Starting in February 2005, Capital One hired three successive collection companies to pursue Myers — and gave all of them the wrong contact information. Myers told them she had never had a Capital One card. The calls persisted, even though, Myers said, she told them her Social Security number was different from the debtor's partial number they provided. In August 2005, Myers wrote a letter to one of the companies, FMS Inc. of Tulsa. Under federal law, FMS was required to respond with evidence the debt was hers. It did nothing.

This year, Capital One sold the debt to yet another subsidiary of Sherman Financial Group, which hired a fourth collection agency to collect from Myers. Within days, she sent another letter of protest. Nonetheless, Sherman transferred the account to Resurgent, which resumed collection efforts.

Resurgent "deeply regrets" that Myers was targeted, according to its spokeswoman. Diana Don, a spokeswoman for Capital One, said the banking giant, one of the country's top five credit card issuers, apologizes "for any inconvenience" to Myers. Don would not say how Capital One targeted the wrong consumer, or why it sold the debt after its collectors were informed it was a case of mistaken identity.

Creditors' pursuit

In several of these cases, including those involving Coffin and Myers, it took just minutes for Globe reporters to locate the apparent debtors, using common commercial databases. In the Myers case, the actual Capital One cardholder had once lived within 15 miles of the innocent Myers. But she moved to another state several years ago.

"It is clear that Capital One's debt collectors are not doing simple research. If they cannot find the Eileen Myers who has evaded payment, then they think it's fine to pester another Eileen Myers into paying the bill," the innocent Eileen Myers said.

Even when debt collectors locate the right person, they sometimes ask the wrong person to pay, as happened to Mary DePasquale of Norfolk. In May, a Houston-based collection agency, FMA Alliance Ltd., began a concerted effort to get her to pay $1,300 owed on a Discover Card — her father's Discover Card. Philip DePasquale, who is 70, has a small disability income and lives in a nursing home after losing a leg to diabetes.

Mary DePasquale explained to the collector that the debt was not hers. His rejoinder, as she vividly recalls it: "Don't you want to help your Dad out?" She couldn't afford to pay it, she told him. Then, she said, the collector, who identified himself only as "Mr. Chris," told her he had "checked her out," knew the value of her home, and suggested her pockets were deep enough to satisfy the debt.

"I was outraged," DePasquale recalled, and told the collector: "How dare you check me out?"

It was then that she called Discover to complain about FMA. Discover, she said, apologized. Jeffrey Palmer, chief operating officer at FMA, declined to discuss the specifics of the case with the Globe, but said, "It would not be our general practice" to pursue someone for a family member's debt.

But the , nonetheless,