7188317157

That is freakin' hilarious!!!  I was born in India & know their culture.  Last month I was targeted by the
same type of scammers, & reported them to every consumer fraud agency, as well as my local law
enforcement agency.  I had to go through the inconvenience of cancelling my bank card & waiting for
a new one, as well as changing my phone number, but it's a small price to pay to protect my finances.
I know who I do business with, & they are not on the list!

This "company" has been calling me for several days now. I cannot understand much of what he is saying, he has a strong indian accent. He has been very rude and threatening. I did make the mistake of verifying my info before realizing it was a scam. I reported this to the credit agencies and now plan on contacting the other agencies listed. These comments have been very helpful, thanks.

Received call I believe identified as from *800 service*. Person calling identified
himself as Christopher Martinez from the Federal Trade Commission investigating
complaint about phone harassment. He mentioned one complaint relating to
Publishers Clearing House and another concerning calls made from Jamaica.

I refused to respond to any questions till I could confirm his identity and asked
for a number that I could use to call him back. He first gave me 800-495-1552,
a number which does not ring through I found. He also provided 202-580-8144.
When I rang the 202 number, a young woman answered the phone *FTC*. I asked
her what those initials stand for and she of course replied--Federal Trade Commission.
I asked for Christopher Martinez and she asked for my name. Provided only my first
name but then she insisted on last name. I provided both, since they already knew it.
But then I hung up before Martinez got on the phone as I wanted to call the general
number for the Federal Trade Commission from its public website. But 2 minutes
later Christopher Martinez rang our number and spoke to my husband saying he
wanted to send information about the complaint to the IRS. At that point, my husband
told him not to ring this number again.

This does not seem legit. Afterwards, it occurred to me that today is MLK day and all
public offices are closed. Of course if this is subcontractor could be open. Anyone?

So I have received 2 calls to our office from a this number trying to get sensitive information on one of my employees. I found out yesterday that she has been tortured by these scam artist presenting as the FBI, threading her with legal action or worse for over two months. This has caused he so much pain, fear and anxiety, as she is a single mom from the Philippines. The perfect victim. After having her change all her bank accounts, and phone number, theses dumb [***], i mean highly educated FBI agents from India had to deal with me.

Great story, I accepted a call from them knowing it was the scam artist, and for 10 minutes we played [***] [***] games on the phone.

When the "officer" introduced himself, he was officer Steven jones from the federal investigation. Of course I said, what your name again, having him repeat it over and over to confirm his accent. Angrily he tried to change the subject, but I refused until he reconfirmed his name. Then I made him spell it...TWICE. Jones....G.O.N.E.S. I told him, in America, we spell jones with a J, but i believe they spell jones with a G In India...how can I help u officer Gomes?..I mean jones...that took 10 minutes literally.

He put me on hold and spoke with officer Steven Williams next. He was an ass, which made me a bigger ass. The more angry he became, the more difficult my questions became..where is your office location...his response, New York. Really...what time is it in New York now...is was 1130 in Arizona. He couldn't tell me. Check your watch...or the clock on your wall...in India. You do has a watch correct?  FBI agent with no watch..Is this a scam.? 'this is not a scam..I need so and so's SS#...you will go to jail. I will go to jail? Really?

It got pretty funny after that..he demanded my name which I happily gave to him..."my name is Steven Williams...just like yours. Can u believe it? We must be twins! When he as for my SS#' I gave it to him 987651234. Finally I asked him where in ny he was. He said Colorado, New York. I told him "I love Colorado Ny..that's where the statue of America..

I toted with this guy for twenty minutes..and felt like a jerky boy. Listen all, these guys call from prepaid calling cards from India. Keep them on the phone. If you are a pain in the ass, they will never call you again. If you are weak, you will be a victim.

Contol the conversation, asked specific questions that they should know, and quit being so damn gullible. There's a sucker born every day..don't become one.

I had a call just like this today. They told me if I don't' give them my bank account information to get this resolved today they will send my file to the county and i will be served for court.  They wanted $2350 but when I told them I don't have that kind of money they would accept $1007.29...too weird for me. So I asked them to fax me the information I have on file so I can review that they had, they refused. I asked for a license # allowing them to collect, they refused. I asked for an address, they gave me a PO box and when I asked for the physical address, they refused. Then transferred me to a John Mayer who would help me get this resolved, when I started questioning him HE HUNG UP.

they scammed me out of $609 taken from my debit card

Idiot!!!! Oh and that your prophet is a petophile!!

Don't you losers have anything better to do....like blowing up airplanes or killing innocent people?

If they defrauded you, file a police complaint, then immediately contact your bank to dispute it as fraud, while blocking the cardnumber to prevent addional fraud.

In addition, contact the Riverside office of the FBI.

I  got  a  phone  call  everyday  for  the  last  two  weeks.  From  an  officier name  kevin  johnson.  Who  said  that  I  owed  a  loan  for  the  amount  of  10,000.  He  also  said  that  if  I  did  not  pay  it  back  I  would  be  facing  time  in  prison.  And  that  he  would  have  to  send  an  court  sherrif  to  my  job  to  arrest  me.  He  also  stated  that  he  has  my  address,  my  social  security  number,  my  birthdate.  And  that  he  would  file  papers  to  have  my  pay  check  garneshed.  Please  help  me  to  help  myself.

They are liars.  Just crooks, probably calling from overseas.  If they have Indian accents, they are probably calling from India or Pakistan, using cheap VoIP, and probably changing their phone numbers periodically to cover their trail.  

"Officer Kevin Johnson" is a common name used in this scam, as they want to appear "American", and "official", even though they are neither.

They may have your SSN, DOB, and address, but that means nothing.  They get that information from phony payday loan sites when people apply for payday loans, or from illegally pulling credit reports.

You don't owe them anything.
They can't "arrest" you, "prosecute" you, "sue" you, or do anything else to you.
They can't get money out of you unless you fall for their threats and lies.

They are criminals.  Report this to the FBI.

Thank you my thoughts exactly!

I received a called today about the same thin they know all of my information and im trying to figure out how? Somebody help me plese

I received a call from what I was told was an investigator officer telling me I had been charged with purgery and bank to bank wire fraud with intent to commit fraud. That this was resolvable and they didn't want to have to put me in jail and called me back and left contact info message on my voice mail, he said if it was resolved out of court, I would need a fax sent to given number. I immediately called the contact, which was National Legal Services and spoke to Lou Casead, who told me of the charges and if I didn't pay $1195 that night I would be arrested immediately. When I told him I didn't recall doing such, he told me they weren't out to get any more money than what was due and if I would send $480, charges would be dropped and a confirmation fax would be sent. I believed all of this because it sounded so real, and my sister to send the money immediately. I was still so puzzled as to how I could have committed a crime that I wasn't aware of and why no one was giving me a chance to prove I didn't do this. After the money was sent, Lou then calls me the next day and tells me that I have committed this crime so many times and asks when am  I going to start telling them the truth and demands more money or I am going to lose all the money I have paid to get this voluntarily settled out of court.  At that time I tell him I am going to my local sheriff's office and get the evidence that I am being charged because it is not fair to me know. I receive a call later that evening from another officer telling me that I have to pay $500 for arbortration fees that were illegal; he stated he was on my side and if I came there to talk to them about it in person, I may not be able to talk directly to him and then I would automatically go to jail because I had committed a serious crime. I tried calling the number back and would always get a fax signal. I called Lou and told him I wanted his physical address and he said ____you, go to hell. He then calls me back and leaves me a message of my criminal charge again and to never call his office again. It was then that I came home and googled this type of scam and was so disappointed in myself and for not being smart enough to recognize this scam. So many thanks to all of you that have posted here to help make consumers aware of this. Here are the names and numbers associated with my experience. These numbers showed on my caller id but since they show as withheld. Be aware

National Legal Services
1-855-772-8880
Lou Caseado

Investigator Bradley Davis
336-727-8446
334-832-2533

Even scam artists are outsourcing. On Tuesday in its first crackdown on fraudulent telemarketing in South Asia, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it was shutting down two California-based companies that used a call center in India to defraud Americans out of more than $5 million over the past two years.

Workers in India made threatening calls to Americans getting them to pay money on debts that they didn't owe, the FTC charges. At an FTC press conference in Chicago on Tuesday, fraud victim JanLaree DeJulius explained that she had received a call from someone claiming to be an enforcement officer from the (phony) "Federal Department of Crime and Prevention," who threatened to have her arrested and have her wages garnished if she didn't pay a bill of more than $730. The scam artists had gotten her name and information from a payday loan her ex-husband had taken out in her name.

"It was very embarrassing," Dejulius said. "He knew everything about me so I agreed to set up an installment." She is not alone. According to the FTC, more than 8 million calls were made since 2010 and at least 17,000 transactions processed across the United States related to the global scam.

On Tuesday under request from the FTC, a U.S. District Court in Chicago stopped the international operation, charging Varang K. Thaker and two companies he owned, American Credit Crunchers, LLC, and an affiliate Ebeeze, LLC, with violating the FTC Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

"This is a brazen operation based on pure fraud, and the FTC is committed to shutting it down," said David Vladeck, director of the FTC's consumer protection bureau. "Consumers should not be pressured into paying debt they don't remember owing. Legitimate debt collectors must provide consumers with both written information about the debt, and instructions for protecting themselves if they don't think they owe the debt."

According to the FTC's charges, Thaker used Social Security numbers and bank account numbers obtained from payday lenders to identify the victims for his scam. He outsourced the work to an Indian call center, where workers made threatening calls to American consumers to pay fake debt or collect on bills for which they were not authorized.

Thaker was not available when contacted by telephone on Tuesday. A woman who claimed to be Thaker's older sister and asked not to be named for privacy reasons said he is working with the FTC to help the Indian government pursue the fraudster call center operators. She also said he was innocent in the scam. "He was being used by somebody. He didn't even know where they got the information," she told The Huffington Post by phone. She said that her brother got 10 percent of the earnings from the scam operation.

The FTC charges against Thaker are the latest in a series of police actions by the government agency to put an end to rogue debt collection operations that have become more frequent in the aftermath of the Great Recession. In January, the FTC struck a $2.5-million settlement with debt-buying company Asset Acceptance, LLC, charging that the company had falsely represented itself to customers, including making up phantom debts that customers no longer owed. Last October, the FTC filed a complaint against seven other fraudulent debt collectors, alleging that they had engaged in the same techniques -- demanding money from customers who owed nothing at all.

The growing number of Americans who are unable to pay their bills has meant there are more companies looking to profit from their economic difficulties.

Debt collectors have been taking more aggressive tactics as fewer people are able to make ends meet or are in a cycle of debt. More than 30 million Americans are in debt collection, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Since 2010, more than 4,000 complaints have been filed with the FTC and state attorneys general about fraudulent debt collection calls, the FTC said.

Charles Junitkka, a personal bankruptcy attorney who represents clients in the New York City area, said, "In the last few years, the desperation of the collectors and their efforts have intensified because of the economy."

This story has been updated to reflect comment from a woman who says she is the sister of Varang Thaker. Thaker himself was unavailable for comment.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/21/ftc- ... _n_1289751.html

Consumers across the country report that they're getting telephone calls from people trying to collect on loans the consumers never received or on loans they did receive but for amounts they do not owe. Others are receiving calls from people seeking to recover on loans consumers received but where the creditors never authorized the callers to collect for them. So what's the story?

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation's consumer protection agency, is warning consumers to be on the alert for scam artists posing as debt collectors. It may be hard to tell the difference between a legitimate debt collector and a fake one. Sometimes a fake collector may even have some of your personal information, like a bank account number. A caller may be a fake debt collector if he:

is seeking payment on a debt for a loan you do not recognize;
refuses to give you a mailing address or phone number;
asks you for personal financial or sensitive information; or
exerts high pressure to try to scare you into paying, such as threatening to have you arrested or to report you to a law enforcement agency.

If you think that a caller may be a fake debt collector:
Ask the caller for his name, company, street address, and telephone number. Tell the caller that you refuse to discuss any debt until you get a written "validation notice." The notice must include the amount of the debt, the name of the creditor you owe, and your rights under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
If a caller refuses to give you all of this information, do not pay! Paying a fake debt collector will not always make them go away. They may make up another debt to try to get more money from you.

Stop speaking with the caller. If you have the caller's address, send a letter demanding that the caller stop contacting you, and keep a copy for your files. By law, real debt collectors must stop calling you if you ask them to in writing.

Do not give the caller personal financial or other sensitive information. Never give out or confirm personal financial or other sensitive information like your bank account, credit card, or Social Security number unless you know whom you're dealing with. Scam artists, like fake debt collectors, can use your information to commit identity theft – charging your existing credit cards, opening new credit card, checking, or savings accounts, writing fraudulent checks, or taking out loans in your name.

Contact your creditor. If the debt is legitimate – but you think the collector may not be – contact your creditor about the calls. Share the information you have about the suspicious calls and find out who, if anyone, the creditor has authorized to collect the debt.

Report the call. Contact the FTC and your state Attorney General's office with information about suspicious callers. Many states have their own debt collection laws in addition to the federal FDCPA. Your Attorney General's office can help you determine your rights under your state's law.>

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt076.shtm

i came across this site, please read, it's about these kind of calls and how to protect yourself.
http://getoutofdebt.org/14950/frightening-cal ... oans-its-a-scam

indian accented male saying his name is peter and he is going to have me arrested if I dont pay back a loan-that i never took out

Ron Williams 10/18/2011 called from 69965664 but left contact number in message as (484)548-1800. He identified himself as being from a law firm (I have the saved voicemail)--called again on 11/3/2011 by "Marcus Howard" from "UNKNOWN" number but gave the same contact number: (484)548-1800.

Robert Wood---left me a voicemail threatening to contact my employer and garnish my wages over an outstanding unpaid payday loan (of which I had no knowledge) on 11/21/2011 (I have the saved voicemail). The caller ID said 321-392-2391 but the callback number given is 561-910-0042.

Received a call from a female “Jenny Williams” who said she was representing the Cohen Law firm from CASHNET USA and was going so sue me (the same story as all others) over an unpaid payday loan (again of which I had no knowledge) and requested I send $432 Western Union to "PeckDavid Williams" in Macon, GA to satisfy this debt. Phone number is (570)709-3846.

Neil Stevens--first contacted me in September, 2011 from the National Crime Bureau (707)520-4751, telling me each time that there are numerous charges against my name (he has all my personal info including social security number) and says that all my charges of "check fraud" for unpaid payday loans (that I had no idea about) will cost me $16000 in the courthouse OR I can settle for some smaller amount outside of court.
He contacted me AGAIN on Friday 3/3/12 from phone (707) 520-7536 and gave me the SAME STORY, with practically the same charges and same amounts to settle.

Andrew McDonald (206-567-2955) who claims to be the REAL representative of USA Fastcash and Cashnet USA and many others. First call received Jan. 31, 2012 and I was told if I sent $552 via Western Union (to Jack Yates in Bountsville, AL) this matter would be settled against my name. He continues to call and said that I owe $1200 more to his companies and anyone else contacting me is a fraud. He keeps calling me every day at my job and on my cell phone.

Each caller has a thick Indian accent and always knows my social security number and other personal information!

I got some calls from  202 809 1808  claiming to be an officer  and i owed for a pay day  loan ,and i am being sued,,,,,I know its a scam,,,,also a number 253 236 2034  I think these two are working together

Hello all i know  some  cheater   in india  i am give deatil  ,    call me  --+919996764620,+919466225605, and my Mail id----yadavrajesh2009@gmail.com,, skyp---id-- rajesh.kumar3381, contacat me i am give full deaital  with photo and address, at time run a whole scam  all cheater live in  Ahmedabad , gujrat ( india)    call me soon,  I am Rajesh kumar  From  Haryana ( india)