315-307-3492
NY, US
Bill
Bill
2011-06-06 20:45:54
Unknown
Scam artists trying to collect on a false payday loan that was never made.  They claim to be from the "legal department" from cashnetusa.  The man gave the name "Brian Woodman", but had a heavy Indian accent.  It sounded like a boiler room, with several calls going on in the background.

Caller claimed there was "illegal activity" going on at my residence, and that he would have me arrested.  Claimed I had taken out a loan from cashnetusa in Nov 2009, and not paid it.  I have never done any business with cashnet.  I rechecked my credit reports last night just to be sure there was no identity theft at that time, but nothing showed up on the report.

I checked on cashnetusa.com website and there is a notice that there are scammers using their name fraudulently.  They list a number where you can call them, and suggest you contact your local police and file a complaint with the FTC.  I am following up on that path.
The Saint
The Saint
2010-11-12 22:26:02
Unknown
Print off this thread and give it to your employer:

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
Steve
Steve
2010-11-12 22:22:55
Unknown
I work in debt collection and I'm experiencing the same thing, they have violated almost every FDCPA law that their is, and my advice would be to contact your state's Attorney General's office, as well as the Attorney General's office of New York, being that the number traces to Syracuse, and ask what they think you should do. Paying an attorney $50.00 to get to the bottom of it may be worth the hassle.
Steve
Steve
2010-11-12 22:21:25
Unknown
The same thing has happened to me. I've spoken to their reps several times, unlucky for them, I work in debt collection myself and know the laws of the FDCPA. They have never given me a physical address, I finally got the name Langer & Langer Associates out of them along with the call back number, as it was showing up on my cell call ID as an unknown number. I've told them many times that I can provide proof that there were never any funds deposited into my account from this cashnetusa place, and they go on telling me to meet at the courthouse to prove my case. They won't send any sort of documentation or letter of validation, as they must do per the FDCPA, they continue to call places of employment after they're told not to, also a violation of the FDCPA, no mini miranda, "this is an attempt to collect a debt, any information will be used for that purpose, etc", also a violation of the FDCPA, and they are extremely difficult to understand on the phone as they all have Indian accents and use Americanized aliases. I've already contacted my attorney about this, and I am going to contact my state's attorney general as well as the Attorney General of the state of New York since the number traces back to Syracuse. DO NOT PAY these people a dime! It's a scam, they don't have any sort of comprehension of what you're telling them, and read almost everything from a script, its obvious.
Cammie
Cammie
2010-11-11 18:09:21
Debt Collector
I keep getting calls at work and on my phone from several heavy accented individuals who claim they are from the Legal Department and that I have a case. The last person that called was named Rocky Jackson.
How can this be stopped?
chaz
chaz
2010-11-02 01:56:38
Unknown
Oh my God!! This very same thing happened to me and I am piiiiiisssssed! They said that I had a case with Cashnetusa that was going to litigation but could not give me any information on my supposively "case". Telling me that I better hire a lawyer. I called Cashnet and that's when I was alerted about the scam. Your case is EXACTLY what they told me, but his name was Paul Paulsatillo.
Bill
Bill
2010-10-25 21:35:42
Unknown
315-307-3492

This is a scam.  They are pretending to be from the "Legal Department" of "Cashnet" and try to collect payments over the phone for loans never made.  I don't believe they are actually connected to Cashnet.  The person had a heavy Indian accent, but said his name was "Bob Woodman".  He refused to give the address, and would only say "New York".  Seems pretty strange that they wouldn't give an address if they wanted to collect a debt, no?  

I googled and found plenty of hits on this scam.  The number traces back to Syracruse NY, but willing to bet that it is forwarded from India.

They claimed I had a loan in Nov 2009, but I rechecked my credit report on the off-chance there was identity theft, and there was no such loan.  I have never had a loan with Cashnet, so not sure how I got on the list.  From most of the reports I read, most of the victims had taken out loans with Cashnet, but had paid them off.  Guess they are branching out.

Wish there were a way to shut these creeps down.  I blocked their number.
paul
paul
2010-10-21 22:57:32
Unknown
peoples calling me from long time they says the are from any legal department and they ask for money they are just a scammers takes money from peoples, they doesn't sounds like american. i would suggest peoples not to give money to them, they are fraud.
Karynn
Karynn
2010-10-15 20:00:44
Unknown
They called me asking for Rebecca.  I told them my name was Karynn and they had the wrong number but they went on the ask for my last name.  I just hung up because I didn't know who it was. It was a strange phone call.
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