It would appear that the phenomenon we reported on a year ago (see here) of Romanian banks phoning the neighbours of bad debtors to chase money is becoming more and more common.

Local daily Evenimentul Zilei (always first with the news, a year late) has a report on it this morning. (It is illegal, though only if done repeatedly: simply phoning somebody whose name is not the phone book is not an offence).

Be sure to buy tomorrow’s Evenimentul Zilei to read about how World War II could finally be coming to a close.

Phone rings.

Bucharest Life answers.

Familia Turp?

Da.

De la P*****s Bank sunt. In legatura cu vecinul vostru de la 89.

The lovely lady from P*****s Bank then told me that she wanted some help trying to contact one of our neighbours, let’s call him Ion Ionescu, from apartment 89, who they simply can’t get hold of.

Would we mind going to tell him to get in touch? Or at the very least leave a note in his mailbox telling him to phone the bank?

No, we are not debt collectors.

When we asked how they had our number?

‘From the phone book.’

I never knew we were in it.