845-335-5080

This number called both me and my wife and left threatening voice mails on both of our phones. He stated that he was going to have us locked up behind bars for a good long time for not paying a debt. He stated that he was a police officer. The man had a Indian accent, ( as that he is from India, not a Native American). We returned the call and requested the information on the debt and he "could not release the details" but insisted on our paying this unknown debt. I received a call like this two weeks ago from a similar number and went through the same thing once already. This is a SCAM!

I received a call from this number but everytime I call back no response, and now has proceeded to call my workplace and give personal info to coworkers

This is a payday scam, stating that you will receive a subpoena to court

On 5-19-11 a male Indian with a heavy accent started calling me a threatening that I had a warrant out for my arrest. I needed to pay off a debt or I would be put in jail. They also started calling my work and started giving them all my personal business. He said in order for me too get this warrant dropped I would need to pay them off.....This is a big scam.

this person keep calling my number stating I owe money, and threating that he has a warrant for my arrest if I don't pay. Frist he said he work for the a legal office now he stated he is a police officer, he has accent, THIS IS A SCAM SO PLEASE REPORT IT.

This is a scam---call Attorney General of Florida Office

I have been receiving a phone call from a male with an indian accent at my work number saying that I have a law suit regarding me..

DO not listen to this man, he is insane. THanks to all that posted as I was freaking out. Just don't answer ever again. I have contacted police. Nothing they can do until he commits crime. Really makes you think how much info they can get off of your internet use.

he also called my dad  today 6/17/2011 and he stated the same thing so i told him to give me all the info he said he will have me arrested. so i hung up and kept calling calling annoying them asking them all kinds of question him to see how he liked to be investigated  so he called me all kinds of names, mine you he is using a magic jack and is calling from upstate i am trying now to find out his address,,,, because i will catch this looney trying to terrified my father ,hope everyone  comes out here posted more of this nonsense.. thanks for all

Hi my name is Lizbeth and I got a call from this number.  He has a Indian accent and he tells me that ther is a case out.  He even as my Social Security number and he says that he is sending a team of investigators at my job if I don't call him back.  Isn't there anything that can be done about these people I really would like something to be done about them they are aharrassing me.

Sincerely Lizbeth alegre

I got a call from the same Indian man, I could hardly understand him. But he was calling me about one of my friends having a law suit against her. I needed to have her call him right away to ask for Officer Richard MArtin, Why would he call me about her / Or how did he get my number?

This is a SCAM! I got the same kind of call.  The indian guy is making up everything.  I called back and said my attorney would like to talk to him. I never heard form him again. Don't send them money and don't give them your social security #.  Call them back and tell them to stop harrassing you or you'll call a lawyer.

i had a man call me yesterday like 8 times and it seemed like no matter how many times i hung the phone up he would call back..he said that i had a loan out that needed to be paid thru cash net usa...so i google cash net usa and asked about what this man was talking about...and they said they have no record of me ever getting a loan thru them at any time...not even a record of me loging into there website...he harasses me at work faithfully....i reported him to cash net usa and now theyre investigating....hes a scam dont give him no type of information about you or bank records i was told from the cash network people.....

I have gotten repeated phone calls from this number.  As I have caller ID I have not picked up.  Voicemail messages have been left saying that he was calling a person named "Wayne" (no one here by that name) and said he was calling from the U.S. Crime Bureau.  He said that a lawsuit was being filed and that "Wayne" should call this number to speak to a Richard Martin and that if he isn't called that "Wayne's" SS number would be "blacklisted".  The man has a foreign accent (Indian is my best guess).

Several months back I had received somewhat similar calls for a "Wayne" and I told them there was no Wayne here and never has been.

Having the same issues with this "Richard Martin" guy. He calls me faithfully about 12-15 times a day and since I have caller ID, I don't pick up but now he has moved on to calling my family members and getting some of them (my mother) all paranoid and freaked out.  After talking to my mother she called the FBI and they said the only thing that can be done is to file a complaint with your local police department to get things started.  

It's the same story as above, calling from the U.S. Crime Bureau about an unpaid loan and that you must contact Richard Martin at the number given, but when I call I get "the magic jack customer that you have called is not accepting calls at this time" or something like that. He has a very heavy accent and tells you that your SS number will be "blacklisted".  I do know that if you ask too many questions he will get angry with you, use profanity and then hang up on you - my wonderful cousin was smart enough to ask questions and then alert me, because I hadn't yet received a call at that point.

I've gotten repeat calls from this guy under a few different names currently Richard Martin with a heavy east indian accent - always the same "you owe money - pay now or go to jail". I've been keeping a log of the calls since they call me at work & home.
This is fraud. Pure & simple. I've check my credit reports & financial records & I do not owe on any loans. My best guess is a payday loan I took out a few years ago sold my information. I've changed my accounting information but would love a way to stop the harassing phone calls.

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

Same story as everyone else's Richard Martin...

Thanks for all the great info.. It really helped.. Thanks

After receiving several calls, I answered ... the gentleman stated that there was an action against my ss#. He was unable to tell me what exactly it was that he was requesting of me so I hung up. He called back, and when I asked him to stop calling and hung up, he called every 30 seconds for 15 minutes. I finally picked up and said that I would be reporting the harrassment to the Attorney General's office... haven't heard anything yet, but it has only been 15 minutes.

THIS IS A SCAM!!!