949-258-8584

I just recieved a call from Attorney Michelle Brown at 530-884-2918 she told me that I was going to be arrested at 4PM sharp at my place of employment! LOL I just filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission and I will be going to the Police Station as soon as I am off of work. Make sure you document that time and date that they have called you, you will need it if you file a complaint BEWARE!!

They left a message sayin I need to call them for what I dont no

Got a call from 213 261 5794 leaving a very lengthy saying they were calling about taxes and insurance
called the # back and a voice mail says Dept of Legal Investigations and then hangs up.  How in the world do people get other peoples info.  This is CRAZY!!!

as of 02/28/2012 they are now using 213-261-5794. Theyt refuse to identify themselves and simply state there is a pending action against your social security number.

I got the same call from phone # 213-261-5794 and 1-866-904-6562, I told them I was with the FBI and they hung up quickly. Don't fall for their scam!!!

I got this phone call from a  2132615794,  it sh owed on my phone as a miss call, so i tried calling  back the voice mail said you  have reached department of legal affairs and investigations, then an hour later i get the phone call the caller stated t hat i had a law suit pending against me could i verify my phone number and social security number, i stated no, you should  have this if you called me. He asked me did I know ab out t he pending lawsuit against me I stated no.  I asked  him what area code was he calling me from, he stated CA.   then he said he could give me a numb er to call his lead attorney, the  number was identical to the number he had originally called from.  I won' t fall for bogus phone calls, I am very reluctant to give any information out over the phone,  besides, there was not letter or document sent prior to the call

i got one this morning saying id get arrested on monday, which is 2days from now. they didnt even tell where the loan was from or from who?

Me too. They had my ssn idk how and im thinking about going to the cops with this.

I'm a friend of a  man the called his place of employment to get to him. there is a ladywith an accent her name is "michelle brown" there is also a "goerge micheal" and "john lee" we need some extra info if any of you can call me at 801 604 4916 please the more info I can get the better a case we can make against them ......I mean really they could have cost him his job

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one going through this. They called me and when I called back sow heavy accent woman said the police will be at my job or home to arrest me! I record all my conversation on my iPhone with an app. I wanted to laugh because I didn't know you guys have had the same experience. Thanks. :)

Even scam artists are outsourcing. On Tuesday in its first crackdown on fraudulent telemarketing in South Asia, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it was shutting down two California-based companies that used a call center in India to defraud Americans out of more than $5 million over the past two years.

Workers in India made threatening calls to Americans getting them to pay money on debts that they didn't owe, the FTC charges. At an FTC press conference in Chicago on Tuesday, fraud victim JanLaree DeJulius explained that she had received a call from someone claiming to be an enforcement officer from the (phony) "Federal Department of Crime and Prevention," who threatened to have her arrested and have her wages garnished if she didn't pay a bill of more than $730. The scam artists had gotten her name and information from a payday loan her ex-husband had taken out in her name.

"It was very embarrassing," Dejulius said. "He knew everything about me so I agreed to set up an installment." She is not alone. According to the FTC, more than 8 million calls were made since 2010 and at least 17,000 transactions processed across the United States related to the global scam.

On Tuesday under request from the FTC, a U.S. District Court in Chicago stopped the international operation, charging Varang K. Thaker and two companies he owned, American Credit Crunchers, LLC, and an affiliate Ebeeze, LLC, with violating the FTC Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

"This is a brazen operation based on pure fraud, and the FTC is committed to shutting it down," said David Vladeck, director of the FTC's consumer protection bureau. "Consumers should not be pressured into paying debt they don't remember owing. Legitimate debt collectors must provide consumers with both written information about the debt, and instructions for protecting themselves if they don't think they owe the debt."

According to the FTC's charges, Thaker used Social Security numbers and bank account numbers obtained from payday lenders to identify the victims for his scam. He outsourced the work to an Indian call center, where workers made threatening calls to American consumers to pay fake debt or collect on bills for which they were not authorized.

Thaker was not available when contacted by telephone on Tuesday. A woman who claimed to be Thaker's older sister and asked not to be named for privacy reasons said he is working with the FTC to help the Indian government pursue the fraudster call center operators. She also said he was innocent in the scam. "He was being used by somebody. He didn't even know where they got the information," she told The Huffington Post by phone. She said that her brother got 10 percent of the earnings from the scam operation.

The FTC charges against Thaker are the latest in a series of police actions by the government agency to put an end to rogue debt collection operations that have become more frequent in the aftermath of the Great Recession. In January, the FTC struck a $2.5-million settlement with debt-buying company Asset Acceptance, LLC, charging that the company had falsely represented itself to customers, including making up phantom debts that customers no longer owed. Last October, the FTC filed a complaint against seven other fraudulent debt collectors, alleging that they had engaged in the same techniques -- demanding money from customers who owed nothing at all.

The growing number of Americans who are unable to pay their bills has meant there are more companies looking to profit from their economic difficulties.

Debt collectors have been taking more aggressive tactics as fewer people are able to make ends meet or are in a cycle of debt. More than 30 million Americans are in debt collection, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Since 2010, more than 4,000 complaints have been filed with the FTC and state attorneys general about fraudulent debt collection calls, the FTC said.

Charles Junitkka, a personal bankruptcy attorney who represents clients in the New York City area, said, "In the last few years, the desperation of the collectors and their efforts have intensified because of the economy."

This story has been updated to reflect comment from a woman who says she is the sister of Varang Thaker. Thaker himself was unavailable for comment.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/21/ftc- ... _n_1289751.html

I received the same call several times.  The call came from (213) 261 5794.

Got a call from 213 283 8557.  Was told the same bs everyone has stated here.  Said the police would. E at my office tomorrow at 11 AM.  Kind of bugged me out.  This was attorney Michelle brown with a heavy Indian accent.  Such BS.  Careful out there.

I just got one for a 213 283 8557
Mike again.  Hard to understand again.  Threatened again.  Have not heard ss# yet.

I also received a call from a man with an indian accent, he gave me the number of 213-283-8557 told me to call and speak to attorney Michelle Brown.  I spoke with her and she said that I was going to be arrested tomorrow at 11am.  Then she hung up on me because I told her I had received no paperwork regarding me owing a bill and for her to please send me a bill and if I owed it I would pay it.  She hung up on me again.  I called her back and after several attempts she finally answered saying "what do you want"  I said I want to know what all of this is about and why you are being so rude to me.  She hung up on me again.

I received a phone call on my job today from a foreign guy telling me he was from the dept of legal affair and investigations. he ask me did I have a lawyer or did I know the nature of his call I said no. he gave me a phone number to call which I called and could never get through. it kept going to voicemail and when I did get an answer they hung up. I am very upset because they call my job.

Everyone beware of these scam artists, they think they are slick. They tell you that you have a case pending against you and your SS#. I proceed to ask them to provide me with case number and the county the supposed lawsuit was filed, they had no idea what I was talking about, I then informed them that they needed to provide me with that information, how pathetic was the answer, the fake paralegal gave me 3 digits for a case file LOL!!! Little do they know they contacted the wrong person!! I am willing to do whatever it takes to bring these [***] down. Already contact my local authorities and the Federal Trade Commission, also make sure you call your States Attorney's Office, they will then contact the California States Attorney's Office. They need to know we are out there watching them!! We have to bring them down!!!!!

Got a call from 213-261-6494  a michelle Brown saying that i had a warrant out for my arrest she had my ss # and place of work and said she was sending papers there because of a loan I had out that I hadnt paid back!!! I was freaking out and crying called my legal services and she said it sounds like a scam

I c
Got the same call today. They left a message on my phone.  I think they got my I for from a loan app I made with an online loan company.

So tell your friend don't online loan apps unless it's a well know bank or finance company.