202-249-7541

I just got a called stated that I have a legal matter, and that I need my Lawyer to call them.
Strange, I called the number back no answer.

The call is coming from a Hilton hotel in Washington DC. The caller states his name is Sean Williams. His hotline division # is 2026212407. You must call back with a lawyer and he wishes you good luck. Ignore theses calls, they are scams that occur with payday loans. I had this call last year when I applied for a payday loan. Its fake they want your money and personal info.

Scam artists trying to get you to wire money.

202  area  code  faud  scams !!!!!

PLEASE  NOTE !!!   THESE  SCAMMERS  ARE ALSO IMPERSONATING   THE  US  GOV'T /  SEVERAL  GOV'T  OFFICES AND   PERSONS....BEWARE !!!

-  new  twist  is  they  are   also  impersonating  DEA  officials   with  threats  to  arrest you  unless  you  immediately  send money  via  wire   transfer /  western  union   to some   offshore  country  !!!!!   obvious  scam  !!!

some  are landlines...many  are  cell phones...some  are  spoofed  and  linked  to  offshore foreign countries !!!!
we've  traced  back  most  of  these  numbers  to  offshore  foreign    call centers  in  INDIA /  THAILAND / AFRICA  /  JAMAICA  ETC....

here's a  few  other  numbers  posted  from  the   same  area  code  offering a  wide  variety  of  scams  /  fake  emails and  scams  after  posting  something  on   craigslist   (  old  scam  )  ...... collecting  for  non  existant  "  payday  loans "....free  money / scam  giveaways /  calling  on  behalf  of  a  humane  society..... $1,000's  in  free  gov't  money.........  etc  etc.....stories  change  out  all the  time......and  the  usual  nonsense!!!

**   mysteriously  call to  claim  they  have  several  thousand  of  dollars  to  send  you....just  provide  your   bank  account and  credit  card   right  away   etc etc.........scam scam

several  of  these are  the  usual   long  ongoing  scams   such  as  :  you  have  won a  free  walmart /  bestbuy  gift  card....or  you  have  won a  free  ipad  etc......all  long  ongoing  scams

202-621-0436  ( offshore  foreign  call center ? )  poor  english and  violent on the  phone!  claim  to  be  giving  away  $1,000's  in  free cash....just  give  them all your  personal  info  etc........

202-800-5680
202-407-7221
202-552-1545
202-657-4485
202-684-6393
202-607-2732
202-657-6800
202-905-0682
202-215-2622
202-202-0000  ( fake  #  )
202-559-4661
202-684-6796
202-615-1823
202-239-0331
202-407-7213
202-657-6252
202-559-0667
202-558-4605
202-684-8305
202-785-5534
202-827-0661
202-621-0667
202-534-3926
202-599-8726
202-286-0705
202-559-0687
202-779-8686
202-234-3930
202-683-9875
202-405-4852
202-599-7894
202-895-0900
202-779-8686
202-738-5647
202-417-7606
202-403-4812
202-379-1926
202-644-8750
202-595-9420
202-870-5859
202-380-3449
202-674-8706
202-730-9951
202-684-2191
202-674-8789
202-615-5910
202-417-4483
202-664-2228
202-506-8939
202-640-5461
202-559-4645
202-674-2106
202-239-2860
202-470-0037
202-239-1271
202-379-1935
202-470-6720
202-505-6138
202-650-6145
202-715-6610
202-684-8622
202-800-5517
202-559-4664
202-436-9919
202-241-4267
202-827-0660
202-599-8821
202-407-9217
202-280-7882
202-391-0961
202-640-5457
202-640-5495
202-640-2926
202-559-7869
202-434-1317
202-738-9778
202-644-8989
202-730-9945
202-580-8490
202-827-1692
202-747-7372
202-280-7264
202-496-0986
202-556-4418
202-709-3010
202-445-7881
202-679-4428
202-905-0699
202-896-3563
202-351-3916
202-407-9198
202-684-6540
202-695-8604
202-304-5614
202-280-5502
202-800-5537
202-234-3930
202-354-8935
202-123-4567  (  obviously  a  faked  #  by a  fraud  scammer )
202-249-7541

called about a payday loan i receive and never paid it back. threatening me to get me arrested bout they have all my info and the person had a Indian accent

Scam. Called said I owed on a payday loan I never requested. Said they were a law firm. Stay away!

They Called Me rude said I was going to go to jail for fraud. Then was calling me names Like B@&ch and F you very rude.

Phantom Debt Collectors From India Harass Americans, Demand Money

By BRIAN ROSS (@brianross) , CINDY GALLI and MATTHEW MOSK (@mattmosk)
June 7, 2012

Hundreds of thousands of cash-strapped Americans have been targeted by abusive debt collectors operating out of overseas call centers suspected of links to organized crime in India, law enforcement officials told ABC News.

The calls are part of a massive scam, one that appears to target struggling Americans -- especially those who have gone online to apply for payday loans. Armed with personal information from those pilfered applications, the threatening callers, who claim to be debt collectors poised to initiate legal action, have managed to pry loose millions of dollars from their victims -- even when the victims never owed money in the first place.

"This is what we call a phantom debt collection scam," said Jon Leibowitz, the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. "It's a very pernicious and innovative new fraud."

Working through call centers in India, the commission estimates that the criminals have dialed at least 2.5 million calls, persuading already cash-strapped victims to send them more than $5 million. Some have reported receiving dozens of calls per hour. They are victims like Cindy Gervais, of New Orleans, who went online for a quick loan when her husband's car was hit by a driver who didn't have insurance.

Even though she paid the loan off, the so-called "phantom" debt collectors with Indian accents began calling to say she still owed money.

He more or less told me that if I didn't pay, they were going to have someone on my doorstep to arrest me," she told ABC News. "And that they were going to contact my place of business, and tell them what kind of person I am."

At first, she said she resisted. Then the calls became more frequent, and started to ring on her cell phone, and at the grocery distribution company where she had worked for 27 years.

"I was more or less was in panic mode because he told me there would be someone before noon at my place of business to arrest me and take me to jail," she said tearfully. "So I agreed to pay him."

After receiving scores of complaints, investigators with the FTC said they began tracking the calls, and following the payments. They alleged the payments led them to a California company run by an Indian-American named Kirit Patel, and that such scams would not be possible without American front men.

"I would say that all roads of this scam, or many of the roads of this scam, lead back to Mr. Patel," said the FTC's Leibowitz.

ABC News tracked Patel for weeks, from the suburbs of San Francisco to Austin, Texas.

Patel refused to talk. But his lawyer, Mark Ellis, said he believes it is far too early to pass judgment on his client. Ellis, a Sacramento-based attorney, told ABC News that Patel was hired for a nominal fee to set up an American shell company, and had no idea what the call centers in India were doing.

"I can tell you, he was as snookered by the people in India as anybody," Ellis said. "He's a 69-year-old man who is nearing his retirement who thought all he had to do was set up some corporations and everything was on the up and up. He's completely dismayed that he has become the lightning rod of this entire problem."

A close friend of Patel's also defended him in a brief interview at his home, saying Patel was not trying to defraud anyone -- he was just an unwitting, bit player in a larger scheme.

"If Mr. Patel was just a cog in the wheel he seems to have been a pretty big cog," Leibowitz said. "It is clear that Patel was integrally involved with this scam."

Leibowitz points to thousands of pages of financial and phone records gathered by the FTC and filed as part of a civil case brought against him in the U.S. District Court in Sacramento last month. When FTC lawyers sought to freeze his assets and prevent his business from continuing to operate, Patel responded by invoking his rights against self-incrimination. His lawyer told ABC News he has had to be careful in how he responds to the allegations in civil court "because there is a potential criminal action," but that Patel maintains the allegations against him are false.

Federal investigators said the phantom debt collection operation that allegedly benefitted from Patel's assistance was one of several that all trace back to the same small town in Western India called Ahmedabad. Callers use technology to make it appear that the calls originate inside the U.S. Victims provided ABC News with recordings of dozens of the calls, and many of the thickly accented callers appear to be reading off a script.

"Subpoenas have been readied, and Monday morning you're going to be picked up from your home," one caller says on a victim's voicemail. "And you have children. Don't worry about your children. We have a childcare department to take care of the children."

"You will be behind bars for six months," said another caller. "And once you go behind bars, you will lose your job. Once you are behind the bars, you won't get a single drop of water."

William Peerce Howard, a Tampa attorney who represents victims of harassment from debt collectors, said it takes an especially twisted criminal to use threats and coercion to pry money from someone who is already struggling financially

"These guys really are the most visible villains in America today," he said. "They make a living scaring people."

Mark Merola, of Florida, said he just panicked when the caller told him he might be arrested at the deli where he works in a Florida retirement community.

"I was nervous. I didn't want to embarrass myself, my family," he said. He used his debit card to pay the collector $576.

Afterwards, he says he realized "how stupid I was."

"It just happened so fast," he said. "I got scared."

Leibowitz said he hopes with more attention, future potential targets of the scam will recognize red flags before they turn over any money.

If callers say they are from the police, consumers should know that law enforcement officers do not collect debt for private parties. If the caller is speaking with a thick Indian accent, but calls themselves by a names such as Officer Mike Johnson, that should be a tip off. And if they're calling 40 times in two hours, that's another red flag. "Legitimate debt collectors, legitimate pay day lenders don't do those sorts of things," he said.

Merola said he would like to see anyone involved in the scam prosecuted aggressively.

"There's no place in society for these people," he said.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/phantom-debt-co ... 16512428&page=2

They keep calling my job saying I have a legal matter and I'm going to be arrested tomorrow.

I been getting acall from a2022497541 is this ascam number cuz I got my loans but they getting pay off from  mu bank account please help me guys...

SCAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Collection Agencies and/or Law Offices can not legally tell someone there is someone coming to arrest you. Especially without verifying they are speaking with the correct person. Legally they do not have that authority. My husband received this call and they stated he borrowed money and did not pay it back. He started asking questions and they could not answer with answers without "dancing  around" saying that he had an arraignment yesterday and now someone was coming to arrest him.

said they going to put me in jail

they called and said my husband was going to be arrested for bank fraud and theft by taking. we applied but never got the money and we used our bank acct. and our info. i was scared at first but after reading this i know its a lie. this just happened two days ago and they said he would be arrested tomorrow. wow i feel better also it was an Indian guy claiming to be a lawyer in Washington , d.c

Re. "we applied but never got the money", these scammers are likely using the info you supplied on that fake application to work this scam. There may be enough info on that application for ID theft so beware.

I started getting these calls a few days ago.  Same thing, I applied for a Payday loan online recently and I started getting these bogus calls.  Fortunately I recognize it as being a scam.  I just filed a complaint on FTC.gov and encourage everyone else that comes to this board do the same.

He called and told me I am going to jail on Tuesday if I don't pay him $590 within 30 minutes from a Green pack money card from Wal-Mart. He said once I'm in jail and lose my job don't cry to him. It did scare me but what can you do? I'm not sending him my money

They keep calling me day and night on this 011-202-249-7541 i never answer them because i already know it is a scam they have all my information they want me to send money to them by money pak each time they call the give different name and on different # i wish someone could stop these people

Just got calls from them too same thing as everyone else I asked him if he was aware of goggle and I already knew they were just a scam he said they were coming to arrest me within the hour I said good

I keep getting calls from him and he has called my work..I finally answered him today and told him i don't own a bank accounct and didn't know what ot was about..then herwad ooff my ssn and info and said well u know what this iis about since I have aall your info I said dude I can't even f**king understand you so get a life then hesays well u will understand when I have u arrested within 24 hours and hing up them my hubby calls bback and tild hhim yo stop calling my number or we woylf have him arreated for harrassmeny...I hate scanners get a real [***] job.

i just wanted to reply cause i had never received this phone call at all just wanted to protect my self from unwanted calls like this and not get scammed from these people who obviously dont want to work and scam people who work hard for their money