A lady called and asked me if i wanted debt relief.

keeps calling and not leaving any messages

I answered and they dont respond so I hang up

I get calls from this number on my cell. No one ever says anything the few times I've picked up. When sent to voicemail, it never leaves a msg.

Asked me about a credit card application, asked if my wife was Ludivina Garcia, she didn't completely understand what this person was saying, she asked to speak to someone who spoke spanish. The lady told her that it was ok and hung up. I have called but message says her mailbox is full and cannot take any messages.

they just called me and wanted to offer me a credit card with all these good deals on it. But then they requested my banks name and my checking account number which immediately threw up red flags!! You get this call I would advise you to ignore it, its a scam to get you to buy their credit card obviously.

Called my business and attempted to convince me they were from MasteCard Merchant Services and tried get my personal and business information.  I have reported them and an investigation has been opened and they will be prosecuted for fraud.

Called our business and asked for the owner by his first name. I asked him to take our number off their call list. He said this was not a sales call, it was a courtesy call about our merchant account. I asked which merchant account and then he hung up on me.

Just had the same call. I asked her to explain further what her Merchant Services were, since that is very vague and a blanket statement and she couldn't answer, then she got snotty and kept asking for the owner. I told her she would not be speaking to the owner unless she could tell me more and she said she would call back. I told her I would be answering the phone, so don't call back and she kept saying 'have a nice day', 'have a nice day' in her slow, southern, backwoods drawl.

The person calls from this number but never leaves a message.
I can see this number clearly on my phone.

Nope.

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.

http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-646-274-1143/3

A Joseph Smith with a very heavy indian accent or something keeps calling me from 3am on a daily basis. He told me that a complaint using my social security number has been filed against me and that i need to return his call immediately. Is this for real?

This number just called me 5 minutes ago and i sad hello 2 times before the guy said something. he was calling from a credit card company and had an accent and a lot of background noise. He wanted me to state all my info so "he was talking to the right person" so i asked him if i signed up for this and he had no idea what to say so i asked where he got my cell # from and he asked if i signed up for a credit card recently and i said no and he apologized and hung up.

This # called and did not leave a message.  I called the #  back and got a voicemail saying to leave a message or press #.  Then said the message box is full and they hung up.

Call and hang up....Has to be telemarketer

A call from 213-928-5163 appeared on our caller ID 48 minutes ago on 1/09/09 and no message was left.  We're so tired of telemarketers and prank calls that most times we don't even answer the phone if we're not familiar with the number.  However in this case I tried to return the call because we have adult children that reside throughout California and we thought that it may be one of them calling from a new number.

We are current on the Do Not Call List,but the calls keep coming. Can anybody help? We've even registered complaints with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to seemingly no avail.

I truly believe that we are dealing with some sick people out there.

Calls and does not leave message. Looked number up and complaints says its offering men for pleasure.

This number calls me and I don't answer.  I tried calling back a few times and it disconnects after 5 seconds and doesn't even ring.

The caller asked for me by name and asked if we were trying to sell our time share... i dont own a time share so i hung up.

called an no one there, just an automated good bye and click

Crazy man called and cussed me out for no apparent reason. If you get a call from this person, watch out he is insane!!!!!

So this number called and I amswered'Riverside County Sheriffs Department Deputy Jester(dont wont to giove out my real last name lol)"and then all i heard was so do you like your job?and i was listening and just said Are you serious.Its a national prank

Got a call from these people this morning they are some kind of debt consolidation company. Stay away from them.

I get this # on my phone almost daily........never is a message left

I posted above..this was in the greater Toronto area, Ontario, Canada.

Number left on Call display with name :CALIFORNIA
Returned call and received message stating the person at that extension was not available.

YEAH THEY DID NOT EVEN ANSWEAR

This party left a message. When I listened to it all that was said (in a feminine voice) was "Die".

The lady asked sex related questions and then suggested that they have
a list of virile men who could satisfy my sexual needs. All i have to do
is play along with their fantasies. Threesome was suggested too