<prompt> Human: Hi rpersonalfinance. Im posting on behalf of my girlfriend really. She has two outstanding loans with Sallie Mae. One we pay monthly and havent missed a payment for the year and a half its been coming out. The other, we successfully deferred by economic hardship. She lives in the UK with me and he loan that is deferred and confirmed when calling them is cosigned by her mum in the US. Her mum has been receiving calls up to three times a day and letters pressing her about payment for this loan and been sending her emails threatening her with lawsuits. She has pleaded that the loan they are threatening to sue over is currently deferred until February 2013 but their response is that they are just doing what theyve been told. Is there anything that can be done to: 1. Stop the callsletters - Weve called to alert them to their error and they say their system doesnt show any errors. 2. Take action against them. The stress its caused her and her mother has brought her mother illness and I suspect made my girlfriends depression much worse. Calls twice or three times a day telling them to pay a loan which theyve granted deferment for seems unnecessary and bully-likeharassment. Im new to this as in the UK the loans companies seem much less aggressive and understanding.  <response>: Your girlfriend and her mom need to read their rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act Its legalese, but its short enough.Among the gems in it are section 805: c CEASING COMMUNICATION. If a consumer notifies a debt collector in writing that the consumer refuses to pay a debt or that the consumer wishes the debt collector to cease further communication with the consumer, the debt collector shall not communicate further with the consumer with respect to such debt, except -- 1 to advise the consumer that the debt collectors further efforts are being terminated; 2 to notify the consumer that the debt collector or creditor may invoke specified remedies which are ordinarily invoked by such debt collector or creditor; or 3 where applicable, to notify the consumer that the debt collector or creditor intends to invoke a specified remedy. If such notice from the consumer is made by mail, notification shall be complete upon receipt. d For the purpose of this section, the term consumer includes the consumers spouse, parent if the consumer is a minor, guardian, executor, or administrator.Note particularly that her mom can tell them they must validate the debt. This means they have to do their homework, rather that just claiming they already did.But dont take my word for it. They need to know their rights, what they can do, and how they can ensure that SallieMae obeys their obligations. 