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

They said that I owed this money 600 dollars I told them that I did not owe this money.  That I could make arangement to pay or they would serve me with a law suit.  The Bad thing is that they have all my information
Bank and social security number

I just received the same call by Sean Miller so I called back and spoke with a Gabriel Johnson. Both had really thick accents but he tried to bully me into paying him $631. I told him I have NEVER taken a cash advance esp and have no idea who this co is. He was rude and abrupt and told me that it was not his problem and that they were going to press charges. The scary thing is that they have ALL of my information. I told them I was going to check into it more. Horrible people!!!

WELL I THINK MY ISSUE TAKES THE CAKE. THE GUY CALLS MY JOB AND REQUESTS THAT I CALL BACK. WHEN I CALLED TO ASK HIN NOT CALL MY JOB ANYMORE HE BEGAN TO YELL AT ME. I TOLD HIM TO STOP YELLING AT ME AND HE SAID WELL BI*** FIND A NEW JOB. I CALLED BACK AND HE PROCEED TO CALL ME A BI*** SEVERAL TIMES AND SAID F*** ME AND SCREAMED AT THE END OF THE CALL THAT I WAS GOING TO JAIL. SPOKE WITH A SUPERVISOR WHO PLACED ME ON HOLD FOR ABOUT 20 MINUTES AND THEN HUNG UP. SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE ABOUT THIS PEOPLE.

I have received several calls from this number..foreign accent..says his name is Shawn miller.THIS IS A TOTAL SCAM...WHAT IS SCARY IS THAT THEY HAVE THE LAST FOUR DIGITS OF MY social.

this is crazy i called them back told them i was a scam and he said he was gonna make our lives miserable please who can we call for this to report

got a call at work and turned it over to my boss. its a govt line and it will be taken care of by the higher ups. wrong thing to do is call a govt phone-tracers can be put on it. so time will tell what happens with this scam call. dont have any payday loans and so they are not going to try to scare me into giving them money. stupid jerks! thanks for all the posts in here.

received a call from this number on my cell phone and at work.  A man named Jim wanted me to return the call and this is the number that he left.  I do not have any loans and am not behind in any of my payments, but it is the harrassing calls that bug me.  Just wanted to report this number.  It changes periodically.

continues to call my work after being told not to

july 3,2012 received a call from this number 347-491-5136. They called my home, family member and my job. On my home and family member they made threats take my social security and arrest me. Foreigner accent. I got to work and they left a message with phone number that they called family member and me from. I knew it was a scam.

Keep receiving calls from 347-491-5136. AT WORK. This has been going on for over a year now. They are supposedly collecting on a debt but will not give me their company name. The first time they called the man I talked to said it is for a debt to a payday loan store in California (I live in Wisconsin and have never been to California) but they can not tell me when I received this loan or how much it was for. At first I was worried about identity theft because I have not received any payday loans and when I stated this fact the man I was speaking to called me a liar and told me they were coming to arrest me and I was going to rot in jail. I asked for his call back information to give to my attorney and he hung up on me. I chalked it up to a scam and forgot about it. A couple months later they tried again. He told me that there was a warrant out for my arrest and that they were coming to my work to arrest me and that I was going to get fired for stealing from the payday company and being a liar. I told him to come ahead and arrest me because I have my bank statements to prove I had not received any loan. Again, he hung up. This has been going on every few months for over a year now. I have stopped answering the phone. I figured a real collection agency would be a little more civil and have more information that this "company did".

This is an extortion scam that was featured two weeks ago on "ABC World News" and "Nightline".

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

IT'S A SCAM

It's a bunch of bullsh t  Don't beleive a word of it. If you're still uncertain about this call  Then the next time they call ask for it in writing ( you won't get it) And that's against the law and so is threatening you with jail

Got this call, he sounded Indian.  Said i would be arrested, and my Social Security taken from me.  I have no idea what this is.,

Got a call from this number, he sounded Indian.  Said i would be arrested and they would take my Social Security, and i would go to jail.  What is this?

I got this call these called 3 different numbers at my job trying to reach me they are a FRAUD! said they were gonna fax me the info since 12 haven't seen a fax yet!

This number called me twice.

Pretty much the same as what everyone else is saying.  I hung up and first because he sounded like a foreign telemarketer.  Then he threatened to have the me arrested at the place of my work.  Seems he got my info from CashAdvance. I gave him my attorneys name and he hung up.

they call me five time a day and  stated that i have a legal case and  need to call me back.

I get the same calls...about 5 in the past year....just got another one this morning. I just saw a story on Nightline the other night about these people and they said that there's not much we can do at this point, but DO NOT send them money....of course, most everybody already knows that...LOL

HE CALLED me back. I asked him what the suit was about and he said that he couldn't discuss it and that i had to call back and speak with his "Senior" attorney. I then asked why isn't he calling me and NOT YOU. he had no reply and kept reading his script. i started recording him on my answering machine as we spoke. i let him know that i was recording him. when i said that i want to know what this is about or i'm going to start pressing charges. he suddenly hung up and hasn't called back

HE said his name was "Sean(shawn) Milo" HE HAD A VERY HEAVY ACCENT AND BROKEN ENGLISH.(there is noway he is NAMED Sean) Claimed to be from B.C.S. legal dept. Said that i had a lawsuit being filed against me and my s.s.#. and i needed to call him back right away. if i didn't call him back he couldn't help me and i'll be in "BIG TROUBLES".

CALLED SAYING I HAD A LAWSUIT BEING FILED ON ME. AND I NEEDED TO CALL HIM BACK OR I WAS GOING TO BE IN "BIG TROUBLES" THE PHONE NUMBER IS BOGUS. HE IS USING A SWITCH PHONE