4153290507

So this morning i received a phone call from this same person. A Mr. Michael Carter.  Trying to get me to pay him a fee of $590.36 that he said i borrowed and never paid pack to a company. He told me this company tried numerous times to get the funds out of my account. I was told i had till !pm to pay, or legal action would be taken. He did scare me a little. But i know, it just didn't seem right. He was NASTY and RUDE. He spoke with a VERY HEAVY ACCENT. (im guessing Indian) He wouldn't let me question him on anything further. He kept repeating to me that the sheriff of my county would be knocking on my door Monday morning to Serve me papers. He talked about me going to jail, be on probation, and even have my checks garnished. Luckily, I was smart enough to not give him any money.
Michael Carter has called me from and told me to call him back at the follow numbers: 415-329-0507, 951-389-0279

THIS IS A SCAM! DON'T PAY THIS PERSON ANYTHING. CALL YOUR BANK AND MAKE SURE YOUR ACCOUNTS HAVENT BEEN TAMPERED WITH! IF YOU CAN REPORT HIM AND THESE NUMBERS TO  WWW.FTC.GOV or HOMELAND SECURITY

-S.S.

So this morning i received a phone call from this same person. A Mr. Michael Carter.  Trying to get me to pay him a fee of $590.36 that he said i borrowed and never paid pack to a company. He told me this company tried numerous times to get the funds out of my account. I was told i had till !pm to pay, or legal action would be taken. He did scare me a little. But i know, it just didn't seem right. He was NASTY and RUDE. He spoke with a VERY HEAVY ACCENT. (im guessing Indian) He wouldn't let me question him on anything further. He kept repeating to me that the sheriff of my county would be knocking on my door Monday morning to Serve me papers. He talked about me going to jail, be on probation, and even have my checks garnished. Luckily, I was smart enough to not give him any money.
Michael Carter has called me from and told me to call him back at the follow numbers: 415-329-0507, 951-389-0279

THIS IS A SCAM! DON'T PAY THIS PERSON ANYTHING. CALL YOUR BANK AND MAKE SURE YOUR ACCOUNTS HAVENT BEEN TAMPERED WITH! IF YOU CAN REPORT HIM AND THESE NUMBERS TO  WWW.FTC.GOV or HOMELAND SECURITY

-S.S.
Caller: He said he was with Legal Affairs and Investigation ( what a fool)
Call Type: Debt Collector

So this morning i received a phone call from this same person. A Mr. Michael Carter.  Trying to get me to pay him a fee of $590.36 that he said i borrowed and never paid pack to a company. He told me this company tried numerous times to get the funds out of my account. I was told i had till !pm to pay, or legal action would be taken. He did scare me a little. But i know, it just didn't seem right. He was NASTY and RUDE. He spoke with a VERY HEAVY ACCENT. (im guessing Indian) He wouldn't let me question him on anything further. He kept repeating to me that the sheriff of my county would be knocking on my door Monday morning to Serve me papers. He talked about me going to jail, be on probation, and even have my checks garnished. Luckily, I was smart enough to not give him any money.
Michael Carter has called me from and told me to call him back at the follow numbers: 415-329-0507, 951-389-0279

THIS IS A SCAM! DON'T PAY THIS PERSON ANYTHING. CALL YOUR BANK AND MAKE SURE YOUR ACCOUNTS HAVENT BEEN TAMPERED WITH! IF YOU CAN REPORT HIM AND THESE NUMBERS TO  WWW.FTC.GOV or HOMELAND SECURITY

-S.S.
Caller: He said he was with Legal Affairs and Investigation ( what a fool)
Call Type: Debt Collector

So this morning i received a phone call from this same person. A Mr. Michael Carter.  Trying to get me to pay him a fee of $590.36 that he said i borrowed and never paid pack to a company. He told me this company tried numerous times to get the funds out of my account. I was told i had till !pm to pay, or legal action would be taken. He did scare me a little. But i know, it just didn't seem right. He was NASTY and RUDE. He spoke with a VERY HEAVY ACCENT. (im guessing Indian) He wouldn't let me question him on anything further. He kept repeating to me that the sheriff of my county would be knocking on my door Monday morning to Serve me papers. He talked about me going to jail, be on probation, and even have my checks garnished. Luckily, I was smart enough to not give him any money.
Michael Carter has called me from and told me to call him back at the follow numbers: 415-329-0507, 951-389-0279

THIS IS A SCAM! DON'T PAY THIS PERSON ANYTHING. CALL YOUR BANK AND MAKE SURE YOUR ACCOUNTS HAVENT BEEN TAMPERED WITH! IF YOU CAN REPORT HIM AND THESE NUMBERS TO  WWW.FTC.GOV or HOMELAND SECURITY

-S.S.
Caller: He said he was with Legal Affairs and Investigation ( what a fool)
Call Type: Debt Collector

So this morning i received a phone call from this same person. A Mr. Michael Carter.  Trying to get me to pay him a fee of $590.36 that he said i borrowed and never paid pack to a company. He told me this company tried numerous times to get the funds out of my account. I was told i had till !pm to pay, or legal action would be taken. He did scare me a little. But i know, it just didn't seem right. He was NASTY and RUDE. He spoke with a VERY HEAVY ACCENT. (im guessing Indian) He wouldn't let me question him on anything further. He kept repeating to me that the sheriff of my county would be knocking on my door Monday morning to Serve me papers. He talked about me going to jail, be on probation, and even have my checks garnished. Luckily, I was smart enough to not give him any money.
Michael Carter has called me from and told me to call him back at the follow numbers: 415-329-0507, 951-389-0279

THIS IS A SCAM! DON'T PAY THIS PERSON ANYTHING. CALL YOUR BANK AND MAKE SURE YOUR ACCOUNTS HAVENT BEEN TAMPERED WITH! IF YOU CAN REPORT HIM AND THESE NUMBERS TO  WWW.FTC.GOV or HOMELAND SECURITY

-S.S.
Caller: He said he was with Legal Affairs and Investigation ( what a fool)
Call Type: Debt Collector

I just got the same freaking call, called them back and she said exact same thing.. I've never had a payday loan not once in my 29 years on this earth..... so I started laughing and said is this a joke? and she hung up on me... there's got to be away to stop these idiots from trying to swindle money!!!! or at least sue for harassment.. ohhh there's an idea...did you guys notice all these posts are this month.. something's going on!!!

we just recieved 6 calls back to back from this guy im just gonna tell him send the cops i just got home from work ill be waiting here while eating my dinner ...

the same number keep calling me do i need to go to the police station and tell them bout

I got a call on a Saturday afternoon saying there would be someone at my job on Monday to serve papers on a loan??
No clue what he is talking about.
Very much a foreign accent.
Got a similar call two weeks ago from a number in theMemphis, TN area. My guess is they are trying to get you to agree to pay them cash to stop this.
Call your local authorities.

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 the exact same call from this man. What did you do to stop him from calling you ?

Has anyone actually recieved these paperwork and been arrested from these guys before? I have called them and they threatenedme telling me I was going to jail.

Same thing... I took out 1 loan to help better my credit. The payback is not due yet. And over the weekend this number called and said that I need to get a lawyer and the cops wuld be by on Monday to arrest me for fraud

No, nobody goes to jail for failing to pay small loans. Small loan defaults are handled in civil courts where there are NO jail terms, jail is only for the criminal courts. The donkeyholes calling you are criminals so why would you believe what they say? They are lying and trying to scare you. Why don't you keep calling them back over and over again until they agree to leave you alone? Be abusive. Curse them out. Discuss their ancestry.

These people are very rude trying to get you to pay them money but cant tell you what its for other than a loan??

I agree Rikki, I too had never had a payday loan and they did the same thing to me.  I hung up on him (Gary) and he called me back.  I told him that it was a scam and he said a bunch of crap and was sending the police to arrest me and I said great, I can't wait to see my husband, and he said the police is your husband, and I said yep and he suddenly hung up.

These people just called me I'm so happy to see they are a scam artists I actually believed there was a warrant for my arrest even made a police report the number was 4153290507

U are completely right. i just received the call today also and it shook me up so i am going to try and find an attorney to see if we could stop this harrassment!!

This some crazy stuff I don't owe anyone the same man called my houses phone and my job to collect money I don't owe. His name is Mr. White and he is Indian and he told me I will get locked up by weekend and he wished me lucked. Now the number is disconnected so y'all be careful.

I just got another called I told them I'm on to the scam and they hung up on me.