Jeffrey Hyslip Warns

Consumers Regarding Privacy

Jeffrey Hyslip issues a warning to consumers about data privacy

Providing Personal Information Online

In Jeffrey Hyslip’s experience, he has seen a lot of consumers providing sensitive information all across the internet to third parties.  Jeffrey Hyslip often speaks to consumers across the country who are getting calls from Scam Debt Collectors.  Oftentimes, these consumers explain that they are getting calls from third parties claiming that the consumers own debt, when in fact the consumers never took out a loan.  Jeffrey Hyslip tells these consumers, and has been quoted extensively in the news and on the internet about these scam debt collectors.  Most of the time, these scam debt collectors are obtaining information from third parties, such as websites claiming to provide payday loans to our countries most vulnerable consumers.  Make sure that when you are submitting your personal information online, that the company you are dealing with is a legitimate company and please take the time to read the disclaimers on the webpage as to how the information you submit will be used.  These days it is pretty easy for anyone with a few hours to design a nice website; take the time to really learn who you are dealing with before you submit sensitive information

Social Media

Jeffrey Hyslip also cautions consumers against providing too much sensitive information on Social Media.  Jeffrey Hyslip has learned firsthand that a lot of stuff that you think you are posting privately actually gets indexed by Google and quickly comes up on Google Search Results.

Debt Collectors use extensive tools to locate consumers.  They do this to find employment information, perhaps to determine the assets that a particular individual has, the phone numbers of friends and family members, and to perhaps locate a consumer to figure out what state they would need to file a lawsuit in in order to collect on a debt.  Some of the information that you might post on social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) is perhaps readily available to anyone simply searching online.  As Jeffrey stated during an interview in 2009, the rules on how a debt collector obtains information about consumers isn’t highly regulated.  As such, he warns you to be careful when posting any sensitive information on Social Media.  Moreover, Jeffrey Hyslip strongly encourages consumers to regularly check the privacy settings on all of their social media platforms to ensure that the level of protection is maximized based on the platform’s available settings.

Conclusion

There are legitimate debt collectors and illegitimate debt collectors.  There is no reason to make the job of legitimate debt collectors easier by posting information about yourself online without ensuring what you are posting is private.  Furthermore, illegitimate/scam debt collectors will twist and turn any information they can obtain about you to try and threaten you into paying debts you might not owe.  By taking the time to be a little more cautious of where and what you are sharing online, you can do a better job at protecting yourself.