Pelzer Woman Says Ex-Husband Is Dead But Capital One Keeps Calling

By: Dianne Derby | News Channel 7
Published: February 22, 2010

Greenville, SC --

Valerie Landrum has been divorced from her ex-husband, Luther, for more than 20 years. In January he passed away but his debt lives on. She said Capital One has been calling her Pelzer home at all hours asking to speak with him.

"I told him to get a pencil and piece of paper and I'll give him a number to contact he said 'Ok' and I said, 'Do you have your pencil and do you have your paper?' He said 'Yeah' I said 1-800-HEAVEN and he hung the phone up on me," she said.

Capital One said they called her home for 7 days trying to find him. At one point they called her house 5 times in 1 day.

"One time I told them he was deceased and he wanted to know if I could give him a message and I said, 'Yes, I will just as soon as I see him I'll give him a message," she said.

We asked Capital One if Ms. Landrum was tied to the debt. The company sent this statement:

"We checked into this, and no, Ms. Landrum is in no way responsible for this debt. This is just a case where we have an old/incorrect phone number for the customer (him). We've notified our Collections and Estates departments that the customer is deceased. We sincerely apologize for any frustration we've caused."

When asked for her reaction to the statement Landrum said, "I don't have a whole lot of reaction to it because I had already told them the same thing over and over and over again. I had already asked to speak to supervisors."

Fortunately the calls to Landrum's home have stopped but she wonders why it took the help of 7 On Your Side to make that happen.

"It wouldn't take very much effort to check into it to find out he is really deceased," she said.

If you want a debt collector to stop calling you the Federal Trade Commission says you should do the following:

-Tell the collector in writing to stop.

-Make a copy of your letter.

-Send the original certified mail return receipt.

If you do owe the money it won't get rid of the debt but it should stop the contact. For more information call the Federal Trade Commission at 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357).