Call me saying I owed money on a Payday loan.  Told me he was sending an investigation team along with their lawyer to my job on Monday.  I told him that was fine and I will have my lawyer call him and this is a scam to steal my identity and I will not fall for this again.

I just spoke with mark smith (an asian with little english) amd he told me and I quote "i no chinku mida focka!"  Then hung up!

I received a message from my supervisor this morning and the receptionist saying Mark Smith said I need to call him back, because they are suing me.  He then continuously called the main # to my office and cursed out the 2 receptionist.  I then called and filed a complaint w/the FTC and will soon file a complaint with the BBB in my area.  The main info the customer service agent w/the FTC said, is do not validate any information.  If they need to contact you, then do so in writing and stop the calls.  But these idots could care less.  The company I worked for then blocked the two numbers....347-960-0612 & 347-474-7041.

I got received a message from my supervisor this morning and the receptionist saying Mark Smith said I need to call him back, because they are suing me.  He then continuously called the main # to my office and cursed out the 2 receptionist.  I then called and filed a complaint w/the FTC and will soon file a complaint with the BBB in my area.  The main info the customer service agent w/the FTC said, is do not validate any information.  If they need to contact you, then do so in writing and stop the calls.  But these idots could care less.  The company I worked for then blocked the two numbers....347-960-0612 & 347-474-7041.

They have been calling for for months on my work cell phone, claiming that my name and SSN have been named in a law suit.  The most recent call was on 04/09/2012, from a Jackie Williams.  He asked for me to call them back immediately or they will report me to my employer.

I got the same message today twice they called me and said they had my SS number and email saying that i need to give them a call back they wanted me to call them and my lawyer call them also they need to be stopped 1-347-960-0612

I got this very same message today 4-15-2012 they even called my work, and my cell. was very ugly when I called him back!!

I recieved a call stating that he was Ricky Jones and he was calling because there is a law suit against my social. This is not the first that they have called. They have called from different numbers and used different names. The get your info from off line and then the call you stating they have a law suit with your SSN when basically they are trying to scam you. Please I repeat DO NOT FALL FOR IT OR DO NOT GIVE THEM ANY MORE OF YOUR INFO OR GIVE THEM MONEY.

Mike Thomas needs to find a  new line of work, Im with the others, provide me with proof that I owe you. I will not be answering any more calls from this number nor  347-474-7041.

I received a phone call from a guy that said his name was jackie williams. I could not understand what he was saying.

I wish I knew casue I am having the same problem. I filed a complaint with Federal Trade Commission. The Police cant do anything and I have no idea what else to do casue t takes a toll on you when they call you everyday over and over and over and they dont stop.

I dont think so. I keep getting the same calls and they threaten t send a investigting team to my work

I received a call at work from a Ricky Jones from 347.474.7041 regarding a debt against my SS# and told me to call him back at 347.960.0612>  I called him and told him I worked for the FBI and I have turned it over to my supervisor and he hung up.

They started calling my place of employment today.. I told them if they had a case against me then bring up a lawsuit because it wasnt my debt.. They continue to call until I told them that the Ky State Police would be contacting them.. I also let them know that all of their conversations was recorded. Then to return the favor, my co workers & I started to call them at the 347-960-0612 & kept annoying them like they did us. I dont think they like be harassed like they like harassing..

Yes 3479600612 called my mother in pittsburfh. now i am a soldier stationed in ft campbell ky. This man with and aribic accent called her and told her that i had done something illegal and that she is implicated in it as well and that if i didnt call that she could get in serious trouble. she was terrified and she called me and asked what i had done. i told her i didnt know and i called.the number back. i asked for michael thompson (the name he game my mother) and another aribic man asked my my name i gave it to him then he asked me for my phone number i said i wanted to know what company this was and he said if i gave him my number someone would call. i gave him my number and then i asked again what company he worked for. the man then started and said ill get a call.CRAP!! Will this bumber jeep calling my phone now?????

My daughter (who is all of 22) has been harrassed for over two years by this company claiming that she has an outstanding payloan debt or at another time it was that someone had won a law suit against her.  They call her cell phone constantly and have started calling her work phone number (where I also happen to work.)  She has no debt and when they claimed there was a lawsuit, since we work at an attorneys office, I asked them to send on over those papers and we would respond.  That was a year ago and all was quiet until this afternoon.  I recognized the phone number (347)960-0612 and said that my daughter was no longer here, he immediately got lewd and disgusting with me.  Then one call after another.. all with cussing and other gross things.  Does ANYONE know who to report these people too or how to get them to stop????

Margaret, please request that your manager preserve that recording somehow. A network news producer now investigating fake PDL collectors may be interested in the material. Here's a thread where you can get some details:

http://800notes.com/forum/ta-50651c32c12c346/teri-abc

This number keeps calling my place of employment even though i'm not there today.. My general manager has them recording cussing him out.. thankfully I called 8886675718 & found out that they are a scam..

Got this call too...same as everyone else.  Call back on this number, very heavy accent..some legal matter..very hard to understand so I really doubt that his name is Mark Smith?  Ha!   Yesterday he also called my work place numerous time and my home several times.

I also received a call from this person. He said that his name was Mack. He told me that he had a complaint against my SS # and that if I don't take cake of the debt that he was going to through legal action.
He said that he was calling from Advance American Cash Loans. I told him that this is a scam because he didn't have my last name correct. He starting yelling at me, stating he was going to contact my employer and get it resolved that way and then hung up on me. I called him back and told him that I was going to report him to the police and he continued to yell, and I just hung up. These people need to stop, i am going to contact the NY police and provide this number so, they can look into it. This is crazy!!
Please be careful.

This guy named brian hawkins and Mr.Jordan as they call them selves from PCS are hat

they just called my job they were yelling and screaming askn for information on me.. my co worker trns them to HR who then got as much info as possible the guy said his name was Louise Jordan he also called frm 347 474 7041 Iam goin to file a police report.. As the phne conversation was recorded

They called my job stating it was an emergency and when I called back he was singing in the phone and saying something about my ssn. He was oviously a collector and I couldn't understand him.

Same thing, this morning. Called my house line and then my cell phone line. Guy spoke in a heavy thick almost Arabic accent. This guy is a crack, I couldn't understand a word he said. I'm glad I know he's not on the level, I always have an outstanding debt or two so I wondered. But after this, thank you!

Call came from 347-474-7041 out of new york

very heavy accent wanting me to call the 347-960-0612 #  he's using my late husbands name..

Same as all above but the caller was calling about a close friend of mine.

I have been recieving hurrasing calls from this number stating i owe him money and i never heard of this company or this number. I also gave him my drivers liscence to the guy he goes by the name if mike or John and is calling from these numbers.....347-960-0612  and  347-474-7041  646-224-5993             646-224-9593.  
I have called the cops and made a report but nothing has been done yet. I know everyone else has recieved these calls as well. I acctually sent them money and my personal info.

The same fool called me telling me I owed $8000 to a payday loan company. I told him I would never be so stupid to borrow that kind of money from a payday loan company. He was nuts & until I had something in writing he could suck an egg. He continued to talk in his thick accent while I was talking trying to convince me he was legitimate & I needed to speak to his lead attorney but I told him to go to hell & hu on him. He has called me again today & I just ignored the call. I have his voicemail in case I need any backup from someone. He also stated to me in the first call that if I did not contact his lead attorney regarding this matter then he could only wish me good luck with a smirk in his voice & it was a call to my employment phone. I told him if he was so damn smart then he also knew if I told him to stop calling me at work he had no choice but to just call the other number he has which I can ignore & just let go to voicemai. These guys think they are really slick trying to scare people out of their money with threatened legal action. I let him know unless I got something in writing or copies of something I signed saying I agreed to pay this debt then he could just go suck an egg & hu on him.

BEWARE-

I have been receiving calls from a Mr. Mack from Advantage Cash America. Knew my personal info also. He wanted me to pay back a loan he says I owe. Of course when asked he would not provide information on the loan. I hung up. Then the same voice left me a message saying he is Brian Hawkins from the legal dept. of Public Credit something and leaves the same number (347-960-0612) Mr. Mack did to return the call. The number that comes up on my phone when he calls is 347-474-7041.

One leg of this scam has been shut down:

Even scam artists are outsourcing. On Tuesday in its first crackdown on fraudulent telemarketing in South Asia, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it was shutting down two California-based companies that used a call center in India to defraud Americans out of more than $5 million over the past two years.

Workers in India made threatening calls to Americans getting them to pay money on debts that they didn't owe, the FTC charges. At an FTC press conference in Chicago on Tuesday, fraud victim JanLaree DeJulius explained that she had received a call from someone claiming to be an enforcement officer from the (phony) "Federal Department of Crime and Prevention," who threatened to have her arrested and have her wages garnished if she didn't pay a bill of more than $730. The scam artists had gotten her name and information from a payday loan her ex-husband had taken out in her name.

"It was very embarrassing," Dejulius said. "He knew everything about me so I agreed to set up an installment." She is not alone. According to the FTC, more than 8 million calls were made since 2010 and at least 17,000 transactions processed across the United States related to the global scam.

On Tuesday under request from the FTC, a U.S. District Court in Chicago stopped the international operation, charging Varang K. Thaker and two companies he owned, American Credit Crunchers, LLC, and an affiliate Ebeeze, LLC, with violating the FTC Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

"This is a brazen operation based on pure fraud, and the FTC is committed to shutting it down," said David Vladeck, director of the FTC's consumer protection bureau. "Consumers should not be pressured into paying debt they don't remember owing. Legitimate debt collectors must provide consumers with both written information about the debt, and instructions for protecting themselves if they don't think they owe the debt."

According to the FTC's charges, Thaker used Social Security numbers and bank account numbers obtained from payday lenders to identify the victims for his scam. He outsourced the work to an Indian call center, where workers made threatening calls to American consumers to pay fake debt or collect on bills for which they were not authorized.

Thaker was not available when contacted by telephone on Tuesday. A woman who claimed to be Thaker's older sister and asked not to be named for privacy reasons said he is working with the FTC to help the Indian government pursue the fraudster call center operators. She also said he was innocent in the scam. "He was being used by somebody. He didn't even know where they got the information," she told The Huffington Post by phone. She said that her brother got 10 percent of the earnings from the scam operation.

The FTC charges against Thaker are the latest in a series of police actions by the government agency to put an end to rogue debt collection operations that have become more frequent in the aftermath of the Great Recession. In January, the FTC struck a $2.5-million settlement with debt-buying company Asset Acceptance, LLC, charging that the company had falsely represented itself to customers, including making up phantom debts that customers no longer owed. Last October, the FTC filed a complaint against seven other fraudulent debt collectors, alleging that they had engaged in the same techniques -- demanding money from customers who owed nothing at all.

The growing number of Americans who are unable to pay their bills has meant there are more companies looking to profit from their economic difficulties.

Debt collectors have been taking more aggressive tactics as fewer people are able to make ends meet or are in a cycle of debt. More than 30 million Americans are in debt collection, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Since 2010, more than 4,000 complaints have been filed with the FTC and state attorneys general about fraudulent debt collection calls, the FTC said.

Charles Junitkka, a personal bankruptcy attorney who represents clients in the New York City area, said, "In the last few years, the desperation of the collectors and their efforts have intensified because of the economy."

This story has been updated to reflect comment from a woman who says she is the sister of Varang Thaker. Thaker himself was unavailable for comment.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/21/ftc- ... _n_1289751.html