I was contacted by them as well just a few minutes ago and they could not give me any information about anything but it was a cash advance (which we never took out). I told them I was going to contact the police they had no answer for me on that and could not give me acct infor or anything else. I called my bank they said it is a known fraud and it is all indian speaking people running this and the number will change daily. They did say to expect numerous calls and threats including the possible attempts at your bank account. Contact your bank and let them know you are being harrassed about something you know nothing about and put a hold on any withdrawals on it.

They haven't called in awhile and before they used to call from NY and now they're calling from San Jose CA...They are getting really annoying!!!

They called me on my cell and at work.  They are a scam.  There is no tracing the number or making anyone accountable....  no authorities want to hear about the issues with these people that I've talked to.  The calls started shortly after a filled out a credit app for a motorcycle loan online.  Pretty sure that is how they have all my information.  Tell them you are recording the call and would like them to list thier full legal name, address, state of business license etc.

They have called me over and over again with different names, threatening me and my family.  The person can barely speak english.  They are annoying and harrassing.

They just called me, two weeks ago it was from a different number, told me the police will be at my door tomorrow morning if I do not appear for court, well i never got any court papers, they are ALL indian speaing people, who can hardly speak a lick of english, but yet they have names like Steve Robinson  etc etc etc, i asked them for their bar number and they hung up on me!!!!!!

I just got a call from this number when i was in class and they have called before and its weird how they say its a legal matter and i have gotten nothing in the mail. but the one thing that does kinda scare me is that they have the last four numbers of my social so if someone could find out who the hell these people are and let me know so i can sue for harassment. this is really annoying and a waste of my time. I did call them back and they said it was a pizza hut?

i just got a call from 4086885301 and he left a message stating his name was John Robert and it was very important that I call him back and if I refused to call him back because it's a legal matter. They had my last # of my socila securyty my work place, my address. Please find out who these people are they are harrassing me to take me to court and go to jail.

Called for my husband. Stated name was Ben Johnson, which was outrageous because he barely spoke English. Said it was a legal matter. I hate these damn people. Claims this was American Credit Svc. Please!

I have received several calls stating it was urgent that o call so I did and a guy named shawn michaels said he is attny and said I have 3 federal charges filed against me for a pay day loan that was never done called.my bank they have no transactions wirh this acs for us fast cash he also.gave me the last 4 of my ss# but I called back to get a date and amount and # for this us fast cash he said will call me tmrrw and hung up. WTF and how is this happening to so many people

This phone number has been calling me and my work several times a day.

All of you who recd such calls must forward this email to your local FBI and senators to stop overseas  jokers using local area codes. all communications using local phone numbers by these foreign callers must be stopped, next time I receive any such call,, I will give them my senator's phone number so that the matter will be taken up by the Govt to crack down on all pay day loan companies.

U r not the only one, I got last month and again on the 8th Sept, I dint pick up the phone, same person pretending to be an attorney left a threatening message, looks like a pay day loan scam claiming that I got funds from one of the pay day loan, which I never took. Looks like they got my name and phone# from one of the online ordering sites. It was a weired foreign accent and callers are overseas using local California number. I am glad that Ohio has banned out sourcing of call center jobs to overseas. Authorities must crack down on these calls and stop this nuisance to the public.

Left a message on my cell. Not just one but 3. Called 10 times in 5 min. Listened to voicemail, and I can't even understand a word they say. I was able to make out the "Wish you Luck" Part.

"Shawn Michael" from 408-688-5301 left me a message that I had to call back cuz it was urgent. So I did sum indian guy told me he was an attorney and that I had a pay out loan and that I had sum charges against me for not paying it back & that I also had criminal charges.He been blowing up my phone for the last 2 weeks.So when I talked to him he gave me the last 4 num. of my SS# I was pissed off and told him to give me his info and that I was going to call my lawer and he hunged up on me. I called back & it was mad busy so I called from my husbend's phone and sum female picked it up by the name "Sarah" I told her to put "Shawn Michael" and she asked why & I told her how I was goin to put a lawer on the matter and she also hanged up. So I called my bank and told the wat was goin on and they put locks on my account so no $$ can be withdrawn. So I guess they s*** out of luck & not very smart. To finish it off my husbend tried the number again spoke to "Shawn Michael" and asked why he was callin me for the past 2 weeks and the guy told him not to worry that they updated my info & that all was good. Lmfao these ppl are mad dumb and I feel mad sorry for the ppl that fall into frauds like this.

got the same message as Jill. Call from 408-688-5301 is calling me threatening I need a lawyer and to contact him soon, or he "wishes me luck"

Couldn't hear the name or the matter just a heavy accent. Won't call after see all this.

"Richard" from 408-688-5301 is calling me threatening I need a lawyer and to contact him soon, or he "wishes me luck"

scam - heavy thick accent.  Will not be calling.  Wish I knew how to report them to the police or get them to stop calling me.

Received phone call at work from a Mr. Brown. I was too busy at work to deal with him. I asked for his name and phone #. When I had a free moment I called him back and the phone line didn't go through. I looked at my caller ID at home and noticed he gave me 1 digit off. I called the # and it just rang. I'd tried it later and he finally answered. He wanted to know who I was by my phone #. He then threatened me with an arrest for fraud checks and said it was going to a California court next week. He has a strong accent. I couldn't understand him totally. He asked me if anyone has contacted me or mailed me information about this matter and confirmed my mailing address. I said no, and I don't understand what your calling about. He said let me read you the contents and don't interrupt me until I'm done and then you can ask questions. He did so and asked if I had questions. I told him I still don't understand. He said let me make it simple for you. You owe payday money for a loan you took out. I said I have never even applied for a payday loan. He said we''ll be mailing you the paperwork and get yourself a lawyer. Then hung up the phone on me.

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

This number has called me three times. The persons number is Ben Jonhson, and leaving me a message tha  I  better call back, or they wish me luck. When I called back the no one answers.

i recieved two callls to day giving me the name of ben johnson i recieved a call two months ago that number was on homeland security to be watched and to call the fbi it is a scam to get your hard earned money

The caller tells me that it is an attorny's office and that I need to hang up and call the number back. Said there is a legal matter that has been filed against me. Gave me the name Shawn Michaels as the Attorny. I cannot figure out how they are getting my information. The calls started on my cell about 3 months ago. Today I got one on my work line, which is not listed.