A close friend received a call from an alarmed ex-boyfriend, whose parents were told by a "social worker" that she had a dispute with her father and was missing. She had spoken to her father earlier that day.
A call back discovered that the call was made from Windsor Group. They also called her father and grandmother.
Winsdor Group is a skip-tracing animal living in the depths of Richardson, Texas. They have a dubious record, largely involving the impersonation of officials to extract information from people believed to be related to debts or items on a list of repossessions. Merciless "investigators" target anyone discovered to be remotely related to their "case." With a bit of investigation, one can find numerous horror stories posted online, including impersonations of law enforcement officers, calls to the workplace that have gotten people fired and other claims that family members were in immediate danger.
Her returned call spurred dozens of harassing calls from "Investigator Brandy" involving a stray "car." It is speculated that the car may have been somehow connected to a deceased relative or the like, but the nonexistence of this character does not seem to deter their persistent masquerade. We returned a more light-hearted and profane call, telling "Agent Brandy" that my friend had an underground garage filled with stolen cars, and threatening legal action.
So, one must ask--how can agencies like this exist? Combining the Patriot Act with legislation such as NDAA and SOPA on the table, the recession of American civil rights, particularly privacy, continues at full throttle. These new acts coincide almost perfectly with the Arab Spring, British riots, and the Occupy movement--causality can be inferred. But what about civil rights that are already compromised without special laws? The incident with "Inspector Brandy" demonstrates that the private sector--particularly businesses with the ability to withstand collateral damage from lawsuits--can already pursue information from individuals for little or no reason.
Considering the everyday breech of privacy sheds a different light on the controversial group Anonymous, which recently published a list of private information of congressmen, leading to some media controversy. While such detailed information may lead to the harassment of public officials and their families, is this not directly reflected in the harassment of vague, confused acquaintances of people who may have some debt by collection agencies? In both cases, a party is called to accountability through a form of psychologically abrasive surveillance and threats. Perhaps a new address or phone number may provide exile for the rattled and threatened congressmen, but are these not the measures people move through to escape creditors and skip tracers who do the same thing?
Relativism in full swing, and consumer protection is a privilege. Refunds for a failure to provide service must be acquired by a time-consuming argument with customer service representatives, while the funds in question sit in the possession of agents who provide no service. They enforce collection of questionable fees through vampiric and invasive tracking measures. When the mechanism is reversed by hackers, there is suddenly an outcry.
Vulnerabilities lie in coercion that finds unrecognized targets. Debt collectors rely on a form of psychological warfare, and corporations use a system of aptly timed delays to sit on the precarious front of the time-currency continuum--alas, income is found by living in the present. PayPal withholds payments for several days, and during "verification," several other transfers are made and money is withheld--the behavior of banks is similar. Despite having several degrees, a university librarian in New England keeps his low-paying job because if he made any more, child support and debt collectors would consume the entirety of his income; if he had a better job, he could not make ends meet. After spiraling into hopeless depression and drinking himself to death on dozens of bottles of jug wine at his home on the shore, agencies attempt to collect his debt from beyond the grave by contacting his kin. Perhaps corporations would save a dime if they stopped using call centers for necromancy or pestering the impoverished.
If they put a dime towards the debt each time they harassed someone, the debt would disappear more cheaply and efficiently.
You can't drain water from a stone--but if you can't extract a parking ticket from the impoverished, they go to prison. Similarly, a person with bad credit is subject to a number of soft-warfare controls that make it less possible for them to repay anyone. Thinking reasonably, a homeless or impoverished person owes nothing to anyone--the system does them no service. It's a great irony when the parking tickets are used for nothing more than paying meter maids while the bridges fall into the bay. Well, no one needs efficient transit when everybody (who is "worth" anything) has the God-given right to a vehicle! Let the carbon profuse.
Do you find yourself sweating the details? Do you find yourself wishing for a white Christmas?
If you are discovered and targeted by a crediting firm, it is simply business. But if you discover and target a public official, it is suddenly cyber-terrorism, an egregious threat that must be countered by force. In any case, I am not sure what the fuss is about--as it is believed in America, a touch of psychological strain has never killed anyone.
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