646-448-0705

New number same game - threats that he is a representative of a law enforcement agency and I will face dire consequences if my retained attorney or I do not return the call.  They will come to my place of employment, etc.  They always have an accent, and the name changes but the voice is the same.  This time it is "Austin Smith."

just rcv'd call from this number a few minutes ago - unable to understand the strong accent of the person - just time sensitive and his name is edward cullen....

I am fed up with the harrassament from this number. They call my home, my work stating they are a law office with a dead give away indian accent same voice but always have a different name. They are going to come and arrest me if i do not send them money. Something need to done it was going on for a few montha then the calls stopped, now out of the blue them are starting to come in.

An Indian Accented Women who says her name is Nicole Allen called saying this was a time sensitive matter and that I or my retained attorney needed to call her back immediately. If I didn't call her back and the situation unfolds on me, good luck. WTF nothing but terrorists is all these people are.

Another scam call, from this same mysterious "law office" where everyone has a Western name and a thick Indian accent. I guess they have every right to try and scam me, but I don't understand how they can be so BAD at it! Honestly, after you call and threaten me a dozen times, and no one ever shows up to arrest me, why would you think I would ever believe you? Idiots. If you're going to be a scammer, at least have a little pride in your work and try and do a decent job at it. :-)

Received another threatening message today on my cell.  It was from the same man who called a few days ago, but a new name - Kevin Jones.  This has gone on for a year.  New names, new phone numbers, hetc.

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

i got a phone call yesterday and the caller was a woman with an indian accent named AUSTIN. she told me that they would be taking leagal action against me on monday and that they have all my information because i applied for a loan and it was deposited in bank and i n ever paid it back. but when i asked questions about they didnt have an answer and so when i hung up and she called back and left a voice mail she used foul language and then said it was a time sensitive matter. she really had me thinking if i did something wrong until i read this report about them scamming people so now i know not to do anything. meanwhil i was taking care of my 2 month old as she is yelling at me.

i just recieved my second call from this same number and when i started yelling back and asking for his information and threathening to call the attorney general he hung up..actually it was kind of funny..jerks . whats even worse was i could hear a baby in the background so i asked him whose kids are those and why is this law firm calling on labor day dont you have a bbq to go to.i feel sorry for the elderly people that they probably call and scare them to the point where they go to the bank and send them their life savings.

Hello Maggie I got the same call on Labor Day when I got back to work. It was on my phone message.he told me that it was imperative that  I call him back and if I didnt an attorney would be contacting me and it will be too late. He never told me the nature of the call only thing that he stated was that he was looking for me and for me to call him back. My daughter received this call about a few months ago threathening her like he did me.

I just received a call from a lady at the same phone number and she stated that her name is Christine and that I need to call her back today and this matter is in the upmost important matter and that if I don't then she wanted to let me go good luck with the conquences that are going to be taken upon me. She too has a very heavy Indian accent, and calls my number at work and my cell phone. I did not and will not return there calls.

I HAVE BEEN CALLED SEVERAL TIMES IN THE PAST SEVERAL MONTHS AND BEING THREATEND. THESE PEOPLE WILL NOT EVEN GIVE YOU ANY INFORMATION IF YOU DO OWE SOMEONE. THIS IS A BIG SCAM AND I TOLD THEM . THE SAY I WISH YOU WELL.

Do not believe a word these people say. Tell them you are reporting them to the FTC and your local Attorney General. Do not be afraid of these people. Do not let them verbally harrass you. What they are doing is illegal.

Haha.. I get numerous calls a day at work from this group of [***]. Always different numbers, [***] names. I threatened them last time they called my work and told them I had the police on the line tracing the number and that the law enforcement officials would be visiting them shortly.

They stopped calling my job, but then got my mom's cell number?? LOL but this time, a guy with a thick indian accent called threatening that if I did not have my attorney call he would have me arrested. Get this, he said his name was EDWARD CULLEN! LMAO

CLASSIC!

When I made it to work, I had a vm from these people.  I couldn't understand a word he was saying but I did make out the number.  I called back and I talked to some lady.  The phone disconnected so I tried calling back.  I received a busy signal a number of times, then the word restrict popped up.  I waited a while & tried back.  This time a man answered and told me the lady was on break.  To make a long story short, they claimed to be a law firm representing CPA (Cash Partners of America) and they had deposited x amount of dollars in my acct in Oct 2008.  I knew it was a lie.  I pulled my account and informed them no such deposit was made.  He gets an attitude and says, "so what r u saying, I'm lying" well duh!!!  He then tells me that he's going to contact my employer so I told him better yet I'm fixing to talk to my supervisor right now.  He tells me that the case will be filed in court in KANSAS tomorrow and the legal team at my job will be served with papers and we will have to appear in court.  I said ok do what you have to do.  That's when my supervisor keyed in the number and this site popped up.  Somethng needs to be done about these people.

They called my business about 10 times in a row. Same story im going to jail and yada yada yada.. called them back about 4 times and wasted their time. I can't believe they actually feed their family with stolen money.

Unfortunately these people contacted my husband about oweing money for a payday loan that was never paid back. Like we do not have enough stress on our plates to get a call like this really did us in. The woman named "rachel" left a very nasty message saying good luck in court tomorrow we were being sued for a pay day loan of $600 but now it is up to $5,436.85. Being we do owe actual legit companies money we took this seriously. I took over the phone call for my husband and something just wasn't adding up.I thought to myself with the one payday loan we did take out that the money came right out of our account and if we did take out this one why wouldn't it have come right out too. I had asked her from what month was this supposed deposit and she said sept of 2009. I had my husband call the bank as I was on the phone trying to keep her on the line. Turns out I was right no such deposit. I proceed to tell her there was no deposit and start to ask an address as she is talking(which mind you I could not understand)and she had the nerve to tell me to "shut the f*c* up"and then hung up. With that I then pulled up google and googled the number and thank the good lord this website popped up :) I then called back and told them I had my lawyer on the phone I know I am being scammed and now they are in trouble. They hung up. I tried calling back again and received a message saying the number was no longer in service! Although I am relieved I am still very stressed and can not believe there are people out there like this. People that want to steal hard working "americans" money when with our hard urned money we can't even make ends meet. Makes me sick and I hope they are found and sued!

Unfortunately these people contacted my husband about oweing money for a payday loan that was never paid back. Like we do not have enough stress on our plates to get a call like this really did us in. The woman named "rachel" left a very nasty message saying good luck in court tomorrow we were being sued for a pay day loan of $600 but now it is up to $5,436.85. Being we do owe actual legit companies money we took this seriously. I took over the phone call for my husband and something just wasn't adding up.I thought to myself with the one payday loan we did take out that the money came right out of our account and if we did take out this one why wouldn't it have come right out too. I had asked her from what month was this supposed deposit and she said sept of 2009. I had my husband call the bank as I was on the phone trying to keep her on the line. Turns out I was right no such deposit. I proceed to tell her there was no deposit and start to ask an address as she is talking(which mind you I could not understand)and she had the nerve to tell me to "shut the f*c* up"and then hung up. With that I then pulled up google and googled the number and thank the good lord this website popped up :) I then called back and told them I had my lawyer on the phone I know I am being scammed and now they are in trouble. They hung up. I tried calling back again and received a message saying the number was no longer in service! Although I am relieved I am still very stressed and can not believe there are people out there like this. People that want to steal hard working "americans" money when with our hard urned money we can't even make ends meet. Makes me sick and I hope they are found and sued!

How stupid do they think I am or anyone?  I received a call on my cell and at work last week from 5592855337, law office of california stating that I needed my attorney to call them concerning an urgent matter and if I didn't call back they would have me arrested to appear in court Monday that would cost me 8484.00 or I can pay 987 and be free of the debt.  All I had to do was fax an authorization with my cc info and DL to their fax.  I faxed an unsigned letter and license that could not be read to postpone this while I checked it out.  They called the next morning at work, demanding a signed letter to complete the process.  I asked them to send me the documentation to show that this was mine and they said 8-10 days after payment clears.  I told them that since they were supposely an attorney's office, they could fax it to me and then I would pay if mine, Brian King and John Andrews (I think), same foreign person, would not do that and refused to let me talk to the attorney, or give me their physical address.  I informed them that I contacted my state attorney general's office, local da, fraud dept and police.  They threatened to have me arrested, I kept repeating, send me the documentation and we will go from there.  I finally did ask when was this deposit made and he gave me date, I told him I would call back in about 10 minutes since I was at work.  I called my bank and there was no deposit made on or around the date in question.  I did not call them back.  

Yesterday, same guy, different number 6464480705 and name James Conner and second one with Kevin Jones, calls my cell and work, did not talk to either one.  About 2 hours later, an Alec ? from the Federal Fraud Investigation at 7602841401 called my cell and said that I was going to be arrested at home or work and to call to tell them where I would like to be picked up and to verify my address.  If they have my address, why do I need to verify and the police does not call to inform you that they will be arresting you. Within 15 minutes, same guy calls work, claiming to be Mike Tyson, gave 2 different badge numbers with Federal Government at 7602841401and same speech, he called back within 15 minutes and name was Roger Jackson with National Government Police and same number and same speech.  I did not call any of them back. The same number called my cell tonight but did not leave a message.  

The local police said not to worry, it was a scam and not to send any information or pay and since the scammers said that have my banking information to cancel cc and account to avoid unauthorized efts from these people..

I have 5 of these messages recorded and I will be contacting my local police again and the FBI.

OMG what is stated above is exactly what has happened to me.  What really is bad is they have my work number which now I informed work what is up and that basically really bothers me.  In this world today -- how can someone take advantage of people that at one time were in a position where they needed some extra money to get by.  I mean seriously it is hard for me to believe that this can go on and doesn't stop.  BUT thank you all for your posts because for that one split second I actually was a little scared because I did have these pay day loans in the past BUT they are all cleared up and I actually got statements from my bank and confirmed with the pay day companies just because they made me a little paranoid.  SO I guess the paperwork won't be coming in the mail????  Thanks!!