Said it was IRS. iRS NEVER CALLS! Block number

This is a criminal extortion scam operating out of India. They are making the calls utilizing VOIP and the names of legitimate firms to make it appear the calls are originating from within the US. There is NO "company" or "debt" and you will NOT be arrested. They are harvesting and/or buying consumers' personal identifying information and you need to do whatever you can to protect yourself. This includes: Notifying the FTC: https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/, placing fraud alerts with all three credit bureaus, notifying your bank and employer and letting these criminals know you are aware they are attempting to extort money for a non-existent debt and have alerted the authorities.

Read this investigative report ABC News did on this scam:

Hundreds of thousands of cash-strapped Americans have been targeted by abusive debt collectors operating out of overseas call centers suspected of links to organized crime in India, law enforcement officials told ABC News.

The calls are part of a massive scam, one that appears to target struggling Americans -- especially those who have gone online to apply for payday loans. Armed with personal information from those pilfered applications, the threatening callers, who claim to be debt collectors poised to initiate legal action, have managed to pry loose millions of dollars from their victims -- even when the victims never owed money in the first place.

"This is what we call a phantom debt collection scam," said Jon Leibowitz, the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. "It's a very pernicious and innovative new fraud."

Working through call centers in India, the commission estimates that the criminals have dialed at least 2.5 million calls, persuading already cash-strapped victims to send them more than $5 million. Some have reported receiving dozens of calls per hour. They are victims like Cindy Gervais, of New Orleans, who went online for a quick loan when her husband's car was hit by a driver who didn't have insurance.

Even though she paid the loan off, the so-called "phantom" debt collectors with Indian accents began calling to say she still owed money.

"He more or less told me that if I didn't pay, they were going to have someone on my doorstep to arrest me," she told ABC News. "And that they were going to contact my place of business, and tell them what kind of person I am."

At first, she said she resisted. Then the calls became more frequent, and started to ring on her cell phone, and at the grocery distribution company where she had worked for 27 years.

"I was more or less in panic mode because he told me there would be someone before noon at my place of business to arrest me and take me to jail," she said tearfully. "So I agreed to pay him."

After receiving scores of complaints, investigators with the FTC said they began tracking the calls, and following the payments. They alleged the payments led them to a California company run by an Indian-American named Kirit Patel, and that such scams would not be possible without American front men.

"I would say that all roads of this scam, or many of the roads of this scam, lead back to Mr. Patel," said the FTC's Leibowitz.

ABC News tracked Patel for weeks, from the suburbs of San Francisco to Austin, Texas.

Patel refused to talk. But his lawyer, Mark Ellis, said he believes it is far too early to pass judgment on his client. Ellis, a Sacramento-based attorney, told ABC News that Patel was hired for a nominal fee to set up an American shell company, and had no idea what the call centers in India were doing.

"I can tell you, he was as snookered by the people in India as anybody," Ellis said. "He's a 69-year-old man who is nearing his retirement who thought all he had to do was set up some corporations and everything was on the up and up. He's completely dismayed that he has become the lightning rod of this entire problem."

A close friend of Patel's also defended him in a brief interview at his home, saying Patel was not trying to defraud anyone -- he was just an unwitting, bit player in a larger scheme.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/phantom-debt-co ... ory?id=16512428

Anyone get potentially nuisance call.scam from 202 800 5536?
I haven't answered them - they don't leave message and I wonder who they are.
Help please to find out who they are and what to do?

2022415536  this was a creepy call. Weird message and threatened jail! Do not contact them!

Some one is trying to scam people saying. They are one of the lenders  from usa Cash. Calling threatening about lonas i never revieved.. dont fall for this.

I got a message at my job to call officer kevin nash. I did and now I need to change my phone number. Now I see it's a scam.

I received a call from this number and told him i knew he was a scammer and my dad had "Officer Nash" believing he was a police officer from Kentucky and that they were tracing the number lol. Needless to say he hung up on us which I find incredibly rude lol.

He's calling me right now- Kevin Nash, says I need to pay 745.36 for 500. that was direct deposited into my account which no monies have been deposited ,says I need a lawyer so I dont go to jail. Brave scammer

I got this call today and the guy said he was a police officer with the FBI Name Kevin Nash. He had all of my info address, SS#, bank info and things. He was really rude and said nasty things. He told me I needed to send $600 for a $300 loan I got from Usa payday loans. And that i had got it out of the bank and spen.it!  He said I would be in jail. My reply was well do what ya gotta do cause Im not giving your illegal a** no money!! And hung up and he just keeps harassing me...I'm gonna find out about all this cause he also told.me that he red flagged my SS#. I wish he could be charged with something!! So Mr.Kevin Nash take ya Illegal a** back to where u came from!!

Yupp got a call from 202-241-5536 at my job, as soon as I heard the thick accent, and him saying he was an officer, i immediately knew it was a scam. so i kept ignoring the call. effing annoying mother effers.

he called me today at my wife's phone and said he was an officer of the law,then I called him back and voicemail said it was john Anderson?
I am calling my local authorities in ca. to investigate this person,he sounds Asian, philipino even.

CALLED THIS MAN BACK AND TOLD HIM THAT I HAD CONTACTED THE FBI BECAUSE HE WAS HARRASSING ME ON MY CELL AND AT MY WORK...I DON'T OWE ANYONE ANYTHING, I AM AN ICU TRAVEL NURSE AND MY EMPLOYER HAS ALREADY REPORTED HIM 3 TIMES...
KEEP UP THE GOOD FIGHT MY FRIENDS

SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM

This guy name Kevin Nash claiming that i filled out a online application and I told him that I will not talk to him unless my lawyer is present then he told me that he would contact my employer. I asked him could he give me the number to the company and he said that he couldn't do it I knew right then it was nothing but a scam

This man called harassing me and was very rude. Stating he was a federal agent, and I owed money.

That's funny my call from this scum bag said it was from dc area

He said he was an officer

I'm so glad I'm not the only one....I was only freaking out for a second because he was actually telling me real personal info which I guess makes people scared when he combines it with his script of arresting you and the whole lawsuit bit. Look Ima make this clear for anyone else who comes across this guy. Here's what happened to me. He called me claiming to be Kevin Nash from the Bureau of Crime Investigation. He said there's a lawsuit filed against my social security number for accepting a payday loan of $500 and not paying it back. Funny thing is that I wish I had a payday loan of $500 but since I'm in the state of California, the law only grants a maximum of $255, so that's already three strikes against him. The first was his name, the second was where he was calling from (bureau of crime investigation), which is not even real, and third this California law. Anyways, he goes on and wants me to answer a question about what my intentions are, which are A.) allow him top download this case into the system which means that police are coming to serve me at my residence and/or arrest me. or B.) settle this outside of court for the amount of (I think was) $600 or something like that. I told him I wasn't going to answer this because I have no idea what's even going on in the first place. So then he pressured me with his statements saying he was going to send someone to arrest me and I was going to go to jail, etc.. I told him, "if all this was really going to happen, and had I never answered this phone call, then it would happen" he got all pissed with his hindu accent and saying "alright, we're going to arrest him, send someone right now, right now!" and he kept repeating this thinking like I'm going to hang up but I didn't. I mean I guess it makes for a good scare if I just hung up cause then you hang up and something like that could really freak you out especially if he has personal info on you. But I let him hang up. He stopped his rant, noticed I was still on the phone, 5 seconds later then he hung up. Was I scared? well, honestly yeah a little because of that personal info he had like I said but everything else was just red flag city..so I look him up and lo and behold, he's infamous with multiple complaints including mine lol.... Anyway, hope this helps anyone else out there. If a guy with a hindu accent says he's kevin nash? kevin nash? really? at least if his named was jamal malik or some other name from the movie slumdog millionaire it would have helped his story lol... Peace, I'm out!

The same thing happen to my husband.he called saying that he had a loan back in 2012 that needed to be paid and if he didn't pay 568 dollars he was ginna go to jail in the morning i thought to myself a scam cause we have never had a loan before so i new it was a scam.

Received call from guy with heavy accent, claiming that he was from the FBI. He was asking for an employee and he was sure that he worked here.  I told him, no employee with that name worked here.  He told me not to lie, and if I was sure.  He asked for my name and after I told him a fake name, he hanged up.

My work received 6 calls from a Robert Black. I then called them back and spoke to John Anderson! They said I was being sued from Southern USA because I owed money from a loan I didn't accept. I asked to speak to his supervisor. The supervisor was Kevin Nash and unavailable. This is a scam!!! However I was more concerned because they knew the last 4 digits of my check account number!!

I just received the same call today and boy am I pissed.....I little relieved to hear the above testimonies though.....but I promise I'm not done with this! I just got married friday and my wife had to hear this today.

Got the same call has anyone reported this

this fool called me at 7 am  then called my job and cussed out  my coworker called her a w***e.  I am not the one so i am going to call him back everytime I think of him and leave messages like I am coming to kick you a**. he hasn't seen harassment like I am going to do him.  Said he was from the Washington Sherrif Dept.  I am from the Oakland Ca."We dont play that Sh$$ Department".

when people call with this scam report them to the FTC.  Here's the web site: https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/
If we keep reporting the scammers maybe it will stop!

I call from this number 2022415536 stating he is officer kevin nash and left a message with my job that uf I dint call back I would be arrested.  When you owe money the sheriff 's dont call they serve you at house or job. These people need to stop harassing people at there place of employment with this fake information

called and threatened to send police officer to my address to arrest me.  hung up phone

I've received this same call here at my work for one of our employees. They've called here 5 times in 4 days. It's the same guy with the accent. He say's he's an Police officer (even gave a badge # of 751)Said he was Officer Nash.  Police officer's badge number's are in the 7 or 8 digit's now a days. He threatened me. Called me an ignorant B.  He's harassing my employee's cell phone, home and now his work. IT"S A TOTAL SCAM. DON'T FALL FOR IT. HANG UP.

This is a criminal extortion scam operating out of India. They are making the calls utilizing VOIP and the names of legitimate firms to make it appear the calls are originating from within the US. There is NO "company" or "debt" and you will NOT be arrested. They are harvesting and/or buying consumers' personal identifying information from unscrupulous websites like the one you may have filled out an application with, and you need to do whatever you can to protect yourself. This includes: Notifying the FTC: https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/, placing fraud alerts with all three credit bureaus, notifying your bank and employer and letting these criminals know you are aware they are attempting to extort money for a non-existent debt and have alerted the authorities.

ABC News released an investigative report on this scam a year ago:

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/phantom-debt-co ... ory?id=16512428

Got a call from this Officer Nash. Left me a vm saying my ssn came up in an investigation and that his investigators would be coming to my work to arrest me and that i should hire an attorney. Thick accent. Couldn't understand everything he was saying.