202-621-2407

Received a call from this number.  Man said he was an attorney and that I could have an attorney present or have one appointed.  He asked for me by my first name only, said there was a fraud case open against me. Asked if I'd ever had a fraud case against me before and I said No.   He said I received $825.00 loan that was not paid back and the company that loaned it to me opened the case because they didn't think I was going to pay it back.  I have never received any money, no check, no card, not to bank account.  I told him this and he said it didn't matter, that if I didn't pay it within 48-72 hours, an officer would come to my door and give me a paper and take me to jail for 30 days, plus bond, court costs and lawyer fees. I was never given an exact amount to pay, an address to send it to or an option to pay the debt off over time.  I was never given the name of the firm he works for or his last name, said his first name was Kevin. I repeated that I have never been approved for a loan nor did I receive any money and he said I would be seeing the police at my door in a couple of days and be going to jail.  The phone number comes up as a Locksmith in the DC area but when I called the number back, I got a firm called Garner & Douglas Legal Assoc. saying the loan was from  a web loan company called American Payday Cash.  I was given a case number and the last 6 digits of the account the money was sent to.

I just got the same call at my work from 202-621-2475 claiming to be the same law firm.  I called local police department and they said that it was fraud.  But it still has me freaked out because they had too much info about me.

I just got the same call those basterds scared me too

This is a SCAM. I have spoken to my attorney AND the local police department. The police department here in Northern California said they have been getting numerous complaints about this scam. The police told gave me some very good advice. They said NEVER confirm MORE than your name to anyone. In most States it is illegal to threaten ANYONE with arrest or jail time. Also, they said if you KNOW you have not committed any crime then DON'T be worried. The woman I spoke to actually said, "in the 30 years I have been a policewoman I have noticed one thing...every person who commits a crime KNOWS they committed a crime. And every innocent person never has to worry..." So, basically, if you haven't done anything wrong there is nothing to worry about. This is a phishing scheme. They get people's information TWO ways, according to my attorney; One, if you have filed bankruptcy in the past 12-24 months, and TWO, if you have filled out or applied for a PAYDAY LOAN. Even IF you didn't take the loan they will get your info from a PAYDAY database. Then they call and try to SCARE you into providing them with personal information. They are based out of Washington D.C. Remember, if you were REALLY in trouble you would be hearing from the D.A. in your OWN STATE or CITY...NOT Washington D.C.
Hope this helps everyone. Your only recourse would be to file a complaint with your local District Attorney office and then file a Civil Suit..if you could get the REAL address for the company calling...good luck with that...
Happy 4th of July, Everyone!

J.R.

i got the call from this number-202-621-2407. this guy is from washington dc.
he told me to listen to the affadative-i said for what-hey said for 3 counts
this number needs to have someone take this guy down.

This is absolutely a SCAM! I received a call from John Miller. He is calling from a call center and has a heavy middle eastern accent. John doesn not say what company he is calling from but tells me that it important that I do not disregard his call and if I do, then good luck to me. I think I will take my chances and not call back.

They keep calling leaving voice messages threatening me stating i better have a lawyer ready if i do not return there phone call they feel sorry for me just being rude

I recieved a call from this number guy had a deep accent said his name was Brandon Smith. He told me he was calling from Gardner & Douglass assocoiates. He said he needed to speak to my lawyer because i was being sued and going to jail for a fraud case. I asked him for details and he said i took a loan out from US Payday a year ago. I told him he has the wrong person never took a loan out. He had all my information. I asked the guy for the date i took the loan out he became very rude and disrespectful. I then began asking him a lot of questions he got mad and hung up on me. I called the number right back. The guy kept hanging up on me i continued to call back. So started laughing  while talking to him and he began to say we will see who is laughing tommorrow when u got to jail. I called this guy all day yesterday and frustrated him so bad that the number now rings busy.

( I never write on forums, I'm too shy but here goes nothing!!)
    This person calling is male and claims his name to be Steven a paralegal for Gardner & Douglass law firm. His caller id shows (202)621-2407 He has a strong middle eastern/Indian accent. Collecting debt for American cash, the address he provided me is 1500 K st. Washington dc 20005. I have tried goggling all information on this individual and cannot find anything. This person cannot provide any information on the debt owed. He calls several times a day to threaten legal action and arrest if i do not settle this debt. Hangs up on me several times when confronting him with questions like why haven't i seen a single letter or email on The debt or his company. While calling back a female answered the phone and directed me back to "Steven" . this guy is obliviously successfully scamming people because he will not stop. i am in process in filing a telephone harassment report with my local police dept. and urge you all to do the same.this person must be stopped.Please ask as many questions as you can and if he hangs up on you, call him back. If anyone has more info or advice please post. He has threatened me and my wife.So this has became personal.

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  you  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 )

The person from this number is making numerous calls daily to my daughter he says his name is Sean Williams. He has threatened to have her arrested at work and even throw her in jail. I told her to ignore any and all calls from this number and if not to start telling him that we would be filing charges against there company for harrassment. MAybe anyone recieving calls from them should turn the tables on them and start asking them the same questions they are asking of them and them tell them they will have charges filed on them for harrassment.

Rose - have you had any further contact with this firm?  How did it turn out?

Yes It is a shame I just got the same calls and I know the law so when they start talking about someone come to the job to lock me up I knew something was going on.  Then I start questions them and asking for an address and that's when they hung up on me.  Please pass the word about these dirty dogs!!

It seems like I get a call from this guy every 4 to 6 months. I've even been told that he knows where I live and will come to my house and kill me and my family. I respond back with "go right ahead. I know your in India and won't be able to bring the amount of fire power I have behind my front door." They even call from an offshore number - +011 91 202-621-2407 (for those of you not familiar with offshore numbers, all the numbers above are an offshore number, they just don't show up with country codes). Thanks to MagicJack and Vonage, they are calling from those types of lines, which of course are untraceable.

Even if you defend yourself, threaten them, etc the calls will never stop. I have friends, family and myself that all suffer from this [***] and frankly I'm getting tired of it. The government isn't going to stop this from happening so we need to figure this out on our own. If anyone has any suggestions please share. Like I said, spout off, shout back, whatever. The calls will stop momentarilly. They'll start calling you all over again in a few months once they think you have forgotten.

What scares me the most is they have your bank account info, social, DOB, address, etc. This is a HUGE breach of privacy and I don't really blame these guys, I BLAME THE GOVERNMENT FOR ALLOWING PAY DAY LOAN COMPANIES FOR BEING ABLE TO SHARE OUR INFORMATION. Why are they not being punished or having to pay innocent people back that end up sending money to these [***]?

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

This same guy has called my cell phone every day looking for a Warren Miller . He also leaves the same message today i asked him if he was stupid hung up on me. Maybe he wont call back we"ll seFe

dont call my number again or i will fly to washington dc and personally stop you

I recd same call at my place of work. This needs to stop now

Hi Rose, I just received the same phone call and I did take out a loan, however, I was quite aware of the scam because of my local news reported it about 2 months ago. So what I did, because I was not in default and it was paid off, to them was flipped the script on them and called them back and challenged them by calling them out ( saying they were a fraud, scam) and if they call me again with that BS that I was going to have the police at their place of work (wherever that is) and have them arrested for harassment. So if they sound like they are from India, do not let them intimidate you because it is a SCAM!!! Just hang up!

Same thing, recieved a call saying I had borrowed 676.00 and was being arrested for check fraud and 2 other charges. They were going to arrest me on Friday (today is Tuesday) at my business. Called my lawyer and he said he said to just wait and see. The number of complaints for this means they must be making money from someone on these fake charges. They need to catch these jerks and send them to jail!