Did you get a call from 877-777-2551? Read the posts below to find out details about this number.
Also report unwanted calls to help identify who is using this phone number.
Debbie
3 Mar 2008
Caller did not reveal what call was regarding or leave message
They claim to be attorneys. However, they will not give out their address so this claim cannot be verified. They are extremely rude and stupid. They called me a liar when I told them I was an attorney. (I am). They asked for my bar number which I gave and the woman on the phone called me a liar. She could have easily took my bar number and verified it. I believe this to be a collection scam as an attorney firm would have no problem identifying themselves. It is possible that it is an attorney firm practicing out of state, thus violating local state laws.
1st Integral Recovery Services 9898 Bissonnet Suite 670 Houston, Texas, 77037 1st-irs.com
These scumbags do collections for payday loans.
And, Beowulf, now that you know who they are, you can file a complaint with the FTC as they have violated Section 807 of the FDCPA for misrepresenting themselves to be attorneys:
§ 807. False or misleading representations [15 USC 1962e]
A debt collector may not use any false, deceptive, or misleading representation or means in connection with the collection of any debt. Without limiting the general application of the foregoing, the following conduct is a violation of this section:
(1) The false representation or implication that the debt collector is vouched for, bonded by, or affiliated with the United States or any State, including the use of any badge, uniform, or facsimile thereof.
(2) The false representation of --
(A) the character, amount, or legal status of any debt; or
(B) any services rendered or compensation which may be lawfully received by any debt collector for the collection of a debt.
(3) The false representation or implication that any individual is an attorney or that any communication is from an attorney.
(4) The representation or implication that nonpayment of any debt will result in the arrest or imprisonment of any person or the seizure, garnishment, attachment, or sale of any property or wages of any person unless such action is lawful and the debt collector or creditor intends to take such action.
(5) The threat to take any action that cannot legally be taken or that is not intended to be taken.
(6) The false representation or implication that a sale, referral, or other transfer of any interest in a debt shall cause the consumer to --
(A) lose any claim or defense to payment of the debt; or
(B) become subject to any practice prohibited by this title.
(7) The false representation or implication that the consumer committed any crime or other conduct in order to disgrace the consumer.
(8) Communicating or threatening to communicate to any person credit information which is known or which should be known to be false, including the failure to communicate that a disputed debt is disputed.
(9) The use or distribution of any written communication which simulates or is falsely represented to be a document authorized, issued, or approved by any court, official, or agency of the United States or any State, or which creates a false impression as to its source, authorization, or approval.
(10) The use of any false representation or deceptive means to collect or attempt to collect any debt or to obtain information concerning a consumer.
(11) The failure to disclose in the initial written communication with the consumer and, in addition, if the initial communication with the consumer is oral, in that initial oral communication, that the debt collector is attempting to collect a debt and that any information obtained will be used for that purpose, and the failure to disclose in subsequent communications that the communication is from a debt collector, except that this paragraph shall not apply to a formal pleading made in connection with a legal action.
(12) The false representation or implication that accounts have been turned over to innocent purchasers for value.
(13) The false representation or implication that documents are legal process.
(14) The use of any business, company, or organization name other than the true name of the debt collector's business, company, or organization.
(15) The false representation or implication that documents are not legal process forms or do not require action by the consumer.
(16) The false representation or implication that a debt collector operates or is employed by a consumer reporting agency as defined by section 603(f) of this Act.
Thank you for the identification of this outfit. No wonder they did not wish to give me their address as they gave me false information. I will follow up with the FTC with this one. If they acted in a professional manner I would not have pursued this, however, they did not. Incidentally, the debt they are trying to collect is not mine but my son's.
Thank you for this helpful information- I recieve calls from a Mr Lewis and a Mrs Harrison at my POE on a regular basis and it is disrutive to my work and not to mention a violation of my companys policies and my rights as i have asked them not to contact me.
I RECEIVE A CALL TODAY FROMA MR. LEWIS SAYING THAT HE WAS FROM A LAW FIRM (LEWELLYN LAW FIRM) SAID IT WAS A LEGAL MATTER,AND I NEEDED TO CALL HIM TODAY.I DON'T HAVE ANY IDEA WHY HE'S CALLING ME, BUT HIS MESSAGE DID NOT SCARE ME.I HAD A FELLING THIS WAS A COLLECTION AGENT.
These people have called my office on several occasions to collect on a payday loan. I've told them to stop and they persist. They also threatened to file criminal charges against me...can they do that?
These people have called my office on several occasions to collect on a payday loan. I've told them to stop and they persist. They also threatened to file criminal charges against me...can they do that?
http://www.wvago.gov/internetloanscam.cfm Attorney General Darrell McGraw took the extraordinary step today of warning the public about a band of scam artists making threats to consumers who allegedly obtained Internet payday loans in West Virginia and across the nation. The consumers they threaten never obtained a loan at all or paid it off years ago.
Internet payday loans are short-term loans or cash advances, usually for 14 days, made over the Internet via interactive web sites and secured by an agreement authorizing debits of the loan and all fees owed from the consumer’s checking account. These loans typically charge interest rates ranging from 600-800 APR and are unlawful in West Virginia.
The scam artists, who speak English with a foreign accent, call themselves “U.S. National Bank,” “Federal Investigation Bureau,” “United Legal Processing” and numerous other phony names. They refuse to disclose real names and addresses and are believed to be operating “off the grid” from homes, automobiles, or from off shore locations or foreign countries, including India. Since the scammers have kept themselves purposely well hidden, thus far no law enforcement agencies have succeeded in locating or shutting them down.
The scammers typically pose as law enforcement officers, investigators, lawyers, and bankers and threaten consumers that they will be arrested for “bank fraud” or other fictitious crimes unless money is wired immediately. They simultaneously scare and confuse consumers by using meaningless legalese gobbledygook phrases such as, “We are downloading warrants against you” or “We are filing an affidavit against you.” Consumers who don’t immediately fall for the scam are warned, “Only God can help you now.”
The scammers almost always call consumers at work several times a day, and tell their supervisors, “Your employee has committed fraud and is about to be arrested.” Such threats have proven unsettling even to the most savvy consumers and employers who suspect the calls are fraudulent.
Attorney General McGraw stated, “Ordinarily my office protects consumers from fraudulent activities by seeking injunctions in court. But legal action cannot be taken until the scam artists can be located. Even then, it is unlikely that the persons behind the fraudulent calls and extortionist threats would obey a court order. In this case, the consumer’s best defense is to be armed with the knowledge of the scam so that all demands for money can be resisted, despite the false but scarey threats of arrest.”
McGraw added, “Because the fraudsters make a special point of calling consumers repeatedly at work, employers must understand that the consumers are innocent victims of a criminal enterprise and cannot stop the calls from coming. I also wish to assure the citizens of West Virginia that my office will continue to do everything possible to locate and shut down the outlaw debt collectors.”
More information about this fraudulent debt collection scheme is available at the Attorney General’s website, www.wvago.gov/internetloanscam. Any consumers who have been threatened by these persons or wish to file a complaint about another consumer matter may do so by calling the Consumer Protection Hot Line, 1-800-368-8808, or by obtaining a complaint form from the Attorney General’s web site.
It's a debt collection scam. And all their threats are false and illegal. This is a very active group of scammers, many of whom are calling from India (and probably other countries) and are in cahoots with a group of American pay day loan scammers. They attempt to extort money from consumers with a myriad of false and illegal threats, and alternately pose as debt collectors, federal and state law enforcement officers, lawyers and bankers. Their trademark is to use meaningless legalese gobblygook phrases like "We are downloading warrants against you" or "We are filing an affidavit against you." Another trademark phrase is to threaten the consumer with something like this ridiculous phrase: "If you don't pay then only God can help you." Typical of many financial scams of this variety, they usually demand payment via Western Union or MoneyGram or credit card. They use any number of phony names such as US National Bank, Federal Investigation Bureau, US Legal Investigation Bureau, Hopkins Law Office, United Legal Processing, Morgan Associates, United Pay Services, National Processing, White Collar Crime Unit and many more. These criminals also use many phone numbers from many area codes; they're probably using caller-id spoofing software and/or VoIP to disguise their real location. The main thing to remember is that anytime someone calls you demanding money to prevent your arrest, or demanding your lawyer's name so they can sue you, it is ALWAYS a scam. No debt collector (let alone criminals posing as debt collectors) has the authority to have anyone arrested for anything. (And it's illegal to them to threaten such a thing.) And since these foreign dirtbags routinely impersonate law enforcement, it's also important to remember that American law enforcement officers aren't in the business of debt collection. (Debt is a civil, not a criminal, matter.) The bottom line is, these are criminals trying to steal your money. A consumer posting a complaint about these same scammers at http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-718-831-7157 notes that 718-831-7157 is associated with an India-based "outsourcing" telephone bank. Though a reverse search on WhitePages.com shows that 718-831-7157 is an unlisted land line in New York City, information on Debtbuyers.Com shows that that number is used by India-based Intellisourze. (Source: http://www.debtbuyers.com/debtbuyers.asp ) My guess is that it's a VoIP phone number. This is another piece of the puzzle that fits in perfectly with other information about this scam. There are some reports on 800Notes that have suggested that the crooks behind this offshore scam are also the crooks behind the notorious Bass/Ellis Crosby & Assoc./States Predisposition scams in Florida and Georgia. The interesting thing is that the number of complaints on here about the US National Bank/US Legal Investigation/Federal Investigation scam skyrocketed *after* April 7, 2008 when Florida obtained a $1.3 million judgment against Ted Ellis Crosby, shutdown his operations and barred him from ever conducting debt collections in Florida (Read http://myfloridalegal.com/newsrel.nsf/newsrel ... 5257424005858A6 ) There's certainly a good chance that the crooks placing these calls from India are doing so on behalf of the American crooks behind the Crosby/Bass/States Predisposition scams. Here's the contact information for the phone bank in India: IntellisOurzE BPO 701, Sapphier, Nr. Cargo Motors, C.G. Road Navrangpura, Ahmedabad - 9. (Guj.) INDIA. E-Mail: info@intellisourze.com Website: www.intellisourze.com A check on the domain name "intellisourze.com" shows that the website and name registration was created on May 8, just one month *after* the Crosby scams were shut down in Florida: Domain Name: INTELLISOURZE.COM Registrant: Pragra Infratech Pvt. Limited. Email: ankur.ranpariya@pragra.com 908, Aksaht Tower, Nr. ICICI Bank Opp. Rajpath Club, S.G. Highway Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India 380054 Tel. +91.7926871353 Creation Date: 08-May-2008 Expiration Date: 08-May-2009 Domain servers in listed order: ns5.znetindia.com ns4.znetindia.com (Source: http://whois.domaintools.com/intellisourze.com ) Though scam calls from these crooks have been going on long before May 8, the frequency of complaints about these calls increased considerably after Crosby was shut down in early April. This is conjecture, but appearances suggest that Crosby and company were originally running a two-pronged payday loan scam operation -- with some calls being made from Jacksonville, Florida and other calls being made from a phone bank in India (and possibly other countries); then, after the Florida Attorney General shut down the Crosby scams in Florida, the Crosby crooks transferred most of their scam efforts to the India phone bank. If you are targeted by these criminals, be sure to report them to all the following federal and state law enforcement agencies (most of which you can do online or over the phone): 1. The U.S. Secret Service is responsible for protecting the country's financial infrastructure and payment systems from international and domestic threats. Call or write your local Secret Service field office to alert them to the details of this attempted extortion. The addresses and phone numbers for the local Secret Service field offices are listed at http://www.secretservice.gov/field_offices.shtml or in your phone book. 2. Alert the FBI at https://tips.fbi.gov Be sure to tell the FBI that you are being targeted by extortionists over the phone. And if the crooks claim to be law enforcement or lawyers, officers of the court or bankers, be sure to include that information in your report. 3. File a complaint with your local police. Most police departments will take a report over the phone. Be sure to tell them that you're being targeted by an extortionist and give them all the details. 4. File a complaint your state's attorney general, the contact information for whom is at www.wvago.gov 5. File a complaint online with The Federal Trade Commission at https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/FTC_Wizard.aspx?Lang=en If these crooks call back, promise them nothing, pay them nothing and tell them nothing other than that you know they're a scam and that you've reported them to law enforcement. (And be sure to report them to all the agencies above each time they call you.) By the way, here's just a small sample of numbers used by this particular group of scammers. Read the reports and you'll see the same pattern time and again -- phony organization names, thick foreign accents, and oddly worded threats that are so melodramatic and ridiculous that it's laughable:
1-877-777-2551 THIS IS A LAWFIRM THEY ARE VERY HELPFUL. THEY HELP ME RESOLVE MY PROBLEM.... THEY ARE WITH LIC. ATTORNEYS MAYBE YOU GUYS SPOKE WITH ONE OF THE LEGAL ASSISTANTS. NEXT TIME JUST ASKED TO SPEAK WITH AN ATTORNEY ON STAFF.
un yeah i asked to speak to an attorney and the rude witch on the phone said unless i tell her who i am and what i a want she would not let me talk to anyone. i asked several times for the address so i could verify the company and she refused and kept hanging up on me this is a scam, they come up with new ones everyday to rip you off. they named 4 payday loan companies that i was suppose to owe money to, i had applied to them but was denied so i knew it was bull. maybe you are part of the scam.........
Ok...you have about 90 people filing complaints with this office in this thread and all of a sudden your message pops up that they were very helpful???? GIVE ME A BREAK!!!! LMAO...You work for them and are trying to get people to call so you aholes can try to collect on fraudulent debts that was never opened in the first place. You guys and your antics. you really crack me up pretending to be attorneys collecting on debts. Get a freakin life and a real job!!!!!!
THEY ARE NOT ATTORNEYS BUT ILLEGALLY POSING AS ATTORNEYS TO EXPLOIT, HARRASS, AND COLLECT PAST DEBTS...PARTICULARILY ON PAY DAY LOAN VICTIMS...PLEASE REFER TO SOME OF THE OTHER POSTS THAT PROVIDE INFORMATION ON HOW TO SEEK HELP AND REPORT THESE THUGS...DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THEM...THEY ARE BAD NEWS!
I got a call from these idiots yesterday and they told me the name of the company was OJlawal.com..no such site popped up. My caller ID actually said 281-751-3113. When I googled the contact number he gave me of 877-777-2551 it came up for 1st integral recovery services. Jeremy Hill was the guy who called me and I just laughed in his face. I frustrated them so much they hung up on me two times, it was kind of fun. Any legit law firm would give out the correct contact info and not answer the phone just by saying "hello" The are collecting for an illegal unliscensed payday loan company called MTE Financial Services. It just kills me to know these idots have my personal information.
I was told by this organization that they are not a collection agency but an attorney's office. I was told that they were contacting my local Clerk of the Court to have a "Theft by default" charge filed against me unless I sent them the full payment within the hour. They later called my home and spoke to my fiance and Mr. Hill told him that I was a thief and a fraud. A few minutes later we received another call from them; this caller stated he was an investigator working with the county that I live in. I contacted my State Attorney's office and was told that I could not be arrested for defaulting on a loan; it is a civil matter not a criminal one. They also suggested that I file a civil claim against them.