877-824-8775

A Steven Higgins told me I had a case against me and that police were going to serve me papers at my home or work.  I know this is bogus because no one gets a notification that they are trying to serve you.  Don't trust or give these people any information.

My brother received a missed call from the number (714)970-4894 and some lady left a voice mail stating that she was trying to get in contact with me in regards to a pending lawsuit being made against me if i didnt return their call she would file it. She then left a different number for me to call her back at which was (877)220-7650. So of course i called her back concerned. She said she was calling from Paramount Litigations on behalf of Advance America. I thought it was legit because i did take a payday loan out from them a couple years ago and never paid them back being that i lost my job. So when she started explaining the 3 reasons i was going to be sued (fraud, bounced check, & something else) i just sat there and listened. She then went on to saying that she could talk to her supervisor and see if i would be able to pay the $300 one time payment instead of her moving forward and filing the lawsuit. At this point, she sounded EXTREMELY unprofessional to me, which kind of a red flag for me. on the other hand, she knew i took loan out specifically from Advance America, and also knew i banked with Bank of The West so i was still unsure. She then went on to ask me if i had the money to pay it today, i said yes. but i needed to go deposit it on to my card. it was 2:50pm at this time and she then sounded really upset and told me they close at 3:00pm (another red flag) so i asked if there was any way they would be able to confirm that this wasnt a SCAM to collect money from me & she said "No. Not really until you pay because they then would send me a email and receipt via email after the transaction. so i then asked if i could keep her on the phone while i drive down to load money on to my card and she agreed. so i rushed to the bank to load the cash on to my card. my phone ended up dropping the call, and then she called back 3 different times from a DIFFERENT number (877)824-8775. I didnt end up paying just because of my gut feeling, and im glad i didnt. Later on that night, i found out they also called my sister and left her a voicemail with somewhat of the same message they left my brother. So creepy. BEWARE & ASK QUESTIONS.

Hard for me to understand why you were so enthusiastically preparing to pay a cold caller who calls you up and demands money.

In any event,

Please read the following and commit it to memory:

Just because someone on the phone calling you says you owe a debt does not mean you actually owe it.

If a voice on the telephone claims you owe a debt:

1.    Demand the person give you his or her name, company name, and address
2.     Demand a debt validation letter by US mail.  E-mail no good.
3.    Do not pay  the collection agent or anyone else a  dime until the debt is validated

Of course they won’t do this, no scammer ever will, so simply ignore them and block their calls.

If they are bothering you, report them:

http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0149-debt-collection (Threatening civil proceedings with no intent to follow through, or threatening criminal process in order to collect a civil debt is a  violation of the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.)  The same goes for endless telephone harassment

Also contact your local attorney general

If they continue to bother you,  and you know you do not owe any money, tell them that you know this is  a debt scam and that you are making a complaint to the police for extortion.  Once you get a copy of the police report and they call you again , just read out the  file number and the name of the PD or Sheriff’s office involved.   Tell them you’ll be glad to send a copy to them at whatever address the jack***es are working out of now.

You'll probably have to yell at them and talk over them.
You have to get tuff with these people because,  being akin to thugs, brute force is (metaphorically speaking),  the only thing they understand.
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Fraud is a crime.  Crimes are prosecuted by public prosecutors.  Debt collectors have NOTHING to do with crimes.  Being in ordinary civil debt is NOT a crime.  You cannot be prosecuted for it.  Writing a bad check is a crime.  If you were suspected of that sort of crime you'd have been interviewed on a face-to-face basis by members of LAW ENFORCEMENT.  Debt is a civil matter.    Debt collectors do NOT have anything to do with bad checks.

Please note also:  If you were the subject of a pending civil lawsuit, you'd have received a letter from the ATTORNEY for the other party.  You'd have a paper trail.

Then, if a case was filed, you'd have received a summons delivered to you by someone licensed to serve process in your locality.  You would NOT have first heard about any civil law case from some scammery-scummery debt collector who cold calls you and starts demanding money.

You can check this out yourself by simply going down to the local main civil court and checking the defendants civil list.  The court clerks are usually glad to help and are familiar with these kinds of scams.

Be on the lookout and do your research; there's a strong possibility someone will try to scam you again.

Got what seemed as a legit call - knew my name. But odd that it went to my daughter's cell phone. Said from PG County Court and left another number to call (877-450-2030). That number was sent to voicemail, which was full.

A Lance Nandez called for the second time saying that they were going to contact my employer regarding litigation against me in Clinton county.  2 weeks in a row now, both on a Tuesday.  By the way...Clinton county WHERE???  Complete BS.  Have my sheriff serve me the way it is supposed to be done, [***].  TOTAL SCAM!!

I received a call from 877-824-8775.  The voicemail message said that it was Mia Thomas, Compliance officer for a county court.  The message said that litigation would be filed against me in 2 business days if I did not call 877-690-3868.  She said that I had to call in hopes to "de-escalate" the matter and avoid the court filing or else she would call my job and talk to my supervisor.  At the end of the message she said "Good Luck".  The reference number that she left me for the case ended with the last 4 digits of my social security number.  VERY STRANGE!!  Court case numbers do not use your social security number.  And if a case was being filed "through the county" as she said, then that is wrong.  The county court does not call you to tell you that a case is going to be filed.  You only get a notification after the case has been filed.  Sounds like a SCAM!  I blocked the number and did not call back.

Did anything ever come of this? Anyone actually ever serve you?? Just wondering as I’m getting calls from these people claiming they are going to serve me at home or work.. random calls every week or so, haven’t spoken to them as I’ve been advised not to by court clerk  and police, because it seems like a scam... just wondered if they eventually stopped calling and left you alone.. thanks in advance.

Quote:

Did anything ever come of this?

I can answer that one for you, since what rita described is a typical Extortion scam and unless she fell for it, nothing became of it.

Quote:

rita wrote:
a pending lawsuit being made against me if i didnt return their call she would file it.

Only scammers use illegal threats like that to scare victims into paying right away.

I find it surprising that you failed to read past that post.  Hopefully you will read this:

They mention that they have received a Fax document or some sort of complaint and that there is a pending legal matter or action about to filed against you to create the sense of urgency.  They tell you that they are a “process server” and cannot give you the particulars of the case since the file is sealed. This is simply ruse to get you to call another number (often with a made-up case number) where they will ask for money to “make it go away” (this is actually the same place, they work in teams, one pretending to be the server, and the other usually pretends to be a lawyer).  They threaten to serve you at home or at work.  They tell you that if they serve you at work they need a supervisor, security, or HR person there as a witness, hoping that will cause you to panic over the alleged embarrassment of being served at work.  They also tell you that you will need two forms of ID.  None of which is true.  Process servers do not ever call ahead so that you can dodge them.  Process servers get paid to serve papers, nothing else.  They certainly are not going to pass up a paycheck by telling you that you can avoid being served, they are not going to give you an extra day or even a few hours to get a “stop order”.  Court documents are time sensitive and have to be served within a certain amount of time.  Remember that you can always call the local courthouse to see if there is actually a lawsuit that has been filed against you.

It is incumbent upon them under the law to prove that the debt exists and that you owe it, and (this is the important part) that they have the legal right to collect it.  You are not obligated under the law to prove that you don’t owe or that it is paid. 

Federal law (FDCPA) requires them to send you a letter (US MAIL ONLY) postmarked within 5 days of their first contact that contains their name, physical address, the creditor’s name, and the amount of the alleged debt. It also must contains “mini-Miranda” telling you that it is an attempt to collect a debt and that all information will be used for those purposes.  The one other important thing that this letter must also have in it is that you have a right to dispute the debt within 30 days of receipt of the letter and if you do so, all collection activity must be stopped until the debt is verified.

First, you should make a complaint at this Federal Agency, and while there you should also read up on how debt collection is supposed to work as well as what your rights in this matter are: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/

Also file a complaint with your State Attorney General's office.
List of State AG’s offices:   https://800notes.com/faq/attorney-general

A person by the name of crystal jonrs. She didn’t even state what company she was calling with. She didn’t even have a recording that usually states something similar to “this is an attempt to collect a debt”. I use to work in collections so I’m familiar with how the process goes. She called and left a voicemail saying that a lawsuit is being filed against me in my local courthouse. Failure to contact them back in two days will result in them calling my job and speaking with my supervisor (which is illegal) and having a sheriff serve me with paper work. I have no clue as to what his is about. They called initailly from ‭+1 (877) 824-8775‬ but told me to call tel:888-817-4144 to speak to someone regarding a case number that they left on vm. I called the number and got no answer. I’m sure this is a scam. It sounds so consistent with other stories   Please don’t fall for this

If you call that number, the robo-greeter says the are something called "Paramount".   Which could stand for anything.   But this is most likely just another debt scamming operation.  Simply ignore and block the calls.
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Just because someone on the phone calling you says you owe a debt does not mean you actually owe it.

If a voice on the telephone claims you owe a debt:

1.    Demand the person give you his or her name, company name, and address
2.     Demand a debt validation letter by US mail.  E-mail no good.
3.    Do not pay  the collection agent or anyone else a  dime until the debt is validated

Of course they won’t do this, no scammer ever will, so simply ignore them and block their calls.

If they are bothering you, report them:

http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0149-debt-collection (Threatening civil proceedings with no intent to follow through, or threatening criminal process in order to collect a civil debt is a  violation of the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.)  The same goes for endless telephone harassment

Note that the US Supreme Court in the Case of HENSON ET AL. v. SANTANDER CONSUMER USA INC., has recently ruled that the provisions of the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act do not apply if the creditor owns the debt in question.  As a practical matter this probably won't effect the kinds of scam debt collectors who often show up on 800notes.  The scam collectors don't give you any information about themselves so it is impossible to know whether or not they in fact "own" the debt in question.  Most do not send debt validation letters and many often say they are collecting for someone else.  So, make the complaint anyway if they are bothering you.  Let the FTC sort it out.

Also contact your local attorney general

If they continue to bother you,  and you know you do not owe any money, tell them that you know this is  a debt scam and that you are making a complaint to the police for extortion.  Once you get a copy of the police report and they call you again , just read out the  file number and the name of the PD or Sheriff’s office involved.   Tell them you’ll be glad to send a copy to them at whatever address the jack***es are working out of now.

You'll probably have to yell at them and talk over them.  Tell 'em  no scammy debt collector is going to push you around.

You have to get tuff with these people because,  being akin to thugs, brute force is (metaphorically speaking).   the only thing they understand.