matter.