what came of this, anything else we have something similiar in nebraska

I had a call from "Officer" Austin Jones about check fraud to CashNet.  The dummy not only gave me a number to call back, but a fax number to fax all of my information.  He had a Middle-Eastern accent with a strikingly American name.  He said we could go to court and the fees would cost me over $7000 or settle out of court for $511.  I said I'd settle out of court to keep him talking.  I then asked where I should remit my payment and what case number I should give.  He gave me a case number, and told me the Courthouse of Nevada.  I have lived in Nevada for 30 years you idiot.  There is no such place as the Courthouse of Nevada.  Only Justice, Municipal, and Criminal.  I will be calling CashNet and have already contacted the FBI, two Better Business Bureaus (one in NV traced the number given to me as a Boulder, Co number so I contacted them), the Court system, and, of course, my bank.  I am going to take these guys down.

I also received a phone call from this number indicating they were from Lw & Investigations.  That there is a serious issue against me, not to disregard the message the matter is time sensitive and if I do not call them back, all he can do is wish me good luck.  He had a very American name although it was to understand with the Middle-Eastern accent.  I have been receiving phone calls like this one almost every month, sometimes twice a month from different names and different "companies".  They did get a couplle thousand dollars out of me at first.  But I contacted a lawyer and he called a couple of them for me and they hung up on him.  I will be calling the Better Business Bureau as well.  I have had it with these harrassing phone calls.

I too received a call from an officer Martin the call said it came from Imperial Ca when I checked the number  it was not in existence. Said he was from the dept of law and investigation. I used to have a payday loan from cashnet but they are no longer allowed to have payday loans issued to residents from my state. I know I do not owe them any money so I know this is a scam. Ironically last night there was a report on the news about just this thing. They also tried to scam my daughter but she got the date that the supposed loan took place and she did not have one then. They never called her back. Our news said to call your local attorney general about the scam, which I intend to do.

i just received 2 phone calls from a david clark leaving me a message each time to call him back if not i will get arrested and blah blah blah. wtf!

The caller called me mr freeman. when I corrected him and said its mrs freeman. he asked was I a homosexual. I then stated that has nothing to do with this conversation he told me to shut the F up and listen to him.. I was informed that if I didn't pay money to them, They will have my "a**" Thrown behind bars and also contact my employers to let them Know I have been arrested.. the caller had a heavy indian accent with an american name and very rude attitude.

i have also been recieving these calls shortly after my bank account was tampered with, the indian man that called me "officer david clark" said i was being charged with check fraud,forgery and theft. so i decided to google and then call the REAL dept of investigation (where he was calling me from)i spoke to a victims advocate that told me this is total fraud,a scam that this group of criminals has masterminded.she told me to give her number the next time they called and that should stop the calls. she advised me of everything i needed to do to protect myself.i would advise to everyone with this same situation to call (303)239-4649 she was a great help.also look out for creditgold.com cashnet.com and CAB collection agency.if they call your phone then they have your address,place of employment,and social security!!!!!!

Voicemail left  from an Officer David Clark from Law and Investigations, saying something about a financial problem, very heavy accent.  Caller ID came up with Brighton Co. and 303-219-7220

This number started calling me today.  A man identify7ing himself as officer Martin claims to be calling from "department of law and inforcement" and claims that I defrauded Cashnetusa.  I informed him that they'v been paid in full.  He asked then why would they have me call?  After I got off the phone, I contacted Cashnetusa and they said they've been getting calls about this.  
A couple weeks ago, a man wioth a similar voice called me on a Saturday morning @ 8:13 a.m., saying he was calling from a law firm.  But the caller ID said UNKNOWN NUMBER, and he gave no number to return thecall.  My concerns: 1, they know my references, 2, they know my SSN, 3, tyhey threaten to make it impossible for me to find work.  Reported it to the local sheriff's office within the hour.

I received a call from Cash Net USA claiming that I owe some money for a loan that I had gotten online. This caller had an Indian (India) accent and told me that if I did not pay $565 today that I would have to report to court on tomorrow at 2 p.m. I told him that that the call that he was making to me was fraudulent and that I was calling the police. He hung up the phone and 30 minutes later called my job repeatedly egging me on saying "call the police where is your police". So guess what...I called the police. They arrived and luckily I was on the phone with the Indian guy when they arrived. They kindly took the phone and ask for the guys (Indian) information and he told him that he was an FBI Officer and that his name was Officer Johnson. When the Policeman asked for his badge number and his location he (Indian) became irate and started using bad language. After that hoe down they eventually stopped calling....for now.

"Officer" Austin Jones just contacted me and stated me, my husband, and my work were responsible for a loan I did not take out and that I was being a fraud. He got very upset when I asked for an address of the law firm he stated he represented...Walter Attorney at Law.  I asked for papers and he stated he would fax paperwork to my lawyer, I requested them to be mailed to me and he stated that he could not do that.  I then went on to give him the name of my States Attorney Office and the Attorney General Name along with her phone number.  I told him that he could contact her....he stated that my lawyer would have to contact him.  He then continued to get more louder when I called him a fraud and told him to listen to me...he yelled back and told me to listen to him.  I then proceeded to hang up.  
This gentleman had a very thick Indian accent.  He called me yesterday and left a message on my voice mail.  When I tried to call him back last night after I got off work, the number kept stating that it was invalid.  When I told Mr Jones that he stated I was calling wrong number...all I did was use number that was on my cell phone.

make sure you check first...this is scam a strong indian voice name Investigator Austin Jones...be careful

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

i called back asking what kind of law and investigation and how he got my number the hindu man said out right "f*** you a***ole"  this is all after mutilple phone calls to both me and my girlfriends phone totaling 6 times in two hours

i rceive a call from this number twice harrasing me about  some legal matters, they asked me for  my social security #, please can some one  call  someboyd about this idiots, they all speak with a ridiculous indian accent, any one out there dont give out any info to this morons.

I received a call twice at work and know at my cell phone she said she was calling from a legal matter. What was werid was that she jad a indian accient but had a american name sara amith ( really) so she asked me to call her back. So I did i got a male that answer the phone with an indian accient and was really rude. so he started to ger mad at me becuase I was what ever. so he hangs up and of course I mad and I call back and then the same gut answer but know with good english... REally!!! just becareful