: Debt collectors can DM, email and text you about unpaid bills. Here’s what you need to know.

The change, which brings the decades-old Fair Debt Collection Practices Act up to speed with the digital age, took effect this past Tuesday, Nov. 30. While debt collectors were not previously banned from contacting consumers over text or on social media, per se — since, when the 1977 Fair Debt Collection Practices Act was first written, social media and text messaging didn’t exist yet — the revised rules in effect this week are intended to provide “clear rules of the road” in 2021 and beyond, the bureau says. 

The first rule, which was first announced last year, clarifies how debt collectors can use email, text messages, social media and other contemporary methods to communicate with consumers. The second clarifies the disclosures that debt collectors must give to consumers when they first make contact.

So with social media, for example, a debt collector can send you a friend or follower request — but they must identify themselves as a debt collector. And in each message, they must also provide a simple way to opt out of receiving further communications from them on the social media platform — although there isn’t a cap for how many messages they can send.

And you shouldn’t have to worry about your debts being broadcast to your friends and family, as debt collectors are not allowed to discuss your debt on your profile page, or in comments to your posts that can be seen by your friends, your followers, your contacts or the public. Any communication about debt must be made by private message. Read more here.

And while debt collectors can also contact borrowers by email and over text messages, they must still offer the chance to opt out or unsubscribe from receiving those messages, as well. 

As for debt collection calls, the new rules restrict how often collectors can ring consumers. The agencies are now limited to seven calls per week per account in collection. And if you have already engaged in a phone conversation with the debt collector, then they are prohibited from calling you about that particular debt again within seven days of your chat.

The revised rules also ban debt collectors from suing or threatening to sue consumers on time-barred debt. What’s more, debt collectors need to take specific steps to disclose the existence of a debt to the consumer before reporting information about the debt to a consumer reporting agency. These include speaking to you about the debt, either by phone or in person, or sending an electronic communication (including social media) or snail mail about the debt, and waiting about 14 days for a notice that the message or letter wasn’t delivered. Read more here.

“We are finally leaving 1977 behind and developing a debt collection system that works for consumers and industry in the modern world,” said Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Kathleen L. Kraninger in a blog post last year.

But consumer advocates have expressed concerns about these digital communication methods for debt collection. The National Consumer Law Center summed up some of its concerns here, such as the fact that collectors can use electronic communications like email to contact consumers without their consent; the onus is on the consumer to opt out of these messages. And requiring an opt-out, rather than requiring the debt collectors to get consumer consent, is more likely to result in missed messages, the NCLC says. 

What’s more, a person’s privacy may be violated if the text, email or DM is seen by someone else, including employers. And then there’s the possibility that debt collectors could message the wrong social media account. NCLC staff attorney April Kuehnhoff told CBS News that, “For example, if a debt collector wants to send a private message to John Smith on Facebook, the collector will need to select the correct John Smith so that it does not send private information about the alleged debt to the wrong person.” And approving a friend request or follower request from a debt collector could also give the collector access to private information that they share with their friends and family on social media.

This also opens up a new avenue for potential scammers to prey on consumers. 

What’s more, consumers could easily miss direct messages from debt collectors if they’re not active on those social media accounts, for example, or if their online accounts filter messages from people outside of their friends’ lists into a spam folder.  Or they might think this is a scam. “If you’re a debt collector and you’re trying to reach me by sliding into my DMs there is a 0% chance I’m going to believe you’re actually a debt collector,” mused one Twitter user in response to the updated rules.

So some social media users weren’t happy about the news, either. “This is absolutely terrifying,” tweeted one. “Having been on the bad end of debt collections in my life, I can attest to the anxiety around your phone or mailbox, so much that you don’t even answer/check them. This adds new avenues to terrorize people.”

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau notes that debt collection is a multi-billion dollar industry, with more than 8,000 debt collection firms in the United States. 

Household debt in America hit a record $14.6 trillion in the spring of 2021, according to the Federal Reserve. And Americans racked up $17 billion in credit card debt in the third quarter of 2021.