888-312-0848

This so called gentleman contacted my elderly mother in another state, alluded that he was in a "legal" dept and working with the Dallas County Sheriff's dept on a civil matter. Stated that I had a court date approaching and that they needed to reach me urgently.
I called and left a message for Mr Shaw, stated I did not appreciate his tactics to an elderly person and asked that he give me a call directly and try to stick to the facts of why he was calling. So far, no call back. What a jerk.

Caller type: Collection Agency
Caller: Mr Shaw
Company: Bloom Financial Group
Caller ID: 888-312-0848


Reply

MIke Jones called and left a message stating someone had filed a legal claim against me and to call immediately. I get 3 to 5 calls a day from this unknown number.

Received a phone call from a gentleman named Scott.  Asked him info on who this company was and the reason behind this call.  Stated he was not from a collection agency but an investment firm.  He told me some $ amount due and we needed to pay ASAP or we wll go to court!  Than asked to speak to his manager, and Mr. Shaw came on the phone....  said we owed this money to him and he was going to collect!!  He also stated that we would be going to court and that we where going to pay OR ELSE!  They would not tell me where they where located or any direct phone number....

THEY STATED THAT THEY WHERE NOT A COLLECTION AGENCY BUT AN INVESTMENT FIRM!

I got the same call today, I am glad that I found this site. Same person as everyone else just about, Mike Jones. I didn't call him back as we got cut off, he did leave a msg saying that he was with a county and that a complaint had been filed against me. It was going to go to court. I was a little leery any way because the call was from and UNKNOWN caller. No call back number to him rather a 1888 number. Also he left this personal info on my voice mail with out knowing really who he was call. He was calling a cell #.

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

Well I have gotten this call as well. I did my research to find out who these people were, leery of a scam. I pulled a copy of my credit report and found the debt in question. After calling Chase Bank, they advised me that an investment firm by the name of Bloom Financial Group did in fact purchase this debt.  I did notice on my credit report it stated "purchased by another lender", just like a student loan. Over all I ended up settling the account for less than the full balance and it now shows paid on my credit report. Thank GOD!!!  Just thought I'd let everyone know... do the homework... find out who owns your debt and take it from there.  If you care about your credit, this may be blessing in disguise. I saved roughly about $7,500.00

this clown shaw was harrasing my daughter about a debt on a credit card that was 3 yrs old and for $500, which now had grown to $1400. He stated that if we commit to paying in 1 hour that he would wave all fees of going to court. I got him on the phone and ask for proof of documentation and he stated that he now owns the debt and he doesn't have to provide me with nothing! You or your daughter can pay me in 1 hour or I will be suing your daughter and I will win this case and your daughter WILL pay my attny fees of $2000. I told him that I'm just not going to send anyone $1400 without proof. My daughter and I NEVER received ANYTHING in the mail from anyone for the 3 years that he claims this has been going on. When I amicably tried to reason with him he became very rude and stated that I was stalling!????? At that point I repeatedly ask him for documentation to this "so-called" law suit and the billing statements and he REFUSED to provide them to us. He hung up on me 2 times when I attempted to reason with him and he kept saying though out our conversation that the 1 hour time limit was running out. The last time I talked to him he hung up and said you have a half an hour to pay or I will be suing your daughter, garnishing her wages, and taking her money out of her banking account to get this debt paid. Of course he was really starting to piss me off. Did some research and found this site and also check with the credit collection acts governed by the federal govt. This IDIOT could be sued by us for the so called claims and harassment he was doing to us. AAAAAHHHHH MR SHAW: PLEASE DO CALL AGAIN AND YOU WILL BE HEARING FROM MY ATTORNEY MR JASON KUTULAKIS!!!!!!!!!!!!

i received calls from this shaw guy too. he refused to send me proof of the debt, his address, fax number, and full name. of course i didn't pay him, and he said "see you in court." im curious if anyone here actually got served with any court papers, or is this a scam?

This guy called and acted lik it was my fault I didnt receive correspondence or any "court documents". Once he ofund out I work for law enforcement, his attitude changed. Come to find out, this company was sending correspondence to addresses I haven't lived at in over 5yrs in Florida, and another address in NY where I havent lived in over 15yrs. & the address in NY was an address I never lived at. I am supposed to come up with about $500 in 3hrs or further actions will be taken. So whos the idiot calling from the UNKNOWN # passing on the case # and toll free #? They need a real job.

Pay your bills and nobody will call you...

Tell your mom to pay her bills...

Pay your bills its your fault don't use credit cards if you can't pay your bills...

Pay your bills...

Well if your daughter payed her bills you wouldn't have to deal with this maybe you should teach your daughter how to pay her bills Daddy...

I find it funny how everyone wants to put effort into going online to ask "everyone else" who this # may belong to and if it is a scam?  I do understand googling a phone # for a quick answer (as I did), what I don't understand is most of the crap I'm reading. Yeah, if you have an outstanding bill with a high interest rate and you let it go for however many years, it keeps getting bigger. When you stop paying a bill and it goes to different collection agencies and they get nowhere, the debt will usually gets sold, just like a student loan. After a debt is purchased, if they wanna go through the hassle of taking you to court, they can. So I did what I would suggest to anyone...I called the original creditor and find out who has this account? They gave me a company name and #, I called it and they informed me which one of their offices i need to contact. AND GUESS WHAT????? This is the # I was given.  huh? Go figure... I didn't speak with this "shaw" guy, no comment there, but at least I know it's not a scam.

Joe,

Don't buy other people's debt and try to legitimately claim you should be paid!

They called me to i know i owe the money so i called the org bank they told that bfg owned the debt so i called talked to mr shaw i let him know i wanted to settle my debt he was more then happy to help i owed $11,542.38 we settled the debt for $4,000.00 he saved me $7,542.38 now i have a paid in full account on all 3 credit bureaus needless to say im very thankful for mr shaws help...

Edward I followed the same steps u did and found out that BFG did own my debt I only owed $2,346.22 and MR. SHAW helped me settle my account for only $1,150.00.

Dennis have to say Joe is right, I lost my job and fell behind on a few bills anyway to make a long story short I was trying to buy a house the bank turned us down, I called this company that owned my debt found out from the bank that it was legit, so I settled my debt now its paid on my credit report and it helped us to qualify for our dream house.

I got the same call from the same company. They did send me something in writing via email which was a letter that I could have created. I think the main concern is that the tactics they are using to get you to settle the debt. My encounter with them was very much like everyone's that I have read the only thing is that I have worked for a collection agency and I know a few things. One they can not tell u in any manner that criminal charges are going to be files or you are going to be taken to court. If you request written proof they must provide and further more if you want to settle your debt with the company it's self you have you have that right. They are in it to make money off your debt and they don't like it when you cut out the middle man (collectors). I have filed complaints and also seeking legal action. Regardless of whether or not I pay my bills I still demand respect when you call my residence and being ignorant, mean, and just down right foolish is not going to get the debt paid any quicker !!!!!!!!