760-440-5421

I am getting these calls that say I have applied for a payday loan. They tell me that I am getting sued and that I will be served at 11 am tomorrow. When you try to talk to the one that calls you they get real rude. Then they will hang up on you. I have left them a friendly little message myself.

I just got a call at work saying they want my attorney information and that i am getting arrested tomorrow and that i should have received information last week. They are pissing me off. Does anyone know who this company is so i can go further into this matter. Especially cause they have my information

That was genius of you!!! Those [***] just called me and an Indian man named "Joseph Stevens" left a voicemail. When I called back a female answered threatening me with all the same as everyone else. When I asked what it was about she gave me a bunch of bullsh*t and when I asked her to thoroughly explain herself she told me that I had received an online payday loan and haven't paid it back. When I started in on her about when I supposedly got this payday loan she said that she worked for a law office and she didn't have that information. Just that she wanted my attorney's info so she could talk to him.

I got a call from this too, it is a scam, I saw it on nightline can they be reported to the police?

I have received this same phone call, from someone named
Chris Wilson who has a very bad accent, and has threatened
me , saying that I need to call him back asap, and If he doesn't
hear from me. he feels sorry for the consequences I will suffer
from their lawyers, he has called my job several times as
well, there is also a lady who answers the phone when you
try to call back, this is ridiculous, and needs to be stopped,
what can be done about it.

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

Person keeps calling using different names every call. Don, Dan, Last. Names Stevens, Wilson. Tried to tell me I owe them money! Say they know! My Soc. Security number and where I work! I told the person that I remember the phone number from a loan place and I laughed at him. Then he started rambling and he hung up. First thing I've been permanently disabled for 14 years and haven't worked anywhere since then!! I also don't ever believe a person with the last names of Wilson or Stevens would ever be East Indian names. Scam scam scam

This just happened to me.  That is why I searched this number. I dont understand why he is doing this to people. I am a single mother of three little girls and to hear something like that is mean.  Is there anything we can to do put an end to this?

this number is calling and harrassing me. someone needs to do something about this. please do something quick.

Tried the same thing with me, spammed my phone about 20 times in the span of five minutes. Finally I picked up and they started to tell me I had a claim filed against my name and Ssn, and an arrest warrant for Federal Bank System Fraud, Falsifying checks (I don't even use checks, I have only a debit card so this tipped me off right away), and Filing False Information. I then proceeded to call my local sheriff's office to check on my warrant status just in case. None on file. Filed a report with them, only to find out they had pulled the same thing with a woman down the street, who had payed 400 dollars to have the warrant removed, only to be called back the next day saying she needed to pay 500 in attorney fees. I filed a report with the Federal Trade Commision, The Florida Attorney General (My state), and the California Attorney General (Their state). They haven't called since.

First time they call is to inform you of the arrest warrant (fake) second time they call will be to offer you a settlement price Hoping you'll be scared enough from the first call you'll agree to a settlement BUT DON'T FALL FOR IT    IT'S A SCAM

As far as you NOT putting your info out there anymore.....IT'S TOO LATE  they already have it and will probably sell it too

This collection agency is a fake  (period)

Hard to track a company that doesn't exsist

My husband just today got a call from these people at work the number is 760-440-5421. He said you cant understand them. I told him the same thing happen to me and the guy got rude with me and I told him to f off.

I LOVE THAT!!!!

I LOVE THAT!!!!

I have been getting the same calls from this number as well & yes I did freaked out. But I started doing my homework. I called my bank & started searching websites. Think about it, usually if you owe money that institution will call you up personally or mail you out a statement or some type of proof you owe them & they want their money. However this may not be the case in some areas. It's jacked up that your personal info is being used this way & you are not alone. The call are annoying as hell, I almost broke my damn phone! And it's weird how after I get these harassing calls, I usually receive a text or call saying I've been approved for a loan, WTH! Just don't fall for it.

yea i got a call from this number he said his name is kevin somthing he cant even say fake name he wanted to talk to my attorney yea whatever call him 8 times left him messages finally he calls back gave i gave him some choice words they will call back diffrent numbers saying the same thing got no guts punks.

This number called my daughter threatening the Sheriff was coming to take her to jail because of a payday loan she did not pay. First off, she did not have a payday loan. Second, he would not answer any questions for me and kept telling me the amount she was liable for would go from $585 to 4,000 if I did not do something about it. It is NOT a law office, it is a scam, and these people need help accountable.