8002901065

I also received a call to my place of business from one Jeffrey Drake at 716-242-8361 claiming that he was am attorney at law and demanding to speak with my manager. he also went as far as saying that he was going to come to my place of employment and serve me papers. he also spoke with someone requesting to speak to the president of my company saying that i violated my company and that they were going to sue my company for my debt.....OMG .....he is so not a lawyer and I am very irritated by this. how did you handle this? Any advice would be helpful. did he say the same to you?

I also got the same call from him threatening me and he refused to tell me what it was regarding, when I told him what he was doing was illegal and that I would contact the State's Attorney General' office he said he would check my account, put me on hold and did a 3 way call with my boss. I informed all of my employers of this "scam" and they offered to help in any way they could.  First he said I committed fraud with my email account, then further in the conversation he said I had a bounced check, which he still wouldn't tell me from who or what

That is the same thing that he said to me (about committing fraud with my work email account). He ended up calling the executive sec to my companies President and left a message with her stating that I committed a violation on my email in my company and that they are going to sue my company for my debt. needless to say my companies legal team got involved and he has not called back :-) .  I looked this man up and he is most certainly not an Attorney at Law. HE is JUST A SCAM ARTIST!!!!!!!

I reported them to the FTC

Thank you so much for this!!!!!  I wish I also had an email address - they refused to give it or their address

I just received a recorded message from this same number, with the name William Fields attached to it.

Some strange message keeps getting on my cell from a Mike Salerno at PDL Group-Amherst NY stating that he is going to file a fraud case against me but it's funny cause no paperwork has been sent and I would assume that they would send something. Further the website has templates that are from those free or lowcost construct a biz website and they feature like this glaring biz guy and gal. Then the other pages have hot chicks posing in biz attire. Oh, and it's a PO Box to boot!
LOL-stay classy!
Is this a scam or for real?

A heavy breathing male calls every morning and leaves messages saying I owe for payday advance loans.
I am a private person and have no need for payday loans. But this cretin keeps on and even called my daughter at school using information from my husbands divorce papers that were online.
They asked if she could give them her mothers credit card. isn't this illegal?

Called me, said his name was Mr. Cooper and that I owed money from Check 'n Go, had all my information. I have never had a payday loan with them ever!

I told him I never had a loan and that I wanted something in writing and he refused then hung up on me.

This company is a scam!!! Thomas Cooper called me relentlessly saying I owed them $300 for a payday loan. [***] I have never had one. Started asking me for my credit card and when I asked for more info he wouldn't tell me.

I called back and argued and he yelled at me to go get a life.

they also call from another number 415-200-0152  and a answer machine saying to call 1800-290-1065 wtf.   Scam

I have received the calls from William Field, and the Drake person.  they've called my parents, and i'm well into my 30's! tried telling me that they were going to not only put me in jail, but UNDER the jail where i belonged!!! I've contacted the FTC and I've contacted all companies that I owe.  I keep a list of who they use for collections and update it every 30 days....NO WAY these idiots are on the list....they are SCAMMING people out of money because they are too stupid to go out and get a real job....
BOTTOMFEEDERS!

I am receiving calls starting at 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. EVERY DAY!!!!! They call from (786) 523 - 0356. They leave a message to call (800) 290 - 1065 and ask for William Fields. Now they call my best friend and say they are looking for me!! We've been friends for 43 years, and she's getting peeved at me.. it's not fair!!! I've reported it to the police, but they can't do anything. Who can I call?? I live in N.Y. Thanks for any info anyone may have...

today my son got a call on his cell phone asking for me, but not had my name wrong.  i blocked it on verizon's website on all numbers.  i recall our tv station reporting there are scammers threatening legal action and they actually get people to pay them.  i blocked my id and called, got a recording about a sumons and hung up,  i believe it's the scam they talked about on tv.  even if they sue, i got sick, lost my house, lost my job, lost my health, lost my insurance,  i am mid 50's and have nothing,   they cant get anything from me, i have no income, you can't milk a stone.  so f*k them.

i have recieved a phone call from this number and they are making threats saying it theft and fraudgent and when i called back they seem to know some of my business about my income and said i owned 350.00 and that i need to pay it or papers will be served on me and when i told them i would pay only 25.00 a month they said okay and wanted my credit card on the phone and i refused to do that and told them i need something sent to me and they oh we don't do that but i can email you something and i said that i need something so i can show my lawyer when i go see him and i also told them i would like to show the judge that i know as well and the lady was argumentive and i told her i have illness that i'm dealing with and explain i just had 3 deaths in my family less than a moneth and she oh all people have there own issues and i said thats true and i was trying to get a bill or some type of information from them and she wanted me to go get a prepaid card or money gram and send her so i question is this a real company and is anybody know the address to this place as she said well i'm sending the court order out and just hung up because i wanted information from them on where this money will be going...thank you and waiting for a response....

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 receive call from this people almost every day, and first this man with the name of William Fields and he called me again today very mean man i told him that i already gave my attorneys information and stop harrasing me then they call my work and leave a nasty message but with the name of Timothy johnson???? which one is it, why this people dont get a real job to make money instead. why they are trying to get money from people who work  and has to survive and barely make it to cover the main needs.

These people are calling my place of employment and claiming I have written hot checks and will get arrested.  I believe this is a fraudulent account/company since I do not have any unpaid personal checks.  
They keep calling my place of employment.

they called the main number of the company that  i work for. i work for a company of at least 1500 people. this "william fields" did not leave a name... clear sign of a SCAM!!!

Kepp calling me and threatening me something about juristiction and crap.