Fed Financial

Ever had a long lost "friend" use personal information gained from their job to track you down?

Happened to my wife this morning. A woman named Amy Outland called my wife from Nelnet to chit-chat. (Nelnet=student loans) Said she had looked up my wife's information and decided to call her. Said she had done this to a couple other people as well. Obviously with identity theft being what it is today, this is very disturbing. Of course Nelnet is now claiming the call was in fact for "official" business, but could not say WHAT official business it was when we asked. (They're basically trying to cover their butts in case of a lawsuit.) What do you guys think? BTW My wife did not want to talk to this person, She was a troubled youth who had done some things to my wife that basically ended the friendship back then, but apparently this woman has forgotten these things and suddenly decided after 10 years that they were really good friends. Crazy. What do you think? What would you do if this happened to you? Yeah it's not really about not liking the girl. It's really about using someone's personal information for unethical reasons. I mean identity theft is a big deal and we've had a credit card # stolen and used (turned out it was some girl at a pizza place we had visited. she was writing down card #'s and using them online and at other pizza places with her boyfriend.) There's nothing flattering about finding out you're overdrawn with your bank because someone took this information and used it to harm you. And this girl was not emotionally stable and obviously still isn't.

Public Comments

1. oh cmon.. it was 10 years ago.. you get a little freaked out and you let it slide. grow up. get over it. jesus.
2. Very Scary.
3. I actually did that to someone who was frauding me. I never contacted the individual, but it was nice to have all of her personal info in case I needed it. Turns, out a long letter to her doctor fixed my problem. (she was using my info on her doctor bills which were over 6000 dollars.) To answer your question, it would creep me out, because that person who did that to me got her info from her job as well.
4. Never happened to me, I think I'd be quite flattered. It was 10 years ago, I think your wife should get over it.
5. That is definitely not ethical. I used to work for a company that collected for a major credit card. We had access to people's info as well in all states...all u had to know was their name and what state and u could track them down. People should think before they do such things and apparently should be policed more to just do their job. But in our society many people abuse their positions and the power/knowledge that comes with it...politicians..police officers and so on. I guess it's just a sign of the times. The information age is good when looking for information...but I guess that also comes with a price. If that happened to me I would probably let the person know I am uncomfortable with their means for 'tracking me down'....and how I feel about them period. If your wife is not comfortable with forging a friendship with this person she shouldn't.
6. This would come under the privacy act, and it is againest the law. Good luck 2006
7. You aren't going to get anywhere with a "lawsuit" because you have no damages. How does a phone call equate to "identity theft"? I think what this woman did was inappropriate and she will probably face some sort of internal disciplinary action, but other than that ... you are making a big deal out of nothing. Your phone number and address could be gleaned from any number of legal and publicly available sources by anyone who wants it. If your wife wishes no further contact from this woman, then she should have made that clear during the conversation this morning. If she did make that clear and this woman continues to call, then you should file a harassment report.
8. Nope and by the way... thanks for answering my question...yeah..I said if u dont want to help, then dont. DUH =]