It's a scam. Trying to get your bank account information. They use tactics such as stating they are going to arrest you / that there are lawsuits. You should call back numerous times cause it makes them angry =)

calling all day/nite

I keep getting calls from this number all through the day and night. He claims his name is John something from  Department Of Labor of Education. He made all kinds of threats. I just call them back and irrititate the hell out of them. They do it to me and I do it back. They are calling from another country and try to scam people out of there money. Just report them to the Federal Trade Commission and your local police.

I have been getting calls from this number

It?s been about two weeks since I received any calls from the Department of Law and Investigations. On Monday of this week an Officer Andy Hoffman calls about paying them $200.00 today Friday February 4, 2011. I have not answered the phone because I am waste of breathe on scammers. He has strong accent and tells me at the end of the message ?God Bless You?. What debt collector would even tell you that to begin with? I did run a credit check the other day and have found 5 mysterious credits on it and now I am going through Experian to dispute them. These indenity thieves and scammers are trying to ruin my life. My local government says that it is hard to track these phone numbers because they come from prepaid phone or call cards that get thrown away. Do Not Act to this Scammer!

(805) 290-1945

An officer Mark Johnson and Richard Wilson call me at work and tell me that I have legal papers being filed against me for payday loan I have no idea about. They speak unclear English and have strong Middle Eastern Accents. They say that I owe them $800.00 even and need to pay it ASAP. They would not give me information on the company or a phone number to reach them at. The officer?s excuse to not have that information available is that ?it?s not in my file.? I wrote down all the information requested just so I could do my own investigation. He did tell me I had to fax all my bank information in within one hour. I said yea sure but never did. The next day I called the number back blocked and the Federal Trade Commission picks up to say that the number is a scam. Later that day Richard Jones calls me again and tells me I need to call him back at 805-290-1945. The area codes are from two different states. How stupid would that be for a debt collector to call you from different numbers? It?s a scam so be careful! They have not called me back in a week.

NO. DO NOT RESPOND TO THEM! It's a scam.

just call them back the number goes straight to voicemail i just call them back and leave them nasty threatining messages it probably dont do any good but it is fun make fun of the koran and their god it will really piss them off

hahaha, it is such fun messing with these knuckleheads.

These people keep calling and harrasing me at work.  A Officer Mark Johnson keeps calling.  How do it get them to stop.

I just got one of those calls again .Most of them can't speak English. I was told by Indiana Attorney General's office that these people are hard to catch because they use throw away phones. They move around alot too. I sure hope there aren't people who take this seriously. They must not watch much TV, everyone knows it is against the law to impersenate any kind of Law Enforcement.
They get very irritated when you tell them you can't understand them.
My older son is a Sheriff's Deputy. It would be nice if he could call the local police Dept in Bellingham or wherever. I just found out that they are calling my daughter. So, now I am really mad.

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 have gotten over 30 calls today within hours of each other and some even minutes. they hang up and call right back and i have over 10 voicemails from them. its crazy! these people are nuts if they think im going to let someone harrass me like that.

No They are a fraudulent company that may have all of your information, beware.They are stating that you took out  a payday loan and deposit money into your account in which they didn't.

call the FTC. I did.
1-877-FTC-HELP (382-4357)
FTC.gov

I too am getting these calls at work, on my cell, is ther anyway to stop them????

No these people are NOT real. They are scam artist and use intimidation and harrassment to get you to give them your bank account number, etc. to get money they say you owe. They use different names each time they call and say they will harrass you until you pay. Will call your place of employment until you break down. Don't give them ANYTHING!!!!.

Having the same problem, with this number and 306-3334825. Scam and they harrass and try to get money. Won't stop calling you.

I have received phone calls from these people also. They are becoming very annoying. These people have also called my job. What can be done to stop these people. I actually started quoting bible scriptures while the lady was talking. She eventually hung up the phone.

I received the sam phone call from this number.  They said the same thing that I have been charged with check fraud and money laundering and that someone is going to arrest me unless I settle this charge.  This is a scam and if  you receive this call disregard.  I am law enforcement and this a way for some crook to get your bank information and take your money..

said the same thing to me i owe them 1000.00 and must be paid imm. or the shwerriffs dept. will be at my work place first thing in the morning. unless i pay this amount  but would not give me any information about them.

They are scam artist. I have been getting calls from people with India accents for the past month, all saying that their are allegations against me. They have american names which is funny like David Brown, they can't even say my name right and have even said they work for the US Dept. of Investigation. I have only spoken to one of them, they just accuse you of fraud and want to settle it right then and there by you giving out your bank account info, they get mad when you laugh at them and call their tactics a scam. Don't call them. Its a scam.

this woman with a foreign accent keeps calling my work number and leaving a message that she is a law enforcement officer and that legal papers have been filed against me and I need to call her ASAP.  I have no reason to have legal papers filed against me.  Is she for real?