A man calls from the Financial Crime Prevention Unit on behalf of a cash advance company called Advance Cash Mutual claiming I have an unpaid payday loan and police will come to my place of work or home if I don't do what they want. They will not give a physical address so I can't send a cease and decist letter asking them not to call me again at work. They only have my work number (I work for the governement by the way) I do have a phone number. They call me at least twice a month. I told them to go ahead and send the cops they said ok and hung up and keep calling. The number is 760-624-8195. Nothing I say to them will make them stop. Don't know what to do. Its a bogus claim they are making and will not send me any info about this "legal matter".

it stuck is what i meant they settled out fo court. sorry! And he did not mention anything about debt just criminal. Whackos

I got a call yesterday from Roman Pierce wanting to talk to me. I remember his voice and accent from a previous call that was rude, hollering, and threatening. I said leave a message and number and I will get her to call you back. So he did. Which the first number he left was not real. I called it back and it was not a working number. But, that was also after he had called twice and me telling him I did not take out a loan and was not a criminal. The second time he got a royal Texas cussing. So yesterday he called twice once I took the message and second time I could hear the same people talking in the back ground so I hung up. Now I work at a public school so I really do not know how they acquired so much info. So he called back this morning and I someone else answered the phone, but now I have come to this site and saw all these complaints that are exactly what I have been thru. I decided to turn the tables. So the first thing I did was call the number back (with a witness) and low and behold old Roman answered. He said "hello" and I saw yes is someone left this number for me to call. May I ask who this is and he said Roman Pierce, with the Crime prevention unit. I said ok and what is your complaint and he said are you ellen and I said no I am a representative for a school district and wanting to know why you are inquiring about one of our employees. He said oh you are a school I said the ISD is your sign. He said well she is a criminal. I Said really and what has she done. I cannot give out that info to you and I said well we do criminal background checks and fingerprint all our employees and I was wondering how she got thru the system if she has a record and she is a criminal. Can you send our lawyer or the superintendent a fax of what you have proving this. He said "Ah yes do you have a fax/" I gave him the fax number and said we are standing by now he said it may be tomorrow or the next day before I can get it to you. I said so you called her and was about to accuse her of all sorts of things and you do not have the info in front of you? He said I am not at work this is my personal phone number. I said so you left your personal phone number for a criminal to call you back. Here is the number he gave me and answered 610-243-1818 seems like he falls into the harrassment catagory. I know you can file charges on people that do that. I also know you can file on them for slander cause I  just had a friend that filed suit on a lawyer for telling another lawyer not to represent a person because he came from bad blood and was following in his no good father's footsteps. I stuck!!!!!

got a call from John Ricardo/john flynn this morning threatening me with a law suit in Orange County, the county I reside in.  Stated he had a 60 page affidavit that was to be issued to the sheriffs office in the morning for my arrest.  Said I took out an on line loan with with an advance payroll service.  I asked him to email me a copy of the loan to verify it, never got a copy.  I asked John Ricardo what his registration number was with the NY bar association, he said I was wasting his time and I needed to pay this amount owed now.  Then I asked him to provide me with a phone # and extension for our attorney to call-which I knew would not exist (there is not area code 399 in the US).  He then asked to stop pussyfooting around and pay this now-yelling at me.  When I asked him what the amount owed was, he hung up.  I spoke to me brother, who is an attorney, and my brother-in-law, who happens to be the county magistrate-they both told me to change my email address and change my phone to a non-published #.  This is now the 5th time they have called.  I'm fed up.

Ever hear of Richard Black from 360-215-2550??  Sounds like the same scamming!!!

This is daveeed smeeth with creiminal investigations it is important for you to call me (unintelligble speech) you are in trounble with theee federal goverment of the unted states (unintelligble speech) we will prosecute you with your ss# ending in XYZZ and you are in danger of getting your ss# taken away from you and being taken to court.

so i called back to see exactly what was going on....the number was out of or connected through Dallas TX and the message mentioned that the "Magic Jack" customer was not available please leave a mesage.  Yeah right.

They called again the another day I answered with the following "Under penalty of US law you are not to contact me ever again doing so can result in a lawsuit,  please do not call me again.

It has worked so far..........maybe we should consider calling immigration??????

I just got the same call from "John Ricardo"  I asked for verification in writing of the debt and he said that he was not obligated to give me anything.  He also said that he was an attorney.  I asked him if he was licensed in California (where I am) and he said yes.  However, he gave me a bogus State Bar Number.  I called him on it and he said he is actually licensed in New York.  I called the NY State Bar and there is no such person licensed there either and the bar number he gave me was not anything like the numbers in NY.

I'm calling the Attorney's General Office

I have been getting calls from this same man, threatening me for failure to pay loan.  I never had money deposited to my account from this company at any time and no attempt has been made to collect thru my bank

Got a call from John Ricardo this morning threatening me with a law suit in Orange County, the county I reside in.  Stated he had a 60 page affidavit that was to be issued to the sheriffs office in the morning for my arrest.  Said I took out an on line loan with with an advance payroll service.  I asked him to email me a copy of the loan to verify it, never got a copy.  I asked John Ricardo what his registration number was with the NY bar association, he said I was wasting his time and I needed to pay this amount owed now.  Then I asked him to provide me with a phone # and extension for our attorney to call-which I knew would not exist (there is not area code 399 in the US).  He then asked to stop pussyfooting around and pay this now-yelling at me.  When I asked him what the amount owed was, he hung up.  I spoke to me brother, who is an attorney, and my brother-in-law, who happens to be the county magistrate-they both told me to change my email address and change my phone to a non-published #.  This is now the 5th time they have called.  I'm fed up.

bridget, don't call them back and read all of the information that was put out by the various others that have been scammed by these same people. Its fear and nothing more.

I too have been receiving the harrassing calls on my cell phone and my job. My bogus caller is "Officer Sharon Wall" from the "Financial Crime Prevention Unit". They're threatening to send police officers to my job if I don't repay an unpaid online cash advance from "Advance Cash Mutual" in 2/09. I don't have an unpaid online cash advance from this company and the entire thing is a scam. Don't fall for it. The calls are annoying, but their threats are idle.

I live in phoenix Az & have been getting calls for while now from John Flynn or Roman pierce. They claimed that i owed a loan which i NEVER got. They even called my mom & my job. I to was wondering if i could file a suit for harrassment? I now know that they aint legit & fel alot better.

Extortion Scam Related to Delinquent Payday Loans

Washington, D.C.
December 07, 2010  FBI National Press Office
(202) 324-3691


? filed under: Press Release

The Internet Crime Complaint Center has received many complaints from victims of payday loan telephone collection scams. Callers claim the victim is delinquent in a payday loan and must repay the loan to avoid legal consequences. The callers purport to be representatives of the FBI, Federal Legislative Department, various law firms, or other legitimate-sounding agencies. They claim to be collecting debts for companies such as United Cash Advance, U.S. Cash Advance, U.S. Cash Net, and other Internet check-cashing services.

According to complaints received from the public, the callers have accurate data about victims, including Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses, employer information, bank account numbers, and the names and telephone numbers of relatives and friends. How the fraudsters obtained the personal information varies, but in some cases victims have reported they completed online applications for other loans or credit cards before the calls started.

The fraudsters relentlessly call the victim?s home, cell phone, and place of employment. They refuse to provide any details about the alleged payday loans and become abusive when questioned. The callers have threatened victims with legal actions, arrests, and, in some cases, physical violence if they do not pay. In many cases, the callers harass victims? relatives, friends, and employers.

Some fraudsters have instructed victims to fax a statement agreeing to pay a certain amount, on a specific date, via a pre-paid Visa card. The statement further declares the victim will never dispute the debt.

If you receive these calls, do not follow the caller?s instructions. Rather, you should:

Notify your banking institutions.
Contact the three major credit bureaus and request an alert be put on your file.
Contact your local law enforcement agencies if you feel you are in immediate danger.
File a complaint at www.IC3.gov.
Tips to avoid becoming a victim of this scam:

Never give your Social Security number?or personal information of any kind?over the telephone or online unless you initiate the contact.
Be suspicious of any e-mail with urgent requests for personal financial information. The e-mail may include upsetting or exciting but false statements to get you to react immediately.
Avoid filling out forms in e-mail messages that request personal information.
Ensure that your browser is up-to-date and security patches have been applied.
Check your bank, credit, and debit card statements regularly to make sure that there are no unauthorized transactions. If anything looks suspicious, contact your bank and all card issuers.
When you contact companies, use numbers provided on the back of cards or statements.

http://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/paydayloanscam_120710

I have just received my second call from the same number 1-601-228-0053 but different mans name..one John Flint and Roman Pierce both of which had english which was ununderstandable... This last time the genteman left my social security number on my voicemail which is illegal by any means as I have many friends in debt collection... Can I sue them or do anything about doind this? What if this wasn't my line and they just gave out my name and social? I am very unnerved about this.

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 got a call from these people, I explained to them that I did do some payday loans and I was working with a debt settlement company because I got way in over my head because I was being stupid.  I talked to John Ricardo, I believe he is related to Ricky Ricardo, I know this is all bull and they are a scam, but when he started swearing at me and yelling at me because I wanted proof of debt, I yelled at him, told him he should be careful who he threatens, then I went nuts and told him that I didn't need his scam crap, that I have too much to deal since I lost a child 3 years ago and my husband is mentally ill and I'm just a mess.  And I also stated I was going to file a complaint with the FTC, well let me tell you, he has been calling me back, called 3 times last night and kept apologizing and said he was only doing what he boss told him to do, I told him it's time he got a new job because what he is doing to cruel and illegal.  Imagine he was trying to get me to pay him $4000.00.  I've already had 2 calls from that number 810671586 and it's only 8:30 am.

I got the same thing, the guy said his name was John Ricardo. He refused to listen to me and then threatened me with a law suit. Now he was too stupid to know that when I ask for verification of debt from him that he had to give it to me, and he said he would not. He also was too stupid to know that he sounded about as stupid as the day is long, he told me he was an attorney and he did not know the law. Isn't it some crime to say you are an attorney?

Anyway the call number was + 81 067 1586 and the call back was 469 821 0334.

The Message was from Joh Flynn saying the he is from a Financial Crime Prevention Unit, stating he was going to send the police to my job if I did not call him by Monday they will be here tuesday, also the number he left is not the number he called from, the he called from was 81061586.

Thank You