909-744-5418

Some Indian woman called me and left a message on my answering service.  Same call about law suit filed in my name.  She gave me a number to call and I tried the number and the person that answered acted like he had no idea what was going on and just hung up.  These people have been calling me now off and on for about 6 months and I wished they would stop.  The number she gave me to call was 909-744-5418.

Hi these are Indian scammer trying to scam people with their nasty Indian accent.
I got a call from a person called Wakes foster but never sounded like wakk so i suspected that this must be a scam so i contacted the district attorney general and i am filling a law suit against them.
soon they are going to hear the music.
please help me out with some more information about this scammers.

i recieved a messase on my cell from and Indian woman when you get information about how to stop these people from calling you please let me know

From
so dis-encourage

Hi. I have been getting a very scary call from this same phone number saying that someone would be at my place to arrest me for something I did not even know about or do. It sounds like a Scam to me. To scare people into giving out personal information and money. I ended up calling the Local Police Department and they are investigating the issue. These Scam artists are the ones that needs to be arrested and shut down.

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.

Thanks so much for the info. I'll know what to do when she calls me again.

I have received non stop calls every 15 min or so from these people who have cussed me up one side and down the other and then a woman called and called me a prostitute admitted this is a scam and she loves it.  I have talked to several men who have tried to have phone sex and now I am getting death threats from them...I have filed several complaints with every law agency from the FTC to the FBI

some lady with indian accent answered and threated me by telling me they were coming to my house before that some guy who had big accent and couldn;t understand him threatned me also they say they are from law firm but call law firm and they are unaware of this

Thanks for all the info in that post.  It made the most sense of anything I've seen.

well warning to any one thats gets call from these people they are threating peoples lives and said we are all stupid americans . this is the country i live in and the acs lawfirm is aware of this the heavy accent  and middleeast  they need to call the imigration department so they can be put back were they belong

Just received a call. This is 4th time this week. He was very threatening and gave me a case number and said since I didn't care to keep from getting arrested they would come and get me at work. Unless I paid them $5450.00.
They call my work number and cell number. In my books that is a threat.
These people need to be stopped now.

Scary threatening message, same as one above from someone named "Hex or Rex Foster", Indian accent " You or your attorney of record must call me back.  don't disregard this call, if you do i can only wish you the best of luck as the situation unfolds for you.  Best of luck for your kids lives (hard to understand if that's what he said!). I've never applied for a pay day loan and have not recently applied for credit or anything else.  Plus, my number is on the do not call list....

These people are scammers and just kidding with Americans and trying to make fool us that we a legal case register against our name & SSN# so plz don't believe them and tell them to dispute the case in the court nothing will happen

These people have been calling me for months and within the past week things have gotten pretty bad. They have threatened to have investigators come to my home and work and drag me to court. I have called and have asked to have information sent to me, but all I get is "we'll send you some information once you have paid off the balance." When I have offered to pay something, they tell me "What do you think we are, a debt collection agency?" When you call them out and get mad at them, they hang up the phone. The name of the company I supposedly owe is Cash Advance and a few months ago, it was American Cash Advance. I called American Cash Advance, but they told me they didn't even have me in their records. I think I will get a lawyer to sue these people because I'm tired of the harrassment. I wonder if they would have the money to pay?

I am receiving calls from this number 9097445418 as well.  Stacy Wilson cals both my business cell and personal demanding I call her back.  I answered her call once and she said there was a law suit in my name and I better pay or it will be a big legal mess.  This is a scam so don't giv eher your info.

Add 530-466-7604 to that list above....another number, same company.

Received a call at my place of employment from adult male with Indian accent identifying himself as Mike Brown. Mike begins explaining that a class action lawsuit has been filed against me and that if I did not cooperate he would be sending police to my place of employment. I immediately asked Mike the name of company he was calling from this information I was refused.I assume my laughter at that comment enraged Mike. I immediately explained to Mike that I work in collections and wanted to know what company that he was calling from Mike began ranting you must provide me with your information. Requesting that I verify my Social Security number and I declined and hung up phone, Mike immediately called back and requested to speak with someone in Human Resources told me that I was going to lose my job and police were on the way. My response I will be waiting. Is there any legal action I take this must stop. Since this call I have received 4 more harassing calls with Mike cursing at co-workers.

I understand I started receiving calls from this number on yesterday at work.  I have asked this people who they are and each time I am told something different.  I really would like for someone to do something about this calls.  I was given an hour to send them a copy of my drivers license, credit card and letter stating that I authorize them to deduct 1245.00 out of my account.  I also was suppose to get the letter notarized.  I got so upset that I almost fell for the scam.  I contacted the police and was told that there is not much that they can do because I dont have a the name of the company.  This has caused me some problems at work but I am trying to work through this matter.

my wife was getting the same kind of calls. the man on the phone said he was from a law firm in jamaica. the worst part of it is they had the balls to actually come to her place of work and try to pry information from the other employees. the guy's really lucky i wasnt there when he showed up.