877-893-9198

John Baker LSC, Legal claim service, said they had been trying to get in touch with me at my address, in writing, I assume. I should get in touch with the Attorney at Goldwyn Myers, concerning a Civil Law Suit. No attorneys name. Just a reference number

They say there is a claim against you. No attorney name .

IF there was a real claim, you would NOT have a warning call.  It is also illegal to claim to be an attorney if they are not licensed.

How do you know they are not licensed?

...they are scammers trying to scare people into paying a bogus debt, a debt that's already been paid, or even a debt that is owed - but not to them!

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0258-fake-debt-collectors

They had a secretary call me to tell me I was going to be served in a civil suit. If I wanted more information I should call Attorneys Goldwyn Meyer at this number. I was given a case number. I called they put me on hold to locate the case, And I know the only debt I owed is too old to sue or take to court. I'm glad I found this website!

They called me claiming I had a civil suit out of the new county I just moved to. They said it doesn't say as to what the case is about just to call an give the reference number to remedy situation. I'm not calling nobody cuz I just moved here and have done no business with anyone to be in a lawsuit of any kind. Total scam not falling for it.

A woman called from an 800 number telling me that she was with the Count Court (when I called the number back it was VW Credit) and that there was a civil suit being filed against me.  She could not elaborate but gave me the 877.893.9198 number and told me it was the law firm of Goldwyn Myers.   I called the number and spoke to a man named Jason who told me that I had a credit card that was opened in 1986 (over 20 years ago) but I had made a payment on it as recently as 2014???  I don't recall having this card but even if I did why would I wait 15 years and make one payment?  Anyway I was told that I was going to be served  (which I don't think they warn you if you're going to be served) and that once I was I could not negotiate to pay off this debt and would have to go to court and  I would most certainly loose and the judge would laugh at me and file a judgement against me and ruin my credit.  This person had all my personal information.  SSN, credit report and name of my business, past addresses... all the info he needed to make me think this was real.

Whenever someone tells you that they are a "lawyer", the first question you should ask is what state(s) they are registered in and their BAR number for that/those state(s).  Then go to that state and check them out, contact them directly using the information in the state registration, as these crooks have been known to research real law firm names and attorney names and impersonate them.

Criminals are masquerading as debt collectors in an attempt to extort money from people by scaring them into believing that:
a.    You are going to be sued and it will cost you lots of money when they allegedly “win” their case.
b.    That they are about to file criminal charges or that you will be criminally charged (they use the bad check or hot check claim a lot) and go to jail, even though debt is civil not criminal, there are no criminal charges, and debtor’s prison was outlawed over 200 years ago.
c.    That they will take away your driver’s license.
d.    That will garnish your wages without actually being suing you, going to court, or even winning a case and obtaining a judgement followed by a judge’s consent to the garnishment.  They also claim that your wages will be garnished in amounts far above all legal limits.

One of the tricks they use is to call your family, friends, neighbors and/or places of employment (past or present or both) to create panic and embarrassment so that their intended victim calls them and they can scare that person into paying their extortion money.  They often call people that have never even been associated with you because they get erroneous information off of the internet.

They will use the words “Mediator”, “Arbitrator”, “Law Office” or claim that they are a “Lawyer or Paralegal” to make you believe that they are something other than a debt collector want-a-be and that they don’t have to follow Federal and State collection laws, even though they do have to follow those laws.  They also tell you that if you fail to call them back you are "waiving your right to council" or that “the case will proceed without you” which is pretty much nothing but hogwash.  They tell you that they need a “statement” from you regarding the complaint and if you don’t call back they “wish you good luck as things unfold”. They use the phrase “consider yourself notified/served” or “govern yourself accordingly” a lot, something they should do themselves.

They claim they are officers of the court, or that an officer will accompany them, or even that they are sending officers to arrest you.  All hogwash.  They are now also claiming that they will be in an “orange vest” and they tell you to lock up your dogs and guns for “everyone’s” protection.  More hogwash.

They mention that they have received a Fax document, to create the sense of urgency and tell you that they are a “process server”. This is simply ruse to get you to call another number (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.

If your feel you SSN has been compromised, in addition to putting a fraud alert at the 3 credit bureaus, you may want to notify the IRS.  Here is the link, fill out the proper form (probably 14039). Also file a report at the FTC Identity Theft web site as well as learn what else you need to do:
http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/How-Do-You-Rep ... aud-Activity%3F
https://www.ftc.gov/faq/consumer-protection/report-identity-theft


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:  http://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

Just got off the phone with Jason Richardson. Rattled off my SS, telling me about some credit card opened in 2001, and now Debt bought over by Chase Morgan Bank. He is a paralegal, and was calling to say that two attempts have been made to serve me. I have a case in my county court because the new creditor is suiing me. I just thought to google him as this sounded so crazy. Now I am seeing that the exact same number and name has done this to so many people.

Received a voicemail from a woman stating there was a pending case gainst me in Harris county. She included a recent address of mine and even called an ex of mine who contacted me in a panic.  She said her name really fast and didn't understand it. She called from a different number than the one she provided me. She did she was with legal claims service. Sounds like a scam to me!

This exact same scenario happened to me today. How does he have all my personal information?