813-863-1962

Update

After I filed the online complaints with the AG's Office in my state, the FTC, the Dept. of Insurance and the BBB. I followed up with all these agencies and they are great -
They are launching a full investigation and hopefully MORE of you will file complaints with all the agencies I have filed with and get these thugs off the street!!!

You should also be aware that this is just part of a large cluster of "debt collectors" operating out of the Corona CA area.  They operate under at least 13 names, connected to at least 24 phone numbers.

You might contact Cory at MIP.  He is a PI up in Washington state, and has been asking around about "AF Group", on various sites.  My guess is he is scouting for a consumer attorney.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mipcorporate
http://mipcorporate.com/Contact%20Us.html

"James Winton in the legal dept. told me I owed over fifteen hundred dollars and I requested validity of the debt, he threatened court after my request, he knocked the bill down to 800 in which I paid the 800 dollars to him via money that I have receipt of.. Traced and they cashed it.."

You were just conned out of $800.  How did they want you to send the money?  Western Union or Moneygram?


"I found out that they are not licensed to collect debts in the state I reside in,  and also this debt is old and the statue of limitations were up."

Likely these bozos didn't even own it.  Check your credit reports to see if they pulled one of them recently.  They be faking debt claims using information from credit reports.


"Mr. Winton said he would update all the major credit reporting agencies to PAID after he received payment. I notified the credit bureau's and they told me MR. Winton has no authority to update the Credit Reports as he and the AF Group are not the original creditors."

They defrauded you.


"I still do not have validity of this debt."

You probably never owed them.
The address is just a mail drop.

"On March 2, 2011 I received another call at 6:13 PM from Traci Lynn Meyers, she informed me she was calling from United Process Servers and told me there was a warrant out for my arrest and criminal charges have been filed against me, as well as a restraining order and to call 813-863-1962."

Same scam.


"She told me my affidavit criminal complaint number was  yes and some numbers.
I immediately called that number, reached "Sherell Waters" and she told me she was collecting on First Bank of Delaware"
"First Bank of Deleware" has appeared in other consumer complaints against this cluster.


"and that if I didn't pay her she would call my friends and family."
Disclosing of debts to third parties is specifically prohibited by FDCPA.  Threatening to do so to get money makes this an extortion racket.


" She also told me there was an affidavit number for a physical subpeona that was issued."
So far NOTHING in writing, from either of these "debt collectors"?


"She also informed me that there was a restraining order issued against me to freeze all my assets."
"Restraining order" isn't even the right legal term.  If they were legit, you would have a bank lien and garnishment order, and you and your bank would have it in writing.  All BS.


"I informed Ms. Waters that this debt was paid to the AF Group."
Who conned you with the same con these bozos are trying to use.


"She said " well they haven't updated their computers "  ..."
She wasn't surprised to hear the name?  They must know each other.

There is a cluster of these phony "debt collector" "filing agents", "process servers", or whatever they call themselves, operating out of Corona CA, supposedly "suing" and "arresting" everyone they call, unless you immediately pay them.  They slipped up by trying twice with the same victim.

This isn't just the usual shady debt collectors with a few "bad apples".  This is an organized fake debt phone extortion racket.  One group is producing the "information", probably from pulling credit reports, used by others in the group to run the phones and extort the money.

Contact the FBI.

I too, received a phone call but the weird thing is the phone call was made to my mother  who I have never listed as a reference number for anything. But this is what i believe, since florida is the most illegal state when it comes to Medicare i'm thinking they are getthing the information from a secondary source and using your relatives or family members as source points.

Restraining order, payoff, collections, affidavit, all these things fall under totally different agencies.

SCAM, SCAM, SCAM, SCAM

Note report by Kubi:
https://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-866-767-8814/6#p202128652063421193

First call to a relative is also reported in MANY complaints against the Corona cluster.  They appear to prefer it over a first call to the victim directly.  Maybe it makes it look more like a "process server" to create the appearance of a "lawsuit", or it panics family members to pitch in and pay their several thousand dollar demand.

I've assumed they were using skip-trace searches, but court records or social networking sites might work as well.

Several early complaints reported the caller was from the "County Assessor".

Referencing a bill paid in full in 2006 is consistent with accessing credit reports to obtain information to fake their debt claims.  

Several other complaints against the "Corona cluster" have indicated they found recent credit report inquiries, followed shortly by calls demanding payment of unowed "debts", to "settle a lawsuit".

I am a retired senior citizen and do not owe anybody anything.

I received a call from a Peter McKinley identifying himself as a "special investigator."  He did not identify the company he was calling from.  Then he said a complaint is being filed against me pursuant to affidavit number blah, blah, blah and that I must call this number 813-863-1962 within 24-48 hours and contact my lawyer, and that this action is an order to show cause and a restraining order has been filed against me.  First of all let me just say that this is totally a scam and if they are debt collection agency they are breaking so many FTC laws.

1)  They must identify themselves and their company name.
2)  They are required by law to full disclosure of their intentions.  This mumbo-jumbo above is a bunch of BS!
3)  They cannot require you to call them back at a cost to you - this number is not toll free.
4)  They are required to send you written validation of the debt they are claiming you owe, however, they do not even say that, that is what they are calling about.  They are just trying to get you to call them back so they can restart the statute of limitations so then they do have legal right to restart the SOL and can legally file suit against you.
5)  They cannot misrepresent themselves in any way that gives the impression that they are an attorney, legal department, sheriff, court or any official legal person.

So whatever you do - do not ever call these [***] back - you will get scammed out of your money!  If you do happen to talk to them, let them know that if they call again you have at least 5 serious violations on them of which you can sue them for and collect a minimum of $1000-$2500 per violation.  In addition to working on getting their illegal boiler room operation shut down.

THEY ARE LOW LIFE COLLECTORS SCAMMING YOU FOR YOUR MONEY DO NOT PAY THEM A CENT.

How can I check if they are licensed to collect in my state? TX

Got the same B.S. call on 3/24 from SANDRA COLLINS special investigator? Said my wife owed bank of america $6,972 for a loan that was never paid. I called Bank of America and they knew nothing about this, I have banked with them forever and have lots of money in their bank. I have also 2 platinum cards with 0 balances. So they were very interested in this Identity theft case and are pursueing it and also gave me the # for the F.T.C. (877) 438-4338 whom I contacted and they took down every detail which I hope they will prosecute. I hope they have a carbon monocide(sp) leak in their office and all perish R.I.P.

We had gotten a call from the number stating that my husband had a private investigator out for him for a loan on a bank. First we have never even heard of the bank, second, they had his first name wrong! When we gave them the name of the person trying to contact us they could not even connect us too that person even with an ENT number.

This is a scam entirely!

Several other Texans have reported harassment from this group based in Corona CA.

Contact the Texas Attorney General.

MY BROTHER IN-LAW CALLED ME THAT A DETECTIVE LEFT A MESSAGE ON THEIR PHONE SAYING THAT SOMETHING ABOUT A LAWSUIT , A CASE FILED AND SOMTHING ABOUT A RESTRAINING ORDER , SO WE DROVE TO HIS HOUSE THAT WAS LIKE 11 PM WE WERE SO NXIOUS TO HERE THE MESSAGE IN PERSON THE MESSAGE IS HARD TO UNDERSTAND WE HEARD SOMTHING LIKE CASE FILED NEED AN ATTY. TO CALL THE NO.813-863-1962 ME AND MY HUSBAND LOSS SLEEP WANDERING WHAT WOULD IT BE THEN I DECIDED TO GOOGLE THE TEL. NUMBER AND FOUND THIS SITE

Contact the Riverside office of the FBI.

I used to work for them until I found out what they do is illegal. They hire anyone off of the streets that is in need of money and these people know nothing about debt collection laws. Most of them really believe that what they are doing is the way it should be done. They also don't pay the boiler room people. It is commission only and they tell them that they haven't made anything. In this economy they can get all kinds of people. They are reading from a script and don't know it is a scam. The ones who realize it quit real quick. I didn't make it through the hour of training. It won't do any good to tell them anything. You could never prove which one you spoke to. All of the people who dial out use one name and all of the people you call into use fake names

unkown

Check your credit reports, particularly Experian, to see if they obtained your old account information in the last several days.