Debt collectors on Facebook and by text
A debt collector may text or email you, but every electronic message must tell you how to opt out, and once you opt out it must stop using that channel. It may not contact you through social media in a way your friends or the public can see. Texts do not count toward the seven-calls presumption, but they can still be harassment, and automated texts to a cell phone can raise a separate TCPA claim.
Collection no longer comes only by phone and mail. A text shows up with a payment link. An email lands in your inbox. Sometimes a message appears on social media. Regulation F, which took effect November 30, 2021, set the rules for these channels.
Social media: private, never public
A debt collector may not communicate or attempt to communicate with you through a social media platform if the communication is viewable by the general public or by your social media contacts (12 C.F.R. § 1006.22(f)(4)). A post on your wall, a comment on your photo, or a public tag about a debt crosses that line. New York law is stricter still, as explained below.
Contacting your friends is a separate problem. A collector may contact other people only to find your location, may not tell them you owe a debt, and generally may contact them only once (15 U.S.C. § 1692b). Messaging your friends list about you is not a location inquiry.
Regulators have acted on this. In the case the CFPB and the New York Attorney General brought against a Buffalo-area collection operation, the complaint alleged calls and contacts to debtors' family, employers and Facebook friends. The 2022 stipulated judgment banned the companies and their owners from debt collection, and the CFPB Director said it is illegal to "orchestrate smear campaigns using social media." The story is at the Circles collectors.
Texts and emails: the opt-out rule
Every email, text or other electronic message a collector sends must include a clear and conspicuous statement of a reasonable and simple way to opt out of further electronic messages to that address or number (12 C.F.R. § 1006.6(e)). If a collector's text has no opt-out instruction, save it.
Once you tell the collector to stop using a medium, it must not communicate with you through that medium (§ 1006.14(h)(1)). A written request to stop all contact goes further: the collector must cease, except to say it is stopping or to notify you of a specific remedy (15 U.S.C. § 1692c(c)).
Work email is off-limits in most cases. A collector may not email an address it knows or should know your employer provided, unless an exception applies, such as you having used that address to write to it (12 C.F.R. § 1006.22(f)(3)).
And texts are subject to the same time-of-day limit as calls: no communication before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. your local time, absent your consent (§ 1692c(a)(1)).
Do texts count as harassment?
They do not count toward the seven-in-seven presumption. That rule is about telephone calls, and the official interpretation says a text or email is not a telephone call. Our post on seven calls in seven days explains the count.
But texts can still be harassment. The FDCPA bars any conduct whose natural consequence is to harass, oppress or abuse (15 U.S.C. § 1692d), and that covers abusive or constant texts. The same interpretation says the combined effect of calls and emails can be harassment even if neither alone would be.
The TCPA angle
The Supreme Court has treated a text message to a cell phone as a "call" under the TCPA (Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez, 577 U.S. 153 (2016)). Calls made with an autodialer or an artificial or prerecorded voice to a cell phone need your prior express consent (47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1)(A)(iii)). After Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid, 592 U.S. 395 (2021), "autodialer" means equipment that uses a random or sequential number generator, which narrows what counts. The TCPA provides $500 per violation, up to $1,500 if willful or knowing, and it has no fee-shifting clause. See robocalls and texts.
In New York, New Jersey and Florida
New York. GBL § 601 lists prohibited collection practices, including harassing communications (§ 601(6)). It goes further than the federal rule on social media: § 601(12) bars a creditor or its agent from using a social media platform as a means to collect on a consumer claim at all, public or private. Consumers usually sue through GBL § 349, which lets the court award attorney's fees to a prevailing plaintiff. See New York.
Florida. The FCCPA's 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. rule covers all communications, including texts, with an exception only for compliant email (Fla. Stat. § 559.72(17)), and it reaches original creditors as well as collectors. See Florida.
New Jersey. The federal rules apply. See New Jersey.
Under the FDCPA, a collector found liable owes actual damages plus statutory damages of up to $1,000, and the FDCPA requires it to pay the consumer's reasonable attorney's fees and costs. The deadline is one year from the violation. The full rules are on texts, emails and social media.
What to do this week
- Screenshot everything before you reply or block: texts with their timestamps, emails with headers, any social media message or public post.
- Check each message for an opt-out line. Note any that lack one.
- Opt out in writing of the channels you do not want, and keep proof you did.
- Set your social media profiles to private, and ask friends to screenshot anything a collector sends them.
- Log calls alongside texts in the call log, so the whole pattern is visible.
Sources: 12 C.F.R. §§ 1006.6(e), 1006.14(h), 1006.22(f); Official Interpretations, Supplement I to Part 1006 (eCFR); 15 U.S.C. §§ 1692b, 1692c, 1692d, 1692k; 47 U.S.C. § 227; Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez, 577 U.S. 153 (2016) (opinion); Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid, 592 U.S. 395 (2021) (opinion); CFPB press release on JPL Recovery Solutions; N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 601; Fla. Stat. § 559.72(17).
Common questions
Can a debt collector send me a Facebook friend request?
Regulation F forbids communicating through a social media platform in a way that is viewable by the general public or your social media contacts. A private message is not barred by that federal rule, but New York goes further: GBL section 601(12) bars using a social media platform as a means to collect on a consumer claim. Take a screenshot of any request or message before you respond.
Do texts count toward seven calls in seven days?
No. The official interpretation says placing a telephone call does not include sending a text or an email. Texts can still be harassment under the general rule if their frequency or content is abusive.
How do I stop the texts?
Use the opt-out method in the message, such as replying STOP if that is what the message offers. Every electronic message from a collector must include a reasonable and simple way to opt out. After that, the collector may not keep using a medium you asked it not to use.
Tell us what they did.
One conversation with an attorney, in your language. We tell you which laws the collector or the credit bureau broke, which deadline runs first, and what to save this week. If it is not a case we can take, we say so and tell you where to go.
(718) 484-7510The FDCPA and the FCRA require a company found liable to pay the consumer’s reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. Our fee arrangement is confirmed in a written retainer before we begin. English, Russian and Spanish in-house; an interpreter for any other language.