This S.O.B. threatened me that I was going to spend 2 years in jail if I don't pay but he wont give me the company in which I owe. "They must think Im a BAD BOY they tryna stop my SHYNE... but a car door is the only thing that I'll be locked behind."

I recieved a call from a number (412-360-8425) saying they were filing a lawsuit against me, it was a heavy accented person and it was very hard to understand him.  When I asked the name of his company he said CASHADVANCE.  I have done cashadvances in the past and I have 1 outstanding loan, I asked if he was associated with the company I had the outstanding loan with and he said NO.  I asked to speak to his manager I was told to call 646-520-0835.  I called that number and was transferred to Frank Miller who called me Sweetie, when I tried to get information from him and asked if he was a scam he told me I WAS A SCAM AND I WAS A Mother F-er!! I hung up. PLEASE BE AWARE THIS IS A SCAM.

this dumn idiot keeps calling our job asking for an employee wanting their SS# we've refered the # over to the police..its a scam just hang up on this creep

This scam has been going on for well over a year, now and has been recognized as such by the BBB:

Chicago, IL ? August 5, 2009 ? The Better Business Bureau is issuing an alert about phony debt collectors that are calling consumers nationwide and claiming that they have defaulted on a payday loan and will be arrested if they don?t pay immediately. Claiming to be lawyers, the scammers say they are with the ?Financial Accountability Association? or the ?Federal Legislation of Unsecured Loans? and are equipped with a disconcerting amount of personal information about their potential victims.

?Because the scammers have so much information about potential victims, the BBB is concerned that this may be the result of a data breach,? said Steve J. Bernas, president & CEO of the Better Business Bureau serving Chicago and Northern Illinois. ?Thousands of people may have had their personal information compromised, and given the scammers? tactics, it appears that those who have previously used payday loan services could be particularly at risk.?

According to reports received by the BBB and posted online, the scammers accuse the victim of defaulting on a payday loan and claim they are being sued. The phony debt collector threatens that, if the victim doesn?t pay as much as $1,000 immediately via wire or by providing bank account or credit card numbers, he or she will be arrested and extradited to California within the hour to stand trial. The scammers often may have the victim?s Social Security, old bank account numbers or driver?s license numbers as well as home addresses, employer information and even the names of personal friends and professional references.

The BBB offers the following advice to consumers if they receive a suspicious telephone call about an outstanding debt:
* Ask the debt collector to provide official documentation in writing which substantiates the debt.
* Do not provide or confirm any bank account, credit card or other personal information over the phone until you have confirmed the legitimacy of the call.
* Review recent copies of your credit reports to ensure that the alleged debt is not affecting your credit. Consumers can do this for free once every 12 months, and can find more information here: http://www.ftc.gov/freereports
* Under the Federal Trade Commission's Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, debt collectors may not harass, oppress, or abuse any person while attempting to collect a debt.
* A debtor may be contacted between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. only and can be contacted at work unless instructed not to.
* File a complaint with the FTC online if the caller is abusive, uses threats or otherwise violates federal telemarketing laws.
* File a complaint with BBB online at www.bbb.org if you believe a debt collector is trying to scam you.

http://www.thinkglink.com/article/2009/08/06/ ... eading-says-bbb

http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-214-618-5897

This is a very active group of scammers, many of whom are calling from India (and probably other countries) and are in cahoots with a group of American pay day loan scammers. They attempt to extort money from consumers with a myriad of false and illegal threats, and alternately pose as debt collectors, federal and state law enforcement officers, lawyers and bankers. Their trademark is to use meaningless legalese gobblygook phrases like "We are downloading warrants against you" or "We are filing an affidavit against you." Another trademark phrase is to threaten the consumer with something like this ridiculous phrase: "If you don't pay then only God can help you."

Typical of many financial scams of this variety, they usually demand payment via Western Union or MoneyGram or credit card. They use any number of phony names such as US National Bank, Federal Investigation Bureau, US Legal Investigation Bureau, Hopkins Law Office, United Legal Processing, Morgan Associates, United Pay Services, National Processing, White Collar Crime Unit and many more.  These criminals also use many phone numbers from many area codes; they're probably using caller-id spoofing software and/or VoIP to disguise their real location.

The main thing to remember is that anytime someone calls you demanding money to prevent your arrest, or demanding your lawyer's name so they can sue you, it is ALWAYS a scam. No debt collector (let alone criminals posing as debt collectors) has the authority to have anyone arrested for anything. (And it's illegal to them to threaten such a thing.) And since these foreign dirtbags routinely impersonate law enforcement, it's also important to remember that American law enforcement officers aren't in the business of debt collection.  (Debt is a civil, not a criminal, matter.)

The bottom line is, these are criminals trying to steal your money.

A consumer posting a complaint about these same scammers at http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-718-831-7157 notes that 718-831-7157 is associated with an India-based "outsourcing" telephone bank.  Though a reverse search on WhitePages.com shows that 718-831-7157 is an unlisted land line in New York City, information on Debtbuyers.Com shows that that number is used by India-based Intellisourze. (Source: http://www.debtbuyers.com/debtbuyers.asp ) My guess is that it's a VoIP phone number.

This is another piece of the puzzle that fits in perfectly with other information about this scam. There are some reports on 800Notes that have suggested that the crooks behind this offshore scam are also the crooks behind the notorious Bass/Ellis Crosby & Assoc./States Predisposition scams in Florida and Georgia. The interesting thing is that the number of complaints on here about the US National Bank/US Legal Investigation/Federal Investigation scam skyrocketed *after* April 7, 2008 when Florida obtained a $1.3 million judgment against Ted Ellis Crosby, shutdown his operations and barred him from ever conducting debt collections in Florida (Read http://myfloridalegal.com/newsrel.nsf/newsrel ... 5257424005858A6 ) There's certainly a good chance that the crooks placing these calls from India are doing so on behalf of the American crooks behind the Crosby/Bass/States Predisposition scams.

Here's the contact information for the phone bank in India:

IntellisOurzE BPO
701, Sapphier, Nr. Cargo Motors,
C.G. Road Navrangpura,
Ahmedabad - 9. (Guj.) INDIA.
E-Mail: info@intellisourze.com
Website: www.intellisourze.com

A check on the domain name "intellisourze.com" shows that the website and name registration was created on May 8, just one month *after* the Crosby scams were shut down in Florida:

Domain Name: INTELLISOURZE.COM
Registrant:  Pragra Infratech Pvt. Limited.
Email:  ankur.ranpariya@pragra.com  
908, Aksaht Tower, Nr. ICICI Bank
Opp. Rajpath Club, S.G. Highway
Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India 380054
Tel. +91.7926871353
Creation Date: 08-May-2008
Expiration Date: 08-May-2009
Domain servers in listed order: ns5.znetindia.com ns4.znetindia.com
(Source: http://whois.domaintools.com/intellisourze.com )

Though scam calls from these crooks have been going on long before May 8, the frequency of complaints about these calls increased considerably after Crosby was shut down in early April.

This is conjecture, but appearances suggest that Crosby and company were originally running a two-pronged payday loan scam operation -- with some calls being made from Jacksonville, Florida and other calls being made from a phone bank in India (and possibly other countries); then, after the Florida Attorney General shut down the Crosby scams in Florida, the Crosby crooks transferred most of their scam efforts to the India phone bank.

If you are targeted by these criminals, be sure to report them to all the following federal and state law enforcement agencies (most of which you can do online or over the phone):

1) Alert the FBI at https://tips.fbi.gov  Be sure to tell the FBI that you are being targeted by extortionists over the phone. And if the crooks claim to be law enforcement, lawyers, officers of the court or bankers, or if they threatened you with arrest, be sure to include that information in your report.

2) File a complaint online with The Federal Trade Commission at https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/FTC_Wizard.aspx?Lang=en

3) File a complaint with your local police. Most police departments will take a report over the phone.  Be sure to tell them that you're being targeted by an extortionist and give them all the details.

4) The caller placed the call under a Texas area code. Even though the caller ID was probably spoofed or they're using VoIP technology to hide the fact that they're really calling from overseas, you should also file a complaint with the Texas Attorney General at http://www.oag.state.tx.us/consumer/complain.shtml

5) File a complaint your state's attorney general, the contact information for whom is at www.naag.org

6) The U.S. Secret Service is responsible for protecting the country's financial infrastructure and payment systems from international and domestic threats. Call or write your local Secret Service field office to alert them to the details of this attempted extortion. The addresses and phone numbers for the local Secret Service field offices are listed at http://www.secretservice.gov/field_offices.shtml or in your phone book.

If these crooks call back, promise them nothing, pay them nothing and tell them nothing other than that you know they're a scam and that you've reported them to law enforcement. (And be sure to report them to all the agencies above each time they call you.)

By the way, here's just a small sample of numbers used by this particular group of scammers. Read the reports and you'll see the same pattern time and again -- phony organization names, thick foreign accents, and oddly worded threats that are so melodramatic and ridiculous that it's laughable:

http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-925-262-1327
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-678-954-6346
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-888-341-4004
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-856-831-0640
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-949-743-1140
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-410-505-8128
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-917-464-2534
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-210-858-6602
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-888-775-2121
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-949-743-1156
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-214-245-1402
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-214-245-0922
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-214-723-5572
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-904-425-2863
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-718-831-7157
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-904-425-2857
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-858-244-0444
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-954-678-9724
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-610-571-3252
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-310-909-8245

...and, many, MANY more.

I had pretty much the same thing as Ashley, except it was "Officer Neil Johnson"; I've been getting calls like this for weeks now and the person's name and the name of the company they work for changes.  They left a message telling me to call back.  Obviously, i already knew it was a scam but I decided to call back and see what info they could give me.  Ironically, this "officer" sounded exactly like the "attorneys" who called before lol.  Anyway, he read the "affidavit" and then said he was being nice and giving me the chance to settle the debt now rather than taking it to court and me paying thousands in attorney fees, etc.  He asked if I want to settle now or go to court.  He also kept mentioning the Oklahoma Attorney General (I am from Oklahoma but I don't know why he mentioned the AG except maybe he thought it would scare me lol).  I had previously filed a complaint about one of the other fake companies with them.
At this point I told him that because my father would be the attorney handling the case, there would be no attorney fees so I wanted to go to court lol.  He got belligerent.  I said, "from this point on, you will be talking to my attorney.  His number is".  He interrupted me and refused to take my dad's phone number.  I swear he said, "I don't want to talk to your father, your mother or your grandfather! I am talking to you!"  I repeated that my father is my attorney and would definitely be handling this b***s*** case so he would be talking to my father eventually anyway.  He kept trying to talk over me but I wouldn't let him.  He said, "So you think that gives you the right to break the law?!"  So I replied, I am no more breaking the law than you are right now, committing fraud, extortion, etc.  He then yelled that he would see me in court on Monday and hung up LOL!  
I called my dad and he told me to try to get an address out of this guy, even if it is a fake one.  They could still possibly press charges against this company all they would probably need is an address, even a fake one.  When i called, he refused to give me an address.  He kept asking why I need it and hung up when I laughed at him.  
I highly recommend filing complaints with your AG, the BBB and the FTC.  When this call happened, I immediately called the Oklahoma AG and was sent to the fraud hotline.  They took the number, the "officer's" name, etc.  I mentioned that he was now talking about them and that surprised her.  She said she was immediately going to let everyone in the office know about this new thing.  Maybe they could now do something since it is obviously a problem.

Guy left a voicemail on my cell while I was at work, scared me to death thinking I was gonna be sued for something... Told my fiance and right away he knew this was a scam (he saw it on dateline nbc and reminded me about it). Guy had a very Indian accent. This is what he said, word for word: "This message is for Ashley ****. This is Officer Scott from Law and Investigation Department. There is a lawsuit filed on your name and your social security number is currently blocked by the U.S. government. Your address ********* is under investigation so I need you to return this call to 412-360-8425. Call me back so I can help you. If you fail to return this call, I-I don't know what's going to happen to you. This is Officer Scott."

These people need to be stopped. This scared me pretty bad and my fiance was ticked off. We decided not to go to the police dept. because now I know I'm not the only "victim" that got a call from these people. I am going to email my local attorney general and report this incident.

They called.I picked up.
I screamed.
ME: LOOK YOU F****N THREATENER.
ME: I KNOW THIS ISN'T DAMN F****N TRUE!!
ME: PUT YOUR F****NG PHONE UP YOUR PISSY A** AND STOP F****N' CALLING!
ME: GOOD BYE YOU F-U-C-K-E-R!!!
(i disconnect)
Just curse everytime they call. :)

THE SAME EXACT THING HAPPENED TO ME YESTERDAY. AND I GOOGLED THE NUMBER AND ALSO FOUND THAT IT WAS A SCAM. THESE PEOPLE ARE THREATENING TO HAVE YOU ARRESTED AND EVERYTHING. FORTUNATELY I HAD ALREADY PAID OFF ALL PAYDAY LOANS A WEEK BEFORE OTHERWISE I WOULD HAVE BELIEVED THEM. THIS IS REALLY AMAZING. EVERYONE REALLY NEEDS TO BE CAREFUL WITH PUTTING THEIR INFORMATION OVER THE INTERNET.

Gary Pederson of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, (412-360-8425,)stating that my social security number is being used and that I needed to call 510-355-9805 to find out more information. This is a matter of urgency..
Caller sounded of India descent..

Same as other calls, but was very hard to understand. He sounded Arab. But he left the message on my answering phone for my fiancee'. So I called the number and it is busy.

WOW... my friend googled the number for me and that is how I found out this was FAKE... she made my day :-).

Same call same people!

My wife just got a call from a guy by the name of Steve Paul. and he said he is from the bureau of Investigation. She asked on what is this about and the guy will not say. I tried to call the number and some guy from india answered the phone and there is no Steve Paul. This is a total scam!!!!!! and I am getting tired of this people is there anything that the consumer do about it and where is the Law Enforcement when you need one.

Fake Debt Collectors Terrify Consumers
By ALICE GOMSTYN

Alleged debt collection scam uses strange names, threats to frighten consumers.

Scammers masquerading as debt collectors and law enforcement officials have terrified consumers with threatening phone calls and bilked them out of thousands of dollars, officials with the West Virginia Attorney General's Office say.

Prosecutors said that the scammers, who speak with heavy foreign accents, are known for repeatedly calling people at home and at work and threatening them with arrest if they don't repay supposed debts -- debts that, according to West Virginia officials, don't actually exist.

The scammers operate under names such as U.S. National Bank, Federal Investigation Bureau and United Legal Processing, said West Virginia Assistant Attorney General Norman Googel.

The callers also have invoked the names of actors Denzel Washington and Steve Martin, people who've received calls tell ABCNews.com.

Googel said that the scammers have been impossible to track down, but ABCNews.com spoke to one man who claimed to be associated with U.S. National Bank. The man said he works for Financial Crime Division, a company he said provides services for USNB.

The man refused to give his name and gave little information about his company.

"It's not necessary that each and everyone knows about Financial Crime Division, and probably one of them is you," he said. (To hear an excerpt of this interview, click here. Links to more interview excerpts are included on the second and third pages of this story.)

The man also denied that consumers had been threatened with arrests.

But Mark Feury, a 35-year-old assistant manager at a hotel cafe, said it was the threat of an arrest that drove him to wire nearly $800 to U.S. National Bank in January. The Lewisberg, W.Va., resident said that he took out several payday loans -- short-term loans -- in 2005 to help pay for Christmas presents and medical treatments for his son, who suffers from autism.

Feury said he paid his loans back in 2007, but the scammers' phone calls -- at least 35 in all, he said -- and their threats made him doubt himself.

"I was scared to death," he said. "Everything they said literally just stressed me out to the max."

The group has targeted consumers who took out payday loans through Web sites years ago, Googel said.

The group has secured consumers' Social Security numbers and other personal information, which may have been stolen from Internet payday lending sites, Googel said.

What has made the group especially intimidating, Googel said, is its use of phrases that sound like legal terms -- such as "downloading affidavits" -- but, in reality, are meaningless.

The alleged scammers have also invoked God, Googel said, telling victims that "only God can help you now."

Some of the scammers' tactics are downright puzzling.

One West Virginia woman, who asked that her name not be revealed, told ABCNews.com that a scammer once called her and identified himself as "Denzel Washington."

Feury said that one of the scammers who called him said he was calling from "Steve Martin's office."


Collection and Money Fraud
Googel said that the scammers' use of celebrity names may indicate a lack of familiarity with American names. Some, he said, suspect that the scammers are based in India.

Since July 2007, Googel said, the West Virginia Attorney General's Office has heard from nearly 20 consumers who have complained about the scam.

West Virginia residents aren't the only ones complaining. The Florida Attorney General's Office said it has heard more than three dozen complaints related to U.S. National Bank.

Thus far, Googel said, the scammers have been impossible to trace, using a multitude of phone numbers and fake addresses.

"The way they've hidden themselves is pretty slick," he said.

ABCNews.com called a phone number associated with U.S. National Bank -- Feury listed the number in a complaint against the company -- and was transferred to the man who claimed to work for Financial Crime Division.

The man, who spoke to an ABC News reporter for about five minutes, said that U.S. National Bank owns Internet payday lending Web sites and that Financial Crime Division is a "legal affidavit processor" -- a term that Googel also has dismissed as meaningless -- that works to notify borrowers that they still owe money to USNB. (The man refused to provide ABC News with contact information for U.S. National Bank.)

"They have taken so many loans they have forgotten that one to pay back and we are calling them about this legal matter," the man on the phone said. "That's not our problem that they have forgotten."

The man argued against the complaint that his company had called people about nonexistent or repaid debts. Consumers, he said, have failed to provide the company with proof that their debts have been repaid.

"When we are asking the information, they are not ready to give to us," he said. "If they have paid it, they must have something in writing, some kind of receipt, but they are not going to give it to us, so how can we trust them?"


Loan Scams and Fake Address
When asked where Financial Crime Division was based, the man hung up.

Googel said that he has been on the phone with the suspected scammers many times and that each time they refuse to provide identifying information such as valid addresses or a licensing number, which collections agencies operating in West Virginia are required to have.

"I yell and scream at them, but it doesn't do any good. It's sort of high drama in a way," he said.

Googel said that he has notified the Federal Trade Commission about the scam, but the FTC would not confirm whether it had launched an investigation. An FTC official told ABCNews.com that it does not disclose whether it is investigating a company unless it takes the company to court.

The official said that consumers with complaints about U.S. National Bank are encouraged to contact the FTC, the Better Business Bureau or their state attorney general's office. Read a statement by the West Virginia Attorney General's Office's office on the issue here.

ABC News' Gerard Middleton contributed to this report.

http://abcnews.go.com/m/screen?id=5621205&pid=74

I got a call from (412) 360-8425, Shawn Michelle stated he was an investigator with the United Stated Bureau of  Investigations and he was calling regarding a lawsuit against me and my social security number and when I called the number back, a guy  answered HELLO, and would not tell me where he was calling from. I Google that number and found out there were a lot of complaints against this number.

They also hung up on my mom for trying to find out what I had gotten into if it was trouble. They also hung up on me twice just because I couldn't understand them. I called maybe 3 times and got through but after they hung up the last time it said something bout the extension could not be reached my mom tried calling and it said the voicemail is full.

I just received a call and he asked if I had any payday loans and that someone was going to arrest me (had my social, etc and asked me to verify)- I asked him to send me documention via email and still awaiting (call just came in about 1 hour ago)-- I called back and they did answer--had an accept (sounded Indian or Arabic)--It seems like a scam

I HAD THE SAME EXACT CALL WORD BY WORD   SCAM

I received a call from 412-360-8425.  The person had a very broken English accent. The phone line was breaking up and had a very bad echo.  He said there was a very serious matter with my identification.  He did not identify himself until I ask who he was.  The person claimed to be from the Bureau of Investigation, an officer SHAWN MICHELLE.    He wanted to confirm my social security number over the phone and started to give me a number.  I refused to confirm it over the phone.  He asked again if this was my social security number.  I told him I would not confirm any information over the phone.  I asked for his number (so I could Google it) and he gave me the 412-360-8425 number.  I then hung up on him.  SAME AS THE OTHER CALLER THAT STATED THE SAME THING

I received a call from 412-360-8425.  The person had a very broken English accent. The phone line was breaking up and had a very bad echo.  He said there was a very serious matter with my identification.  He did not identify himself until I ask who he was.  The person claimed to be from the Bureau of Investigation, an officer Scott Bell.    He wanted to confirm my social security number over the phone and started to give me a number.  I refused to confirm it over the phone.  He asked again if this was my social security number.  I told him I would not confirm any information over the phone.  I asked for his number (so I could Google it) and he gave me the 412-360-8425 number.  I then hung up on him.

Caller stated he was from the United States regarding a legal case on a fraud case.

That I would be arrested in a matter of hours.

said sherrif dept would be at my house.

its a scam you call the number back and its not a working # ...

I think this may fall in the same category as the Falzone scams going on...