I have a fear that I may expose my family to harm and violence if I go through with a process I need to go through. Any advice, story, and experience (especially business people) will be greatly appreciated.

Here is the story, on the 15th of November 2016 I lent some money to a business acquaintance that I sold some content to as I am a freelance writer. I do not know this lady very well, but aside from the standard professional job I heard bits and pieces that she is into other businesses that she does not like to talk about. And I did not want to know about it. She approached be to ask if I can loan her some money for an illness in the family. I had excess funds, and she has always paid me on time every time and seemed to not have a problem with money or cash flow. Of course I was reluctant. But for a fool like me, it is hard to walk away when I know that her mom had redeveloped cancer and needed surgery fast. So I loaned her the money $5000. And she agreed to return it to me in one month. And she offered to pay me more on return. So ok I drafted this and asked her to sign it...

The next day I sent her $5000...

So I waited for a month and I was about to travel overseas to visit my mother in law with my wife and I did not think much of it.

A month passed and she contacted me and said she needs more time... I ask how long and she said she does not know. I did not yell or curse. I just said that was unacceptable.

When I returned from overseas in January I looked her and the situation has not changed. Now I did not want to back anyone into a corner as that does nobody any good. I needed my money back, but I was not prepared to take her to court and cause her more pain. She has been through enough. We gave her an opportunity that she will pay me $500 a week until this is cleared.

In the meantime time I made a few phone calls to people we know both know to verify if any of her story was fabricated. No one was able to answer my questions, but 2 people did tell me she is a prostitute when she was not doing her day job. At that point I did not judge, I did not care, I just wanted my money back as I just spent a bunch of money on my holiday and bought a BMW.

She gave me her solid word that she will not default. And the agreement was that if she defaulted I will not pursue it personally as I did not like the feeling of dealing with this person. I told her I will use a government certified debt recovery service to recover my money. She understood and it went well at first. There was lateness, there was even a time when she stopped paying. As frustrated as I was I still did not pull the trigger on debt recovery as I did not want to cause her any further pain. She has two aged parents and two little boys. Someone out there owes me half a million dollars that I have not recovered (My life has been very average since) and I did not take action against them as it would have caused bankruptcy and I will get nothing back. Instead I assist where I can.

I kept a record of this on my iPhone and as you can see there were delays. But I did not charge for any of that. I did not want to make it harder for her. During this time there were times I was tempted to raise my voice as she just did not answer her phone and was very irresponsible on the accountability of what she agreed to.

When she had $1000 outstanding. She did not want to pay it. She got loud and abusive. And once even when I phoned her to say, don't worry about it. She cursed abusively again. So I changed my mind. She has even threatened me if I pursue this further.

At this stage I would like to have my money back. I am about to purchase a home for me and my new family. It has taken me 8 years to achieve this through hard work since I lost everything in the 2008 GFC, and then a divorce where I lost everything again. I would like my wife to have a place to call her own, and my son to have his own room when he comes to stay. I try to be responsible and frugal. And this $1000 I was going to use some of it to celebrate my 40th birthday in a couple of week with the closest family and friends that loved me, helped me, and supported me through these horrific years of hunger and staying on friends couches. I have never in my life celebrated my birthday in a big way and this is for my loved ones as much as it is for myself, and I wanted them to see that I am doing well now which means a lot to them. And their happiness is my happiness.

At this stage there will be no birthday party as I have committed to buying this home. This one month debt is now 7 months overdue.

Not in about half an hour I am going to send through the forms and all the information I have available on this person and I will not have to speak to her again.

My worry and my question is. In these scenarios if the collection agency (legal one) causes her stress, and she wants to take it out on someone, am I protected? And is my family protected?

So if anyone has been through this, or knows of someone who has been through this. Or knows of a story where someone has been through this I would love to hear about it.

Any help is much appreciated.

Regards

Yoda