214-771-7151

They have been calling me all afternoon.    I finally hung up.  "Anthony Perry"   Said I was going to jail tmw and that I better go hire a lawyer right now.

This is in addition to my my previous message.  Could be notified the Better Business Bureau and put in a complain? Do you think they could help?

Let us know how you make out.

I work at a hospital and this man has called four the last 4 days asking for a girl who no longer works there.  I told him that and he proceeded to call 85 times on wed. And 17 times on thurs.( we counted of the caller id) he yelled and was very threatening.  We filed a police report today and the officer told us he has multiple complaints about this number.  Dont give him any information.  It is a SCAM.

I have saved a message from JOHN (who speaks very little english) and I have spoke to him and said DO NOT CALL ME!  John doesn't listed or seem to care that I will report him.  He makes threats saying I have a financial obligation, yet ASK for my name and social security number.  BUT what is so annoying is that he is CLEARLY calling from a call center, reading a script and the 1st question is "do I have a lawyer?  THIS IS RIDICULOUS!!!!! HOW HE GOT MY NUMBER IS A MISTERY FOR SURE.  I truly hope something is done about these calls.  Apparently from reading the complaints they are making a lot of SCAM calls.

I go t this same call but they our oversee and want you to wire them a 1000.00 or will report you to the police, but when you call the police they can not do anything about it because it not a crime yet because no money was pass. Do nt give them anything.
There is another scram that they call you saying your won some money in a USA lottery and they will wire you 7000.00 but you must give them control of your laptop or compter for a day and they steal all your information .

I get these calls as well- If this country is employing officers like this, then I need to move to a third world country. What a sack of lying SOBs,

This guy called me several days and several times and said he was a officer . Said I took out a loan with usa and didnt pay it back. I said never heard of them and told him this was a load of crap and told him to call the police I would like to tell them about him and he hung up on me.

me too and havent heard from him again

Yes! I feel like you and S Fortunate are standing right beside me when I get all these delightful calls from this number. This man claims to be Officer Brandon Jackson (but he's can hardly speak english, so I doubt his name is BRANDON..ya know?) I have received several calls and also have two recorded when I was away from the phone and he was threatening in both of the recorded calls which is fantastic because he told me that me or my attorney had better call him back for my benefit and "my safety" or he can't be accountable of what might happen to me....Now that is a threat....right?? I am trying to find an attorney who can help me with this because the man has too much info about me INCLUDING my social security number!! or at least he says the last four digits so I don't know if he has the entire number but still, this is wrong and i'm so glad I found this sight so I didn't start paying money, because I am disabled and am on benefits which is not much!! let me know what happens on your end laura...good luck

I got a call from this number, please call the FTC and local FBI. They are from India trying to scam on fake payday loans they have taken Americans for over 5.2 billion dollars, it is not real call them and report them and give them your piece of mind. It is under investigation they will get caught....

Call the FTC and report them, they are crazy and think they can just come and try to scam Americans well they have another thing coming.....

Those son-of-a-b**** call me yesterday and left a message saying that 1st thing in the morning i was going to go to jail due to criminal counts against me.  I dig for answers and he said he was an attorney for pay day loan i took online. He was going to sue me for 5600.00 for a 400 loan i took.  He is such a [***].  He swears at me and half the time I have to have him repeat b/c he couldn't speak English right.  What the heck I'm not white but I can speak way better then him.  Each time he call he uses a different name and every time i question him he give's me a different answer.  I hope they find these ppl and put them away for good.    He said that he was the attorney for Hopkins Law office and he is an attorney (my ass) last time I check attorney don't talk like he does. I think they would be more professional.

My husband and i did one of those online quick loan and they got us for $115 then tryed to get me to send another $255 to give me a account release code. BS the this number started calling and today they call asking for my husband when i asked to leave a message i got the name Calvin Parker ( if thats what it was) he said he was a feral agent

as a add on the calls have been also coming from Rockwall, TX

I got a threatening call from this number, saying I am in deep legal trouble and not to disregard this message or it would fall on me and to call "Chief Attorney Richard Hunt" right away.  He was a foreigner that could not speak English very well.   I have a prepaid cellphone and I don't have any idea how this person got the number, only my friends and family have the number.  I was concerned at first until I looked up the number and found out that it is a scam.  I hope there aren't people that fall for this!!   I get calls from other scams of the same nature trying to get money from me.  I tell them to send me something in writing and I will give it my attention.  Never get anything in writing, even if I did, it is so easy to these days to make things seem official.  No one is safe from greedy people trying to steal money from the working class!!!

Please help me they're harrasing me & wont leave me alone please help

This is an extortion scam which was featured on ABC News tonight:

Phantom Debt Collectors From India Harass Americans, Demand Money

By BRIAN ROSS (@brianross) , CINDY GALLI and MATTHEW MOSK (@mattmosk)
June 7, 2012

Hundreds of thousands of cash-strapped Americans have been targeted by abusive debt collectors operating out of overseas call centers suspected of links to organized crime in India, law enforcement officials told ABC News.

The calls are part of a massive scam, one that appears to target struggling Americans -- especially those who have gone online to apply for payday loans. Armed with personal information from those pilfered applications, the threatening callers, who claim to be debt collectors poised to initiate legal action, have managed to pry loose millions of dollars from their victims -- even when the victims never owed money in the first place.

"This is what we call a phantom debt collection scam," said Jon Leibowitz, the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. "It's a very pernicious and innovative new fraud."

Working through call centers in India, the commission estimates that the criminals have dialed at least 2.5 million calls, persuading already cash-strapped victims to send them more than $5 million. Some have reported receiving dozens of calls per hour. They are victims like Cindy Gervais, of New Orleans, who went online for a quick loan when her husband's car was hit by a driver who didn't have insurance.

Even though she paid the loan off, the so-called "phantom" debt collectors with Indian accents began calling to say she still owed money.

He more or less told me that if I didn't pay, they were going to have someone on my doorstep to arrest me," she told ABC News. "And that they were going to contact my place of business, and tell them what kind of person I am."

At first, she said she resisted. Then the calls became more frequent, and started to ring on her cell phone, and at the grocery distribution company where she had worked for 27 years.

"I was more or less was in panic mode because he told me there would be someone before noon at my place of business to arrest me and take me to jail," she said tearfully. "So I agreed to pay him."

After receiving scores of complaints, investigators with the FTC said they began tracking the calls, and following the payments. They alleged the payments led them to a California company run by an Indian-American named Kirit Patel, and that such scams would not be possible without American front men.

"I would say that all roads of this scam, or many of the roads of this scam, lead back to Mr. Patel," said the FTC's Leibowitz.

ABC News tracked Patel for weeks, from the suburbs of San Francisco to Austin, Texas.

Patel refused to talk. But his lawyer, Mark Ellis, said he believes it is far too early to pass judgment on his client. Ellis, a Sacramento-based attorney, told ABC News that Patel was hired for a nominal fee to set up an American shell company, and had no idea what the call centers in India were doing.

"I can tell you, he was as snookered by the people in India as anybody," Ellis said. "He's a 69-year-old man who is nearing his retirement who thought all he had to do was set up some corporations and everything was on the up and up. He's completely dismayed that he has become the lightning rod of this entire problem."

A close friend of Patel's also defended him in a brief interview at his home, saying Patel was not trying to defraud anyone -- he was just an unwitting, bit player in a larger scheme.

"If Mr. Patel was just a cog in the wheel he seems to have been a pretty big cog," Leibowitz said. "It is clear that Patel was integrally involved with this scam."

Leibowitz points to thousands of pages of financial and phone records gathered by the FTC and filed as part of a civil case brought against him in the U.S. District Court in Sacramento last month. When FTC lawyers sought to freeze his assets and prevent his business from continuing to operate, Patel responded by invoking his rights against self-incrimination. His lawyer told ABC News he has had to be careful in how he responds to the allegations in civil court "because there is a potential criminal action," but that Patel maintains the allegations against him are false.

Federal investigators said the phantom debt collection operation that allegedly benefitted from Patel's assistance was one of several that all trace back to the same small town in Western India called Ahmedabad. Callers use technology to make it appear that the calls originate inside the U.S. Victims provided ABC News with recordings of dozens of the calls, and many of the thickly accented callers appear to be reading off a script.

"Subpoenas have been readied, and Monday morning you're going to be picked up from your home," one caller says on a victim's voicemail. "And you have children. Don't worry about your children. We have a childcare department to take care of the children."

"You will be behind bars for six months," said another caller. "And once you go behind bars, you will lose your job. Once you are behind the bars, you won't get a single drop of water."

William Peerce Howard, a Tampa attorney who represents victims of harassment from debt collectors, said it takes an especially twisted criminal to use threats and coercion to pry money from someone who is already struggling financially

"These guys really are the most visible villains in America today," he said. "They make a living scaring people."

Mark Merola, of Florida, said he just panicked when the caller told him he might be arrested at the deli where he works in a Florida retirement community.

"I was nervous. I didn't want to embarrass myself, my family," he said. He used his debit card to pay the collector $576.

Afterwards, he says he realized "how stupid I was."

"It just happened so fast," he said. "I got scared."

Leibowitz said he hopes with more attention, future potential targets of the scam will recognize red flags before they turn over any money.

If callers say they are from the police, consumers should know that law enforcement officers do not collect debt for private parties. If the caller is speaking with a thick Indian accent, but calls themselves by a names such as Officer Mike Johnson, that should be a tip off. And if they're calling 40 times in two hours, that's another red flag. "Legitimate debt collectors, legitimate pay day lenders don't do those sorts of things," he said.

Merola said he would like to see anyone involved in the scam prosecuted aggressively.

"There's no place in society for these people," he said.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/phantom-debt-co ... 16512428&page=2

I got a call from an Indian guy who was very rude and I couldn't understand him. I heard jail time do I sent them my info. I tryed to call back to see if everything was taken care of and the number is busy or can't be completed. I froze my account before they can take any money from me. Im going to change my account number. If they call Mr again, I'll give them a piece of my mind. What can I do now???? Call tje police???? They had the last four digits of my social and my work number.

This is an extortion scam which aired on "ABC World News" and "Nightline" last night:

Phantom Debt Collectors From India Harass Americans, Demand Money

By BRIAN ROSS (@brianross) , CINDY GALLI and MATTHEW MOSK (@mattmosk)
June 7, 2012

Hundreds of thousands of cash-strapped Americans have been targeted by abusive debt collectors operating out of overseas call centers suspected of links to organized crime in India, law enforcement officials told ABC News.

The calls are part of a massive scam, one that appears to target struggling Americans -- especially those who have gone online to apply for payday loans. Armed with personal information from those pilfered applications, the threatening callers, who claim to be debt collectors poised to initiate legal action, have managed to pry loose millions of dollars from their victims -- even when the victims never owed money in the first place.

"This is what we call a phantom debt collection scam," said Jon Leibowitz, the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. "It's a very pernicious and innovative new fraud."

Working through call centers in India, the commission estimates that the criminals have dialed at least 2.5 million calls, persuading already cash-strapped victims to send them more than $5 million. Some have reported receiving dozens of calls per hour. They are victims like Cindy Gervais, of New Orleans, who went online for a quick loan when her husband's car was hit by a driver who didn't have insurance.

Even though she paid the loan off, the so-called "phantom" debt collectors with Indian accents began calling to say she still owed money.

He more or less told me that if I didn't pay, they were going to have someone on my doorstep to arrest me," she told ABC News. "And that they were going to contact my place of business, and tell them what kind of person I am."

At first, she said she resisted. Then the calls became more frequent, and started to ring on her cell phone, and at the grocery distribution company where she had worked for 27 years.

"I was more or less was in panic mode because he told me there would be someone before noon at my place of business to arrest me and take me to jail," she said tearfully. "So I agreed to pay him."

After receiving scores of complaints, investigators with the FTC said they began tracking the calls, and following the payments. They alleged the payments led them to a California company run by an Indian-American named Kirit Patel, and that such scams would not be possible without American front men.

"I would say that all roads of this scam, or many of the roads of this scam, lead back to Mr. Patel," said the FTC's Leibowitz.

ABC News tracked Patel for weeks, from the suburbs of San Francisco to Austin, Texas.

Patel refused to talk. But his lawyer, Mark Ellis, said he believes it is far too early to pass judgment on his client. Ellis, a Sacramento-based attorney, told ABC News that Patel was hired for a nominal fee to set up an American shell company, and had no idea what the call centers in India were doing.

"I can tell you, he was as snookered by the people in India as anybody," Ellis said. "He's a 69-year-old man who is nearing his retirement who thought all he had to do was set up some corporations and everything was on the up and up. He's completely dismayed that he has become the lightning rod of this entire problem."

A close friend of Patel's also defended him in a brief interview at his home, saying Patel was not trying to defraud anyone -- he was just an unwitting, bit player in a larger scheme.

"If Mr. Patel was just a cog in the wheel he seems to have been a pretty big cog," Leibowitz said. "It is clear that Patel was integrally involved with this scam."

Leibowitz points to thousands of pages of financial and phone records gathered by the FTC and filed as part of a civil case brought against him in the U.S. District Court in Sacramento last month. When FTC lawyers sought to freeze his assets and prevent his business from continuing to operate, Patel responded by invoking his rights against self-incrimination. His lawyer told ABC News he has had to be careful in how he responds to the allegations in civil court "because there is a potential criminal action," but that Patel maintains the allegations against him are false.

Federal investigators said the phantom debt collection operation that allegedly benefitted from Patel's assistance was one of several that all trace back to the same small town in Western India called Ahmedabad. Callers use technology to make it appear that the calls originate inside the U.S. Victims provided ABC News with recordings of dozens of the calls, and many of the thickly accented callers appear to be reading off a script.

"Subpoenas have been readied, and Monday morning you're going to be picked up from your home," one caller says on a victim's voicemail. "And you have children. Don't worry about your children. We have a childcare department to take care of the children."

"You will be behind bars for six months," said another caller. "And once you go behind bars, you will lose your job. Once you are behind the bars, you won't get a single drop of water."

William Peerce Howard, a Tampa attorney who represents victims of harassment from debt collectors, said it takes an especially twisted criminal to use threats and coercion to pry money from someone who is already struggling financially

"These guys really are the most visible villains in America today," he said. "They make a living scaring people."

Mark Merola, of Florida, said he just panicked when the caller told him he might be arrested at the deli where he works in a Florida retirement community.

"I was nervous. I didn't want to embarrass myself, my family," he said. He used his debit card to pay the collector $576.

Afterwards, he says he realized "how stupid I was."

"It just happened so fast," he said. "I got scared."

Leibowitz said he hopes with more attention, future potential targets of the scam will recognize red flags before they turn over any money.

If callers say they are from the police, consumers should know that law enforcement officers do not collect debt for private parties. If the caller is speaking with a thick Indian accent, but calls themselves by a names such as Officer Mike Johnson, that should be a tip off. And if they're calling 40 times in two hours, that's another red flag. "Legitimate debt collectors, legitimate pay day lenders don't do those sorts of things," he said.

Merola said he would like to see anyone involved in the scam prosecuted aggressively.

"There's no place in society for these people," he said.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/phantom-debt-co ... 16512428&page=2