707-348-2036

Indian accent.  Reading from a script!  Said he could not hear me as soon as I asked any questions regarding the "loan" that I never took out.

Same guy just called me telling me that I was going to be in big trouble if I don't call him back and send my info to the guard house WTF??? Just reported him to bbb and will be notifying the local Day.

dang smart text...I meant local DA.

You can't understand him. He doesn't say where he is from. Everytime he calls he uses a different name. He threatens me on voice mail. The call comes on caller I'd as 0000 and he said he is filing a lawsuit against my name and SSN TODAY (for the past 2 yrs) and "have your attorney of record call me and if you do not call back today heaven help you! And Thank you and God Bless!". I have never received any written correspndence from him and today he hung up and call 7 times at 7:45 AM which is also illegal. He uses the name of Officer John Smith, Rachel Wood, Sarah Conner. Next will he be F. Lee Bailey? Or Barack Obama!!!

I just got a call from this number at my place of work, which I thought was illegal, stating he was Lorne Black from  Law & Investigation Dept.  I was the one who answered the phone and told him I wasnt't in and this was the number he left for me and his so called name and title.  What is it that he really wants?  This was his second time calling my place of employment using a different name so I decided to google the number before returning the call and I found all this.  I am glad I didn't call to get a line of crap.  Thanks to the people who posted the info and letting the cat out of his bag!

I got a call asking for my daughter's phone number-- something about a law suit against someone (but not her). Couldn't understand so I called back at the number given (707-348-2036) and got even less information. Also rather rude. I gave the 'sorry to have wasted your time' speech (rather impatiently) and hung up. If it happens again, I will have my employer block it.

I have received 4 calls from this jerkwad, the last time he called was after 11pm last night.  Of course I didn't answer, and he left a message saying something about the US Government and my SSN...not exactly sure what he was saying since I couldn't barely understand him.  Is this all we can do is just post on these websites?  The first time I talked to him, I said "Melissa's not available...may I take msg...And the name he gave me was Adams from I think he said ACS and gave the number 7073482036.

HAHA Have any of you tried to call the number back? Can't even understand what the voicemail prompt says.....

I have recieved several messages from this company using many different names "OCS" "Low Investigations" and a couple of other I can't remember. They stop calling for a while then they start again, usually around the end of the month. I tried calling back twice to get them to stop but they don't listen to anything you say and just threaten. They called my cell phone and work phone yesterday-today I am filing a complaint with my local police department and the district attorney in my county. I doubt any action will be taken against them but maybe they will quit calling me.

This number is calling my place of employment on a consistant basis.  I don't know these people and could care less about what they want. You can't understand a thing they are saying, the guy is rude and english challenged...VERY ANNOYING!

someone from india threaten my ss im going threaten him

someone from india threaten my ss im going threaten him

Yes same types of calls different numbers 444-198 or 607-595-1651 and 704-348-2036.  They are getting clever. Poor english, threathing voice mails. My husband picked up the phone and curse at him he called back Mother Fing my husband than my husband started having fun with him.  LOl  When my husband said he was me the guy asked you hav a va gee na.  FYI -  They say they're from American League Collection and State Federal Credit Union.  FCC do something isn't that why we consumers pay the FCC tax?

they called me twice now and repeated out my whole SSN and my credit card # called my bank and changed my account #.

This guy called me at work yesterday saying he was from the social security office. 6 months ago, he called my work saying he was from the police department. Then before that, called saying he was with a law office.

All 3 times, he went off on the girls answering the phones telling them my SS#, that I dafaulted on a payday loan (huh?) and I was going to have the local cops come in a pick me up soon. When my supervisor tried to tell him that he was violating the Fair Debt Act, by telling her my personal information he got even more ignorant.

He usually goes by Kevin something or other, although he speaks Indian is hard to understand and WONT STOP CALLING MY WORK! I had my husband call him and go off....too bad we dont know where exactly this guy is!!!!

For at least the last four years, possibly longer, a group has been calling former payday loan applicants advising them that they have defrauded a bank and are now being sued for non-payment of a loan.  The callers will claim to be calling on behalf of an attorney's office (name varies), the Dept. of Law and Investigation, ACS, or other similar combinations below:

United Legal Processing Division
Midline Marketing
Crime Monitoring Services
Monetary Crime Division
U.S. National Bank
Attorney General’s Office (usually in California)
American Legal Services
Affidavit Consolidation Services (ACS)

You will be threatened with arrest, a costly trial and possibly worse.  In no shape, way or form can you be arrested for non-payment on a consumer debt.  Do not believe these threats, as they are without merit and cannot be carried out in the manner they allege.  

Who are they?

In the past when pressed by law enforcement for an address, the callers have provided the following information:

David Morgan and Associates
Morgan & Associates
Morgan Associates
954-727-8481
1155 Northwest 85th Street
Wintergarden, Florida  33150
(Address is likely invalid)

The collector's MO matches a once legit collections agency called Ellis Crosby & Associates.  Here are some links on them:

http://www.budhibbs.com/collectorpages/ellis_crosby_and_associates.htm
http://www.budhibbs.com/collectorpages/EllisCrosbyJudgment.pdf

They have been previously fined over $1.3 million for various violations.  They have been known to use phone banks in India to make their calls, which more or less coincides with the difficult to understand accent many of us detect when we are contacted.  

The last time this group went by any "official" name was back in 2008:

Ellis Crosby & Associates / Douglas & Morgan Associates
4494 Southside Boulevard Suite #200
Jacksonville Florida 32216
Phone:  800-928-3536 / (904) 928-3536
(Address is likely invalid)

There are NUMEROUS consumer alerts out against this group of individuals:

Florida:
http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/061107/met_176207561.shtml

Kansas:  
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2010/01/ks_debt_collection.html

Colorado:  
http://www.coloradoattorneygeneral.gov/press/ ... lls_likely_orig

Rhode Island:  
http://www.collectionscreditrisk.com/news/rho ... -3002135-1.html

West Virginia:
http://www.wvago.gov/internetloanscam.cfm

Missouri:
On July 15th, 2010 a Public Awareness Bulletin was sent out by Missouri Information Analysis Center.  

"..received reports from individuals in Ohio and Illinois reference suspicious telephone calls they received. In both instances, the callers are reporting that a voicemail is received from a man, with a Middle Eastern accent, identifying himself as an officer working with the Financial Crimes Unit.  The message indicates that the reason for the call concerns a loan made by the receiver or someone in the receiver's family. The voicemail requests that a return call be made and a telephone number is provided. When a return call is made, the caller is asked to provide personal identifying information such as their date of birth and social security number.

Reports indicate that the calls are frequent and persistent and that they even threaten arrest or legal action if information or money is not provided. It appears that the individuals making these calls may have access to some records connecting individuals and their relatives.  Missouri does not have a Financial Crimes Unit and all indications are that this is a fictitious agency. If you receive a similar phone call, please be advised that it is a scam and please contact your local law enforcement agency or the Missouri Information Analysis Center at 866-362-6422."

Bottom line:

Do not supply the callers with any additional information.  Inform them you have reported them to law enforcement and hang up.  If you haven't already, go ahead and report the calls to local law enforcement, your state's Attorney General and beyond.  Look up the local Secret Service branch's information in your area and get in contact with an agent there.  

If you ever applied for a cash advance online, your information is out there.  
Possible sources for the breach of your privacy are:

* The scammers obtained your information from Teletrack - a reporting agency used by many cash advance lenders to determine their risk lending to you.  The service is able to tell cash advance lenders if you have existing loans with other companies, for example.  Many state laws prohibit borrowers from having more than two cash advances out at the same time.

* The scammers created their own fake payday loan application site.  People looking for a cash advance went to the site and applied, thus freely providing the scammers with their information for malicious use at a later time.  

* The scammers were able to get into the database(s) of cash advance lenders - probable targets being Sonic Payday and Cashnet USA.  


How to protect yourself:

* Inform your employer.  You are likely getting calls at home and/or at work, so make sure your employer is aware the calls are part of a scam and to not take them seriously.  Advise the callers that they are no longer allowed to call you at work.  If they continue to call, document the date and time of the calls you received.  Save voice mails left if at all possible.  

* Change your number(s).  For some this may not be an option, for others a one-time number change can be done free of charge.

Be advised - any references you listed on your payday loan application will be contacted.  Let those people know that this is a scam, and they can disregard.

* Use Google Voice.  Google Voice is a great replacement voice mail system for just about any phone number you use.  Messages can be transcribed and voice mail recordings can be saved as mp3 files.  

Pro Tip - call the scammers with a Google Voice number before turning off your old phone numbers.  Make sure when you call you identify yourself so they can start up their script.  At any point after they have your information pulled up just hang up.  They will then start religiously calling your Google Voice number.  At this point, you are free to change your regular phone number(s) and enjoy not having these people ever call you again.  (And laugh at the fact these people are basically talking to a brick wall several times a day)

The scammers change their numbers frequently.  Law enforcement used to think it was because the callers ran out of minutes on their prepaid wireless accounts or they were shuttered due to fraud, but now they understand it's simply to evade detection by savvy consumers online.  With the proliferation of VoIP, it's even easier for the crooks to stay a couple of steps ahead of law enforcement.  Below is just a sampling of the 30+ numbers that have been used in recent memory.

1-201-244-7722
1-209-349-7382
1-209-797-2212
1-212-500-0839
1-213-256-0408
1-213-995-3039
1-281-763-0433
1-347-289-3902
1-347-844-6817
1-347-844-6831
1-424-354-4270
1-516-232-8905
1-516-232-8935
1-518-212-0219
1-561-300-8018
1-561-210-4185
1-626-200-4646
1-631-456-4041
1-646-274-1143
1-646-810-8635
1-650-241-4604
1-707-401-4056
1-707-633-2789
1-708-401-0535
1-716-442-2824
1-717-862-4080
1-718-705-8669
1-760-514-0132
1-760-563-5384
1-772-318-4938
1-850-201-1111
1-858-777-1977
1-859-908-2281
1-866-860-4509
1-877-226-7488
1-888-706-7463
1-888-771-9249
1-888-785-4479
1-909-327-4870

So can they really do anything to you?

It's not a simple yes or no answer.  Logic dictates that, if they really wanted to take you for a ride and drain your bank accounts, they already would have.  

So, why haven't they?  

Authorization.  

Why do you think you are being called so much?  Perhaps it is because they like the sound of your voice?  No, they have to have your authorization to take any form of payment from you, period.  The callers know their audience, and that audience is typically a bunch of people that have applied for payday loans in the past.  Most of those people they call couldn't afford an attorney if they wanted one, and are so used to receiving collections calls that so long as they sound like a real collector, they will likely be perceived as one.

Furthermore, they don't even really want to talk to your attorney - that just sounds official and scary enough.  A real attorney would take the callers to task and write them off as two-bit con artists.  The callers need you, in writing, to authorize payment against the fictitious debt they claim you owe.  Go ahead, ask them for proof you owe the debt - more commonly known as verification of debt.  See what they say.  A phone authorization carries very little weight, so if they have something signed by you on file, you are done for - and the callers know that.  That authorization is the only thing these callers are doing by the book, and for good reason.  If they just went all willy nilly and made an ACH debit from your checking account, without your written approval, you could in turn report the transaction as fraudulent to your financial institution.  In about 7-10 business days, you would get the funds returned to your account.  Then the scammers would be up against a bank and their team of lawyers and investigators.  

Bottom line:

If you haven't paid the callers a dime, don't.  If you planned on paying them to shut them up, just don't.  Remember - you are not being contacted by a legally licensed, ethically owned and operated collector.  Read up on the FDCPA - http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre27.pdf - and know your rights.

https://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-646-274-1143/3

this guy called me today at my place of work, claiming to be Adam Smith from the law investigation dept. saying lawsuit filed against me for a loan (which i don't have) and to call him or he can't help me. i acutally answered and said she's does not work here. these folks are scammers . i've reported them several times and i'm tired of getting these calls. DO NOT GIVE THEM ANY INFORMATION!!
they all have accents and you can't understand what they are saying

Hi, I have a man calling me, he has went by 2 different names, Detective John Smith & now Richard Wilson. He is threatening me with jail & a lawsuit for a non paid cas loan (THAT I DID NOT RECIEVE)! I finally got the man to give me a date of the suppose to be pay day loan! I called my bank immediatley & Jessica from US Bank looked back in my records because I REALLY THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO BE ARRESTED!! That scared me to death! Jessica told me I have never had no pay day loan deposit from CashNetUsa. I proceeded to call Mr. Wilson back at 707-348-2036 with Jessica from my bank on the line & of course he would not answer my calls! So after I hung up with my bank I called him back at that number & Mr. Wilson answered the phone & as soon as I ask for Richard Wilson he said NO & HUNG UP! So I called back again & left a message & told him I have contacted my bank & my local police department & I will be calling the DA office Monday morning! I thank you very much to alll of you who have posted about these fake people! They had me really scared! I have never been in trouble in my life & dont plan on it now! Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Indian accent, used the name David Williams. Called me at work twice. I cussed him out

Saying my life is going to unfold in front of me. I have a pending lawsuit, I need to give them the name of my attorney so that I am not arrested at my job. Please call them back and have a blessed day. I did call him back, by the way his name changes every time he calls, which is every week and told him our call was being recorded, so go ahead and tell me what he needed and he hung up on me. This is not my first encounter. This has been going on for almost a year, why doesn't somebody do something to stop these harrassing calls?