I have no idea who this guy is, but he called me, and said he knew where I lived, to which i replied, thats cool, I am tracing this call as we speak, and oh, yup, now i know where you live. They are easily startled since the canned statement is really the only english they know. I was less than cordial to the lad, mainly because i know its a scam. DO NOT give them any personal information. Not that you needed me to tell you that!

This is an extortion scam operating out of India. ABC News released an investigative report on it in June. The FTC has indicted one of its ringleaders for criminal fraud:

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/phantom-debt-co ... 16512428&page=1

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2012/08/bgm.shtm

They have been calling my phone talking about a loan I never received... They are harrassing me and I want the calls to stop

Someone call me a lot of times from this number I didnt awnser so last time they decide to leave a message using the name of nick brown from california law and thread me if I desregard that call I would have consequences. But I call back and just hang up on me...

I did also ask for proof of this loan.  Asked them if they had a signature from me and he could not provide that.  My boss said it is possible that they got ahold of a legitimate loan I had once received and that is how they have all info.  This is a scarey issue!

I got a call from this # where they left a msg stating they needed to verify my ss# so they could continue with the legal matter at hand.  I called them back and a guy with a thick accent answered "Hello".  That was my first idea that it was not legit.  But he continued that I owed $ from an online loan that I had received and that if I did not pay them or make arrangements with them to pay this that someone would be serving me with papers at my house and at my work. He continued to say that they would speak to me in front of my manager and let them know that I committed fraud and that I am a bad person.  He did scare me, last thing I want is to go to jail.  I told him I was a single mom of three kids.  He then said that if I am behind bars that the goverment would have to take of my kids.  I told him not to threaten me about going to jail and told him my kids are well taken care of and that they have everything they need.  Before the conversation was over I was offering to pay it with a credit card.  He placed me on hold and came back and told me the only way they would accept payment from me was Western Union or Money Gram.  I immediately told them I used to work with Western Union and that I would not send it that way due to many scams I heard about and dealt with.  He continued to try and make it sound secure by stating they have 14 Federal Agents that pick the money up and once it is received that they will send a certified letter and an email to me stating that it is cleared off of my credit.  I told him I wanted something before I made a payment regarding the settlement amount and he could not provide that for me.  So I told him I was not paying it by Western Union then and he said, "ok well you will be behind bars then" and hung up on me.  My boyfriend called the # back from my phone # and asked the guys name and he said "Shawn Stiffer".  My boyfriend asked what the name of the company was and all "Shawn" would say is that it was a legal dept.  My boyfriend then called the # from his phone and the guy asked him who called him.  My boyfriend said he didnt know but someone from the company called his # and what is this about?  The guy said "hold on I will transfer you to the correct dept" and hung up.  
I spoke to my boss at work about it because I was worried about someone coming to my job like they had told me.  While I was quoting the things that I was told, my boss was laughing so hard, not at me but about the tactics that these evil people take to try and scam money out of people.  He re-assured me that nothing was going to happen.  This really needs to be taken care of.  Next time I receive a call I am going to tell them like one of the others below that I have contacted authorities and I know they are a scam with a few chose words.

08/22/2012
Received two calls at work number from someone with the broken English: pronunciation is close to the English spoken in India/Pakistan/Shri Lanka.  First time the caller identified himself as Mr. Smith from the Department of State at California, which really made my day.  Had to inform the caller that the Department of State represents the federal agency. . .I am positive that Mr. Smith' native language is everything else but English.  The same person called me two weeks after (at work) and represented himself as a Law Office.  The caller was upset that I pressed for his call back number.  Wonder which websites/networks sells our identity and phone numbers to Mr. Smith?

THIS NUMBER CONSTANLY CALLS ME..WHEN I ANSWER THEY DONT SAY ANYTHING..TODAY CALLED AND LET A MESSAGE .COULDNT UNDERSTAND WHO THEY ASKED FOR BECAUSE THEY SPEAK NO ENGLISH

Received a call from this number and gave my name and the person's name who called me.He did not recognize my cell number because the message was left at my work number.He tried asking me the number at my work and I simply stated my name again and asked to speak to the person who called me.He then said don't ever call this number again.Learn english you mook.

This number called me twice. Why?

I too have been receiving calls from this number for about a week now.  I refuse to answer my phone, but they do leave messages on my cell phone. So far they  have not called my place of employment. Only my cell phone.

These type of calls started over a year ago. They always call my cell, some have called my work.  Calls have been saying that I owe on a payday loan I never paid back. The amounts vary, names of company and people calling change. They threaten me just as Natasha M. described.The caller always sounds as thought they are reading from a script.  I stopped returning the calls because they would just call back. After a while they give up and I can go about one month with out a call, then it starts back up again.  They have threatened to come to my job to have me arrested and to show my employer what type of person I really am.  I have told them to bring legal action against me and quit calling. They don't listen they just call again.  

I refused to pay a scammer.  If they can't show me proof that I owe the money, I will not be sending any money!  

They have never once showed up at my place of employment, nor have I been arrested.  They threatened lawsuits but I have never been served.  

So please don't send them any money. It is a scam.

I have gotten calls from 2 different numbers, one in the Washington D.C. area and one in Colorado where I reside. They have all told me that I took out a payday loan and never paid it back and that because of that they are going to have a warrant issued for my arrest for 3 Federal charges of differenty types of fraud and send the police to my work to have me arrested.  They asked me if I had ever been charged with any type of fraud before and that if I had, the penalties for these new charges would carry a much stiffer penalty than a first time offense would. The 1st time they called I panicked and was basically in tears but instead of letting them get as far as making a demand for money, I did the smart thing and went to my local police dept.  The officer I spoke to did a search on the # and even though it was showing as a D.C. area code, the # was actually registered to Pakistan or India or something crazy.  The officer told me not to worry about it but that this was becoming a pretty common scam and that if there was anything like a warrant being issued for me for some reason that they would know about it, which was why I had gone straight to them in the first place.  A friend of mine told me she had also heard something on the news that week warning people not to be taken by this scam, because it is totally understandable that people would get frightened when they are told that the police are going to come to their work and arrest them.  

When I received the 2nd phone call of this nature from the original D.C. area # that had called me, he started in telling me I was going to be arrested and just being down right rude. I told the man calling that I had gone to my local police dept and that I had filed a harrasement complaint.  As soon as I said I had gone to the police, he hung up on me so fast.

I received a 3rd call from another # if I remember correctly and this time the heavily accented "gentleman" to use the word loosely, told me that he was an "Officer" with the Michigan Federal Beureau and gave me the same spiel about having taken out a pay day loan and that they were going to send police to my work to arrest me. I immediately called and left a message for the officer at my local PD whom I had spoken to previously.  When he returned my call, he did a search on that # as well and it also came up as somewhere in Pakistan or India somewhere. I mentioned to him that these people were now going so far as to identify themselves as "Officers" with the Michigan Federal Beureau.  He told me that he would love to take the time to track these people down and bring them to justice but it's not something that the local PD is willing to invest the time and money into, since an actual crime hadn't yet been commited as I had not given them any money.  

He did however tell me that he highly recommended I file a complaint on both the FBI's internet scam complaint webstie which is www.ic3.gov  and to also file a complaint on the Federal Trade Commission's website at www.ftc.gov.

I received a call on both my cell phone and my work phone today from a Colorado area code (which is where I live). I let it go to voicemail on my cellphone and I got a message from a heavily accented male telling me I was in big trouble, blah, blah, blah and that I needed to have my attorney contact them ASAP.  They called my desk # about an hour later, which I answered. When he started his little spiel on me I cut him off and said "Look, I've contacted my local police department and I've also filed complaints with the Federal Trade Commission as well as the FBI's internet scam website".  I didn't even get to go any further and he had hung up on me.

I guess in giving all of you all of this information, I just want people to be aware that you DO NOT have to pay these people one single red cent.  You don't have to let yourself feel fear or anxiety or any kind of other stress, because it is a scam.  It's some foreigner sitting all the way on the other side of the world preying on hard-working, under-paid, and debt maxed Americans who are struggling just to make it from day to day supporting their families in this awful economy.  They see a weak spot in us and are taking advantage and making money off of us and it makes me SO DAMN ANGRY!  

Please do not let these foreign callers intimidate you into giving them anything.  Please know that it's just one big scam and you have nothing to fear.  There is nothing you have done wrong and there is not a goddamn thing that they can do to you, no matter what they may threaten or say.  If everyone would report these calls to the appropriate channels, maybe we can get some kind of control over this whole situation.

I know it's a lot but I had to say my piece.  I just don't want to see my struggling Fellow Americans scammed to give these damn foreigners money that they are getting through methods of fear and intimidation.  :-)  God Bless America!!

Phantom Debt Collectors From India Harass Americans, Demand Money

By BRIAN ROSS (@brianross) , CINDY GALLI and MATTHEW MOSK (@mattmosk)
June 7, 2012

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 was 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.

"If Mr. Patel was just a cog in the wheel he seems to have been a pretty big cog," Leibowitz said. "It is clear that Patel was integrally involved with this scam."

Leibowitz points to thousands of pages of financial and phone records gathered by the FTC and filed as part of a civil case brought against him in the U.S. District Court in Sacramento last month. When FTC lawyers sought to freeze his assets and prevent his business from continuing to operate, Patel responded by invoking his rights against self-incrimination. His lawyer told ABC News he has had to be careful in how he responds to the allegations in civil court "because there is a potential criminal action," but that Patel maintains the allegations against him are false.

Federal investigators said the phantom debt collection operation that allegedly benefitted from Patel's assistance was one of several that all trace back to the same small town in Western India called Ahmedabad. Callers use technology to make it appear that the calls originate inside the U.S. Victims provided ABC News with recordings of dozens of the calls, and many of the thickly accented callers appear to be reading off a script.

"Subpoenas have been readied, and Monday morning you're going to be picked up from your home," one caller says on a victim's voicemail. "And you have children. Don't worry about your children. We have a childcare department to take care of the children."

"You will be behind bars for six months," said another caller. "And once you go behind bars, you will lose your job. Once you are behind the bars, you won't get a single drop of water."

William Peerce Howard, a Tampa attorney who represents victims of harassment from debt collectors, said it takes an especially twisted criminal to use threats and coercion to pry money from someone who is already struggling financially

"These guys really are the most visible villains in America today," he said. "They make a living scaring people."

Mark Merola, of Florida, said he just panicked when the caller told him he might be arrested at the deli where he works in a Florida retirement community.

"I was nervous. I didn't want to embarrass myself, my family," he said. He used his debit card to pay the collector $576.

Afterwards, he says he realized "how stupid I was."

"It just happened so fast," he said. "I got scared."

Leibowitz said he hopes with more attention, future potential targets of the scam will recognize red flags before they turn over any money.

If callers say they are from the police, consumers should know that law enforcement officers do not collect debt for private parties. If the caller is speaking with a thick Indian accent, but calls themselves by a names such as Officer Mike Johnson, that should be a tip off. And if they're calling 40 times in two hours, that's another red flag. "Legitimate debt collectors, legitimate pay day lenders don't do those sorts of things," he said.

Merola said he would like to see anyone involved in the scam prosecuted aggressively.

"There's no place in society for these people," he said.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/phantom-debt-co ... 16512428&page=2

received a call at my work and cell stating that this a serious matter and I am under investigation and the matter will be filed with my local courts. This is bogus because the guy sounds like he is from Pakistan or India and I must pay money. If you owe money, the worse that will happen is it will be placed on your credit report as a judgement if not paid in a certain period of time. Scammers are always trying to get money out of folks. Beware!

This number keeping calling my cell phone talking about they looking for some girl and they are a private investigator or something. you cant understand what he is saying, he sounds asia

I also revived a call from this number at home and at work.the station attendant said himname was Philip. Davis that's all he said.

THis number has called my cell & my work number.  The caller has a thick accent states this is a "serious matter".  Now I have taken out 4 payday loans so I hope it isn't about that.  Anyway I'm scared.