631-456-4041

Received a phone call at work from this phone number last Thursday looking for a co-worker.  This has all the hallmarks of the payday loan scams I've read about under different names and phone #s (Hudson Law Firm, Federal Investigation Bureau, etc.)  Woman with heavy India accent asking me if I knew [co-worker's name] and that they had a law suit filed against their social security number for bank fraud.  I told her that she was contacting me at my place of business and asked to speak to a supervisor.  She started to re-read her script and I repeated that she was contacting me at my place of business and asked again to speak to a supervisor.  I was then transferred to "James" who gave me the telephone # and said it was the Law Office of Shawn Woods.  I didn't answer any of their questions but told them there were not allowed to contact me at work again.  They called back several times in the next 30 minutes and I just hung up each time.  I spent a good amount of time researching online to see if I could find any information for Shawn Woods the lawyer.  So today again out of curiosity I searched again and LO AND BEHOLD, Shawn Woods has a website now! (http://lawofficeofshawnwoods.com/Online_Placement.html)  This website is almost comical - spellings of "Newyork" throughout the page, Economic News links that don't actually link to anything, and pretty much the same information on all of the different pages.  Now they do list an address - 101 New York Ave #204 Halesite, NY 11743 - it would be interesting if there is any legitimate business actually at that spot.  The page claims that Shawn Woods "was announced to The Newyork Bar in May of 1992" however if you use the New York Bar's search engine there is no lawyer listed under that name...and I searched S. Woods and S. Wood just to make sure.  I have not received any other calls from them since Thursday, however after reading everything else posted about this scam I expect this to be an on-going problem for awhile!

I didn't make it clear in my first post but I couldn't find anything about the Law Office of Sean Woods when I was searching Thursday but now 5 days later he has his own website.

I just recieved a note from someone at my office saying that Charles Taylor had called stating he was trying to reach me about the message I left him.  I did not call anyone with that name and when I prompted my co-worker for more information she told me he had hung up.  He called back about 20 minutes later and stated that he was with the law offices of John Wu and gave the call back number of 631-456-4041.  I asked my co-worker to tell him not to call anymore and he hung up.  I googled the number and saw that it is located in Ontario and the only 2 law offices of John Wu I could find were in California (Immigration Lawyer) and Oak Brook, IL.  The California lawyer checks out, but the other "Lawyer" has no website and the only information I can find on the web directs me to the Main office at 104 Saint Francis Circle in Oak Brook, IL.  I google street viewed it and it's a house in a residential area....

So these guys are really crawling up my butt, claiming there is a pending lawsuit against me in the state of New York.  Again, everyone at their 'office' talks with a very, very heavy Indian accent - and one of their inbound calls showed up with a california number (714-408-4460, out of Anaheim according to reverse number lookup).  They insist I now owe 667 dollars on a defunct payday loan from five years ago.  I am not sure how to interpret this or even if I should take it realistically?  Does anyone have any advice/suggestions?  (Also, they told me the company that does their billing is listed as 'ACS' out of Canada...  That sounds pretty shady, when combined with everything else...)

Elzeothis - There is a really good posting under number 213-784-4847 by LAMET.  A good amount of background info and links to news stories covering these scam artists.  Further down in the post are good instructions for filing complaints with all of the pertinent agencies and links to their pages.  You could also try telling them that they are in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (full PDF copy here http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre27.pdf) This is some long reading but does give you some leverage...with me they have pretty much violated all the rules about contacting a third party.  I don't think they really care, since this is a scam and they are operating illegally anyway, but I think they are less likely to deal with people who know the law and are not intimidated by their ridiculous threats.  And if you tell them they are in violation of the FDCPA maybe they will just give up.  From what I've read with other people's postings it doesn't look good though - some people being harassed for over a year!!  Educating the public is the best thing we can do - tell all of you friends and family what to look out for so they know how to recognize these scam calls and make sure they never give out any personal information or payment information to these vultures!

***UPDATE***
They called again and left a message on my mangers phone.  I was able to determine through the thick accent that he did say Sean Woods Law Office and the number was indeed 631 which is new york (the note I received said 613).  I spoke to them today and did not verify any information.  When I called them a guy answered the phone and just said hello.  I said someone called me from this number.  He didn't understand me and we both repeated ourselves.  He had a very thick accent.  He finally said hold on.  Next Jim with the law offices of sean woods picked up the line and asked what i wanted. I gave only my name and I let them know that I had a lawyer and I knew what they were was illegal and I was reporting them to law enforcement.  I told them not to contact me or anyone else regarding me.  "Jim" tried to talk over me the entire time and I just repeated what I said and hung up on them.   Here's hoping that it works.

Thank you for the link and information, and for everyone sharing their experiences here, I really do appreciate it!  It made a world of difference when dealing with 'Dwayne, from Attorney Shawn Woods office' today!

(By the by, I contacted my bank and had my debit card deactivated immediately last night upon reading this.  My bank rep did tell me, however, that to protect their consumers they do not accept transactions from Canada or India since they are financially countries with a huge history of fraud.  Thank goodness they were protecting me from my own stupidity!)

This morning when 'Dwayne' called me to ask if I had authorized my bank to accept his draft for funds from the company ACS in Canada, I told him what my bank rep had told me last night - that my bank does not process electronic transactions from Canada.  He insisted I could call and give them verbal permission to do it, and I said no, my bank won't process their transactions no matter what they said.  He started getting very agitated and pushy, insisting if I didn't take care of this, his attorney Shawn Woods was going to take me to court and sue me in New York.

Finally, I broke down and spoke up - and I said that while I appreciated he needed a job and had bills to pay, what he was doing was illegal to an American citizen, especially since there was no Shawn Woods, Attorney in New York and that I had been advised to report his company, name, and multiple phone numbers to the FBI, Secret Service, and my local police station.  This seriously pissed him off and he could barely speak intelligibly enough to tell me I would see Shawn Woods was real when he filed suit against me.

Now, within an hour of this conversation I received over a half dozen phone calls from the number 111-1111.  When I did answer them, it sounded like someone rubbing the phone all over their shirt.  When I didn't answer them, it went to my google voice mail (thank god for google voice, lol) which actually had enough software to filter out background noises and sounds.  Suffice to say what they were saying was not at all nice and barely in english, some of it.

So, moral of the story is, I am not going to give my debit card number to anyone over the phone again - even if they are posing as a bill collector.  I'll wait for written communication, do some internet research, and then be a lot smarter about what I am doing!

Thanks, everyone!

(As an aside, these guys had my social security number, work address, home address, home phone, work phone, cell phone #, bank information & credit card account info on file and read it all to ME.  I will have to watch my credit and rotating accounts very carefully for the next few months just to make sure they don't screw me up!)

This company had my checking account number and routing number and was trying collect money which was not legitamate.I also found them on the internet where other were warning of this company and the scam they are running

I have received numerous phone calls from this 631-456-4041 number saying they are from the law offices of Shawn Woods. I couldnt find any information on a Shawn woods. I can barely understand what they are saying. I picked up the phone today and they are talking about some payday loan When I asked for verification of debt they hung up.

Let me just say from expierence that these are scams. Last year I had one of these companies call me saying I owed a payday loan from 2003 and they gave me the company name and everything. so I was like like I will pay it and they gave me a discount. Well 2 weeks later that company under another name but same phone number charged my debit card 1500.00 and all of a sudden their number no longer worked. I have spoken with attorneys and debt counselors and they have told me to always ask for validation of debt because that collection company should be able to provide that to you if they are collecting for a client. Usually when you ask them for that they hang up immediately.

They NEVER give up! They have been bothering me for over 6 years! Just got another call from them at work this am left on answer machine (I OWE NOTHING) . Same line same things also said about my SSI number. It was all over the news here in Oregon last spring a NATION WIDE ALERT is out about these guys and their scam they found 99.9% of the busted organizations they themselves had FELONS committing FELONS  !!!! It also covered How they threaten people and even try and black mail people to get $$$$ out of you using your private info! or even threaten to contact your boss, family friends etc etc.
#1 You can not go to jail for owing money nor a bill in the USA! Maybe the IRS and thats it!
#2 Anyone trying to collect  a bill or money from you MUST provide a copy by fax or mailed into you, who you owe the money too with an address and phone number and business licence and re-mailed if you never received no matter what they say!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In most states you have 30 days/ 90 days to prove otherwise after you get this info, if you feel you do not owe out this money. I have asked them many times over the last 6 years for this info they hang up! There is a hot bed of these scammer's in NY. Florida, Calif and even Canada and India !!!!!!
#3 This is a payday loan scam! They can steal your information off the inter net or if you have ever taken out a payday loan... they get red flagged everytime your on it with your IP address ....so be careful!
#4 REPORT them to the FBI, the Fedrial trade commission everywhere really, and your local police for attempted extortion !

google there address and do an arial view.  It looks like an empty lot next to a ship yard.

Hello! Just wanted to let everyone know that this number has contacted me several times in the past 2 months. Each time this Indian or Middle Eastern guy calls, he leaves a different name and a different company he's calling from. Sometimes he states he is from some law office, which I can not understand do to his heavy accent, and sometimes he states he is from ACS and that I am accessing a website illegally which I have never done in my life (lol). Do yourself a favor and don't answer these scammers, and DO NOT GIVE THEM ANY OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION. Hope this helps!

When they called me last night I asked them to send me the information the client sent to them reference this payday loan. They emailed me a letter they had just typed up the same day I spoke with them for some payday loan. It had very little information in the letter and there were alot of typos and mispelled words. Every time they call it is a different name same company. They call me from 800am to 830pm everyday> I told them I was not going to entertain this mess

I have received numerous calls to our switchboard from this number.  The person they are looking for cannot be reached here and I've told them that everytime they call.  They argue with me and when I hang up they call back 5-6 times until I am yelling at them.  The guy who calls has a very thick Indian accent.  He has become very rude with me and I've told him over and over again that I have reported him to the FTC.  I really don't know what else I can do.  He even called once and said his name was officer...something or another.  I wish that I had reported the call to the authorities since he was impersonating an officer.  He will not give up.

I received a call from a woman with a heavy india accent on yesterday claiming that I owe CashNet for an unpaid loan and they are threatening to sue for fraud.  I advised that I did not have a loan with then unpaid.  She stated it could be that on payday one, or some other affiliate.  She also said that they had checked my credit report and since I seem to be a good person they wanted to help me settle this before It went any further.  I advised that I had paid off any loan that I had, but would need time to go thru my records and bank statements for the information and would get back to them.  Since that time, they have called me about 4 times at work even after I told them I could take these calls at work.  I had start to ignore the 631-456-4041 number out of New York.  However, this last time, they called from an Orrick, MO number of 816-852-0121.

They started harassing me June 8th and they stopped for awhile when my husband threatened them with calling the attorney general. They aren't calling my cell phone any longer, but they have called work the last 3 days even though they were told they were not to call me at work again. It is the same scam as stated above. You have a payday loan from November 2008 from some company I never heard of that wasn't paid and they will be filing criminal charges for bank fraud unless you pay up. The scary part is they have all of my personal info including my SS# and bank account info. I think it must be related to a problem I had with an internet security breach back in February 2010. DON'T give into them. I have filed a complaint with the FTC and am looking into filing a complaint with the New York attorney general's office. I checked with the NY Bar Association and there is no attorney by that name.

I got a call once a few months ago and explained to them very nicely that if they didnt stop calling me or harrassing me then i was pressing charges. today (06/23/2010) i got a call at my job from an Indian speaking woman who couldnt even say my name right and was transfered to another Indian speaking woman. They are running a scam and its important to not give them any more information. I am filing a suit against them, and filing a complaint with the Attorney Generals office (http://www.ag.ny.gov/resource_center/complaints/pdfs/cns001web_consumer.pdf) for anyone who wants to make a claim as well. The payday loan company who they are falsely representing is angry and already investagating them. However, this is serious and they need to be stopped.

I received several phone calls for the longest time from an unknown number and it was some foreign guy.  It was a heavy accent and I was suspicious from the start.  I told them I wanted written info on this debt that I owed.  I got nowhere with this person and then just hung up on them.  Then I got a phone call from 631-456-4041 and the person said they were with the Law Office of Shawn Woods.  They knew the last of my social and some of the people I had used as a reference. They knew my place of employment etc.  Well they said they were going to call these people which I believe is a violation of my rights as a consumer.  I called them back later and got some answering machine and then told them I was going to report their abuse to the New York Bar Association.  I ended up finding out that Shawn Woods is not listed as a member.  So I called this number with the attorney general in New York (631-231-2400) and they are sending me a complaint form in the mail.  I encourage any of you that have dealt with this to do the same.  I believe it is a scam since they do not produce anything in writing. If they did then they could be charged with mail fraud.  Any reputable collection agency will mail you info if you ask for it.