323-331-9189

Left a message saying The message is intended for *my name* the very second you received this message, I need you or your attorney to return the call.  The issue at hand is very time sensitive. My name is Scott Thompson and the hotline to my is 323 331-9189, I repeat is 323-331-9189.   Do not disregard this message. If I do not hear from you or your attorney all I can do is wish you a good luck as this situation unfolds on you. Good bye and Take care.  (Clearly the person speaking is not a native english speaker and probably not named Scott Thompson.  Also he sounds like he is reading from a cue card.) I called the number, which was disconnected.  Of course.

I received a call from this number  at 9:44am PST, with a guy who had a heavy accent (east indian maybe) but calling himself Steven Collins. Stating he was a paralegal from a law firm (unable to understand) in San Francisco dealing with Federal Law.  When I stated asking questions he got very rude and stated he couldn't answer questions because he didn't have the file in front of him, that I would have to call back. After get got frustrated with my question, he hung up on me.  I call the number back, he answered and told him who I was and why I was calling. He stated there was a pending litigation against my husband from Cash Advance, and that the charges were federal banking, check fraud, electronic funds fraud, etc.  He stated that local law enforcement will be coming to my husband's work to arrest him. I am so glad to see there is so much on this site with the same area code and a similar situation. I am concerned though regarding what might happen, he seemed to know all my husband's information.

Received a call from "Steven Collins" saying I had pending litigation against me from the "Federal Law Offices". He asked the name of my attorney and said that I needed to call Mr. Kevin Peterson, the attorney handling my case, immediately at 323-331-9189.

That guy just called me today, lol, what kind of stuff goes on in this world? I told I'm if it's a federal law I've Rome, have the Feds come get me, cause I don't participate in such stupidity, and your stupid for calling me talking to me the way you are

I got the same call today from the same number unreal

steven collins just called me also and had me in tears because i thought someone stole my info.Thanks guys these people are scaming hard working people.

One leg of this scam has been shut down:

Even scam artists are outsourcing. On Tuesday in its first crackdown on fraudulent telemarketing in South Asia, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it was shutting down two California-based companies that used a call center in India to defraud Americans out of more than $5 million over the past two years.

Workers in India made threatening calls to Americans getting them to pay money on debts that they didn't owe, the FTC charges. At an FTC press conference in Chicago on Tuesday, fraud victim JanLaree DeJulius explained that she had received a call from someone claiming to be an enforcement officer from the (phony) "Federal Department of Crime and Prevention," who threatened to have her arrested and have her wages garnished if she didn't pay a bill of more than $730. The scam artists had gotten her name and information from a payday loan her ex-husband had taken out in her name.

"It was very embarrassing," Dejulius said. "He knew everything about me so I agreed to set up an installment." She is not alone. According to the FTC, more than 8 million calls were made since 2010 and at least 17,000 transactions processed across the United States related to the global scam.

On Tuesday under request from the FTC, a U.S. District Court in Chicago stopped the international operation, charging Varang K. Thaker and two companies he owned, American Credit Crunchers, LLC, and an affiliate Ebeeze, LLC, with violating the FTC Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

"This is a brazen operation based on pure fraud, and the FTC is committed to shutting it down," said David Vladeck, director of the FTC's consumer protection bureau. "Consumers should not be pressured into paying debt they don't remember owing. Legitimate debt collectors must provide consumers with both written information about the debt, and instructions for protecting themselves if they don't think they owe the debt."

According to the FTC's charges, Thaker used Social Security numbers and bank account numbers obtained from payday lenders to identify the victims for his scam. He outsourced the work to an Indian call center, where workers made threatening calls to American consumers to pay fake debt or collect on bills for which they were not authorized.

Thaker was not available when contacted by telephone on Tuesday. A woman who claimed to be Thaker's older sister and asked not to be named for privacy reasons said he is working with the FTC to help the Indian government pursue the fraudster call center operators. She also said he was innocent in the scam. "He was being used by somebody. He didn't even know where they got the information," she told The Huffington Post by phone. She said that her brother got 10 percent of the earnings from the scam operation.

The FTC charges against Thaker are the latest in a series of police actions by the government agency to put an end to rogue debt collection operations that have become more frequent in the aftermath of the Great Recession. In January, the FTC struck a $2.5-million settlement with debt-buying company Asset Acceptance, LLC, charging that the company had falsely represented itself to customers, including making up phantom debts that customers no longer owed. Last October, the FTC filed a complaint against seven other fraudulent debt collectors, alleging that they had engaged in the same techniques -- demanding money from customers who owed nothing at all.

The growing number of Americans who are unable to pay their bills has meant there are more companies looking to profit from their economic difficulties.

Debt collectors have been taking more aggressive tactics as fewer people are able to make ends meet or are in a cycle of debt. More than 30 million Americans are in debt collection, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Since 2010, more than 4,000 complaints have been filed with the FTC and state attorneys general about fraudulent debt collection calls, the FTC said.

Charles Junitkka, a personal bankruptcy attorney who represents clients in the New York City area, said, "In the last few years, the desperation of the collectors and their efforts have intensified because of the economy."

This story has been updated to reflect comment from a woman who says she is the sister of Varang Thaker. Thaker himself was unavailable for comment.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/21/ftc- ... _n_1289751.html

This is the second time i've dealt with these people, the first time happened 6 months ago and i had told them off, and once again are calling back. I knew it was the same people as before because of their heavy accent, and names. Mark Wallace and a Kevin called me, lol, some imagination. They are ridiculous. I called them back pretending I was an attorney for a client, and all they did was stutter and disconnect the call on me. These people need to get a life and leave us alone.

I just got a message too,   and when I called back no answer, Not even sure what this could be.  Any help here? Is it a scam or should I be worried. the lady couldn't even speak english

i just receive this phone call and i was like what who is this and than they hang up

i jus received a call from this same number. very heavy assent and went by ricky g. same song and dance about legal situation. called back and as soon as i started asking questions they hung up. i called back again and heard a second guy in the back round leaving the same message for someone else. this sounds very sketchy to me.

these folks just called me with the same information about a Cash Advance and I was being sued for banking fraud for non payment of an advance.  I never took an advance from Cash Advance, ever.  I went back 2 years and checked, nothing ever from them.

when I started asking detailed questions the caller disconnected me.  When I tried to call back the number comes up as disconnected or non-working.

i did some digging and found that these ppl could possibly have more detailed info on us. such as ssn, bank acct num, address and more. any ideas on what to do if they have all this info

change your bank account number and any credit cards you have

i got a call from these people today.... Why wont they just leave us alone with all the lies.

Consumers across the country report that they're getting telephone calls from people trying to collect on loans the consumers never received or on loans they did receive but for amounts they do not owe. Others are receiving calls from people seeking to recover on loans consumers received but where the creditors never authorized the callers to collect for them. So what's the story?

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation's consumer protection agency, is warning consumers to be on the alert for scam artists posing as debt collectors. It may be hard to tell the difference between a legitimate debt collector and a fake one. Sometimes a fake collector may even have some of your personal information, like a bank account number. A caller may be a fake debt collector if he:

is seeking payment on a debt for a loan you do not recognize;
refuses to give you a mailing address or phone number;
asks you for personal financial or sensitive information; or
exerts high pressure to try to scare you into paying, such as threatening to have you arrested or to report you to a law enforcement agency.

If you think that a caller may be a fake debt collector:
Ask the caller for his name, company, street address, and telephone number. Tell the caller that you refuse to discuss any debt until you get a written "validation notice." The notice must include the amount of the debt, the name of the creditor you owe, and your rights under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
If a caller refuses to give you all of this information, do not pay! Paying a fake debt collector will not always make them go away. They may make up another debt to try to get more money from you.

Stop speaking with the caller. If you have the caller's address, send a letter demanding that the caller stop contacting you, and keep a copy for your files. By law, real debt collectors must stop calling you if you ask them to in writing.

Do not give the caller personal financial or other sensitive information. Never give out or confirm personal financial or other sensitive information like your bank account, credit card, or Social Security number unless you know whom you're dealing with. Scam artists, like fake debt collectors, can use your information to commit identity theft – charging your existing credit cards, opening new credit card, checking, or savings accounts, writing fraudulent checks, or taking out loans in your name.

Contact your creditor. If the debt is legitimate – but you think the collector may not be – contact your creditor about the calls. Share the information you have about the suspicious calls and find out who, if anyone, the creditor has authorized to collect the debt.

Report the call. Contact the FTC and your state Attorney General's office with information about suspicious callers. Many states have their own debt collection laws in addition to the federal FDCPA. Your Attorney General's office can help you determine your rights under your state's law.>

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt076.shtm

is there a way to sue the companies giving out my information? Its got to be one of the pay day advances i was looking into a while back on.

I just got a call and some jerk got real  nasty Im now harassing them ...

I just got the call too. After calling back a couple of times they did not answer

I received 2 calls from these guys today. One on my cell and the other at my jobs. They used the name Mike Johnson but clearly this was not his name, as he was speaking with a very heavy accent. Right off the bat I was threaten with pending legal action in California. I don't even live in California!! I was told this was extremely time sensitive. I said I couldn't talk because I was at work, the guy said I guess your job is more important than going to jail. I ended up hanging up on him. Later I listened to my voicemail where again Mike Johnson said this was an urgent matter and I needed to call the attorney at this 323-331-9189 number. I called, they just answered hello no mention of a company name. The guy who answered spoke perfect English, no accent. I gave my name and said I was told to call this number, he said wait a moment then came back on the line with a heavy accent (same guy)and immediately started threatening and harassing me. I was told it for Cash Advance also. I told him I've never done business with such company. He said why would anyone pretend to have your identity? I repeatedly asked for documentation which he told had been sent to my work which he named and that the local authoritis had been notified. I was going to be fired and arrested he said. I was told this could only be resolved by coming to CA with my attorney. When I began asking for proof and getting angry he hung up on me. I was terrified and in tears!! These jerks MUST be stopped!!!