818-584-7337

4-5 calls to both my & my husbands phones asking to confirm who we were but would not provide what the call was in reference to. Hung up after repeated attempts to validate. Swore at my husband when he tried in a later call.

They called and told me that if I didn't pay $700 today, charges were going to be filed against me and the cops were show up at my work, they wanted me to fax my CC info with the 3 digit# on the back to some fax#,, they kept threatining me, but yet, when I asked them who they were and what company they were and what account# they had for me,, thye hung up on me. They were really rude, they sounded (not to be racist) like they were from India,, the ones wit the thick accent.

scam

A man  called stating that the case as due  in California court on August 18. I asked what was it in reference to and he stated that he was going  to read the affidavit to me. Never did he mention what the case about . He got upset when I asked him again what was this in reference to. He stated not to interrupt him and said the police would be coming to pick me up tomorrow and don't say i didn't know about it and then he hung up....... How when the case is not in court until the 18th and i don't live in CA....its a scam , he wouldn't give me any information.

Called 1 time last night and 5 this morning, then left a message at my work number.  Rude person with a strong accent, sounds like someone from the middleast.  He asked me the number where I was calling form and got very upset I didn't provided.

Received five phone calls this morning and finally a text message saying that my attorney needed to call this number in reference to a court case....called the number....a foreigner answered...I told him not to call this number again and that the call was a scam...he hung up....I received similar calls approximately a month ago....the caller had the same accent...I have saved the phone calls

Some idiot with an unintelligible accent called me on my cell, then when I let it go to voice mail, called me on the job. something about being from "the back office of the legal department". When I asked in reference to what, he told me he was going to transfer me to my "case worker". I hung up the phone at that point, as he sounded just like another scam artist who called me last year with a similar line. He then called me back and I hung up again. Then he switched back to my cell and called 5 times in a row until I powered down my phone.

IT'S A SCAM...... DO NOT GIVE PERSONAL INFO OUT

I have been receiving calls from this number for two days... One minute they say they are from a back office of some sort and the next minute they are from a law office.... I tried to ask them the nature of the call, but they insisted that i was going to jail... this is definitely a scam. They want your personal information, and of course you should not give it to the.  They said it was for criminal charges.  My first thought was why wouldn't the police, person, or company that filed the charges contact me...BIG SCAM

Called and threatened me over vm which I saved

Caller left a VM threatening me "if you don't call back then all I can say is GOOD LUCK".  Sounds as though he is from India---strong accent.  Knew info about me (general).  Extremely rude.  Told me I would be arrested on Monday at my job.  After reading all this, not worried...I certainly have done nothing wrong!

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

I recieceved a vioice mail from what i thought was an asian woman who identified herself as Tracy Parker.  She told me that i needed to get on contact with her immedatately at this number, or my attorney.  Or that she wished me the best with whatever plague followded me next in life or something of the sort.   I called the number back and asked the guy who answerded the phone if she worked there and he put me on hold for like 5 munites then.hung up on me.  I called back like 7 times and the man answered again and i asked him what type of business this was and he told me that it was a law firm and that I was being sued. He said i had court on the 29th of august and it was the 24th.   I asked him by whom and he replied "By 3 differend pay day loan firms.." He had an indian or arabian accent.  He went on to tell me my husbands name and the name of my best friend.  Then he went on to tell me the name of my major bank.  All this make sense because several months ago i had applied for a pay day loan but got declined.  the bank account had no money in in though thank god.  this ment several things.  This man had hacked into my computer and gotten access to my information or hacked the pay day loans computer or they sold him the information.  either way thats messed up.  he even knew the last 4 of my social security number.  thats scary.  my husband took the phone and hung up on him.. i was a little scared till i saw this page.  the internet is a duel edged sword mann.

Have gotten several phone calls from this number with threatening tone.  When I try to call back it just rings and then goes to a busy signal.  Claim that they are collecting from a cash advance that I paid off months ago.  When I contacted the company to which I took the advance from, they had no knowledge of any lawsuit and I was told I was in good standing with them.  They have now begun to harrass my reference that I used.  

Does anyone know who to contact to report them?  I would call the Better Business Bureau, but I can never get any definitive information from them when they call....

I called in to check the messages on my old phone and theses people had left 6 voicemails.  i called them and they told me that i was being charged with 3 counts of fraud and being sued by an online loan company.  He provided me with my bank name and account number he also new my SSN.  When i asked him the name of the company, a case number when I got the loan and how much the loan was for he could not provide me with that information.  I called the people that I got the loan from and they told me that my account was cashed out successfully and that my repayment was processed.  They also told me that the people that are calling me are not affiliated with their company and it is a scam.  The scam artist told me that I will receive a subpoena at my job tomorrow by noon and that I would have to come to California for court.

it seems this number has been quiet for a long time.

Called and asked if we were set up to receive credit card payments.

I lied, and told her I didn't know. She asked for the owner, but didn't have his name, and refused to take our junk email I offered her.

they have been calling me for 2 years now, they change their phone number everyday and call with the new number, they are calling from India and they are the worst scam artists in the world they prey on older people because those are the ones they think they can scare, never believe a collection agency that says they will come and arrest you, that is not how they work

Got a call from this number after being harassed by a Richmond, Va number stating they were offering Occupational Safety services (804) 774-2315. I have reported the Richmond number to the FCC several times now because they won't stop calling. We only answer calls we know are legitimate so we didn't even answer this call from the California number (808-584-2315). From reading these posts, it's a good thing we didn't.  It could be that these sham, shameless, worthless leeches pass our numbers around when they don't get what they want out of us. Why don't think trying getting an actual job and stop bothering those of us who are actually working hard for a living?