I have received several calls from this man Daniel this week, I finally called back to let him know I know he is a scam artist and that I had contacted the FTC about the calls.  He promptly told me I was a seriously bad name that I cant repeat, then told me he would keep calling me and then hung up

I never took out a payday loan and have no idea where they got my number!

the number i was called from was  718-971-5897
He gave me the name Baker and Mckenzie law firm.

Thinking about this further. It would be nothing for an enterprising young Indian criminal to set up a crapton of VOIP lines and send the output through a program in linux called asterix to a processing/call center in some remote location. This can even be done with easily usable Microsoft applications, I'm sure.

What this means is that this week you're getting calls of this nature from a 567 area code number, but next week it will be the same people calling from yet another area code.

So, essentially, these calls will not stop.

Your best defense in this case is knowledge and word of mouth. Tell others about this scam, the methods they use and whatnot.

A strong mind is worth it's weight in platinum.

Your's truly,

Andoh

Well, got some phone calls from this number. Here are some of my observations from these calls;

1. When they first called, they identified themself as a federal employee attached to the Attourney General's Office. When questioned, the caller became abusive. When queried about his FID he hung up the phone.

2. Another phone call from the abusive Indian fellow and more threats. Still identifying himself as part of the AGO. Still abusive and dodging questions with threats.

3. Calls today, identifies himself as being with Baker and McKenzie law firm. I hang up and call the REAL Baker and McKenzie law firm and the very polite gentleman on the other end says that he's been getting calls about this all week. I inform him of the other calls and he takes my info. Looks like they've done it now.

But, if they're in India, chances of them being prosecuted or even known are slim to none. They are using some kind of bounce-through or something in Ohio. I've yet to pinpoint where their location is as of this postiing, but I'll keep everyone read in.

Have a nice day, gang.

Andoh

these people need tyo stop i am not falling for this anymore these people are just trying to get your money pretending to be a law firm

Phantom Debt Collectors From India Harass Americans, Demand Money

By BRIAN ROSS (@brianross) , CINDY GALLI and MATTHEW MOSK (@mattmosk)
June 7, 2012

Hundreds of thousands of cash-strapped Americans have been targeted by abusive debt collectors operating out of overseas call centers suspected of links to organized crime in India, law enforcement officials told ABC News.

The calls are part of a massive scam, one that appears to target struggling Americans -- especially those who have gone online to apply for payday loans. Armed with personal information from those pilfered applications, the threatening callers, who claim to be debt collectors poised to initiate legal action, have managed to pry loose millions of dollars from their victims -- even when the victims never owed money in the first place.

"This is what we call a phantom debt collection scam," said Jon Leibowitz, the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. "It's a very pernicious and innovative new fraud."

Working through call centers in India, the commission estimates that the criminals have dialed at least 2.5 million calls, persuading already cash-strapped victims to send them more than $5 million. Some have reported receiving dozens of calls per hour. They are victims like Cindy Gervais, of New Orleans, who went online for a quick loan when her husband's car was hit by a driver who didn't have insurance.

Even though she paid the loan off, the so-called "phantom" debt collectors with Indian accents began calling to say she still owed money.

He more or less told me that if I didn't pay, they were going to have someone on my doorstep to arrest me," she told ABC News. "And that they were going to contact my place of business, and tell them what kind of person I am."

At first, she said she resisted. Then the calls became more frequent, and started to ring on her cell phone, and at the grocery distribution company where she had worked for 27 years.

"I was more or less was in panic mode because he told me there would be someone before noon at my place of business to arrest me and take me to jail," she said tearfully. "So I agreed to pay him."

After receiving scores of complaints, investigators with the FTC said they began tracking the calls, and following the payments. They alleged the payments led them to a California company run by an Indian-American named Kirit Patel, and that such scams would not be possible without American front men.

"I would say that all roads of this scam, or many of the roads of this scam, lead back to Mr. Patel," said the FTC's Leibowitz.

ABC News tracked Patel for weeks, from the suburbs of San Francisco to Austin, Texas.

Patel refused to talk. But his lawyer, Mark Ellis, said he believes it is far too early to pass judgment on his client. Ellis, a Sacramento-based attorney, told ABC News that Patel was hired for a nominal fee to set up an American shell company, and had no idea what the call centers in India were doing.

"I can tell you, he was as snookered by the people in India as anybody," Ellis said. "He's a 69-year-old man who is nearing his retirement who thought all he had to do was set up some corporations and everything was on the up and up. He's completely dismayed that he has become the lightning rod of this entire problem."

A close friend of Patel's also defended him in a brief interview at his home, saying Patel was not trying to defraud anyone -- he was just an unwitting, bit player in a larger scheme.

"If Mr. Patel was just a cog in the wheel he seems to have been a pretty big cog," Leibowitz said. "It is clear that Patel was integrally involved with this scam."

Leibowitz points to thousands of pages of financial and phone records gathered by the FTC and filed as part of a civil case brought against him in the U.S. District Court in Sacramento last month. When FTC lawyers sought to freeze his assets and prevent his business from continuing to operate, Patel responded by invoking his rights against self-incrimination. His lawyer told ABC News he has had to be careful in how he responds to the allegations in civil court "because there is a potential criminal action," but that Patel maintains the allegations against him are false.

Federal investigators said the phantom debt collection operation that allegedly benefitted from Patel's assistance was one of several that all trace back to the same small town in Western India called Ahmedabad. Callers use technology to make it appear that the calls originate inside the U.S. Victims provided ABC News with recordings of dozens of the calls, and many of the thickly accented callers appear to be reading off a script.

"Subpoenas have been readied, and Monday morning you're going to be picked up from your home," one caller says on a victim's voicemail. "And you have children. Don't worry about your children. We have a childcare department to take care of the children."

"You will be behind bars for six months," said another caller. "And once you go behind bars, you will lose your job. Once you are behind the bars, you won't get a single drop of water."

William Peerce Howard, a Tampa attorney who represents victims of harassment from debt collectors, said it takes an especially twisted criminal to use threats and coercion to pry money from someone who is already struggling financially

"These guys really are the most visible villains in America today," he said. "They make a living scaring people."

Mark Merola, of Florida, said he just panicked when the caller told him he might be arrested at the deli where he works in a Florida retirement community.

"I was nervous. I didn't want to embarrass myself, my family," he said. He used his debit card to pay the collector $576.

Afterwards, he says he realized "how stupid I was."

"It just happened so fast," he said. "I got scared."

Leibowitz said he hopes with more attention, future potential targets of the scam will recognize red flags before they turn over any money.

If callers say they are from the police, consumers should know that law enforcement officers do not collect debt for private parties. If the caller is speaking with a thick Indian accent, but calls themselves by a names such as Officer Mike Johnson, that should be a tip off. And if they're calling 40 times in two hours, that's another red flag. "Legitimate debt collectors, legitimate pay day lenders don't do those sorts of things," he said.

Merola said he would like to see anyone involved in the scam prosecuted aggressively.

"There's no place in society for these people," he said.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/phantom-debt-co ... 16512428&page=2

Received severals call in two days about a payday loan i never received. Told the fake person on the other line if i received a loan it would have been in my account and dont recongnized a couple of hundreds dollars in my account. Had to get account changed so no damage could not happen. They were rude and used threatening to send the police to my job, but  they never gave me any info as to me calling th payday loan directly. I told them to go to h--l scammers and try someone else. She even told me she was a lawyer, but a lawyers office dont have people in the background talking to other people. And the Indian accent gave it away.

Consumers across the country report that they're getting telephone calls from people trying to collect on loans the consumers never received or on loans they did receive but for amounts they do not owe. Others are receiving calls from people seeking to recover on loans consumers received but where the creditors never authorized the callers to collect for them. So what's the story?

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation's consumer protection agency, is warning consumers to be on the alert for scam artists posing as debt collectors. It may be hard to tell the difference between a legitimate debt collector and a fake one. Sometimes a fake collector may even have some of your personal information, like a bank account number. A caller may be a fake debt collector if he:

is seeking payment on a debt for a loan you do not recognize;
refuses to give you a mailing address or phone number;
asks you for personal financial or sensitive information; or
exerts high pressure to try to scare you into paying, such as threatening to have you arrested or to report you to a law enforcement agency.

If you think that a caller may be a fake debt collector:
Ask the caller for his name, company, street address, and telephone number. Tell the caller that you refuse to discuss any debt until you get a written "validation notice." The notice must include the amount of the debt, the name of the creditor you owe, and your rights under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
If a caller refuses to give you all of this information, do not pay! Paying a fake debt collector will not always make them go away. They may make up another debt to try to get more money from you.

Stop speaking with the caller. If you have the caller's address, send a letter demanding that the caller stop contacting you, and keep a copy for your files. By law, real debt collectors must stop calling you if you ask them to in writing.

Do not give the caller personal financial or other sensitive information. Never give out or confirm personal financial or other sensitive information like your bank account, credit card, or Social Security number unless you know whom you're dealing with. Scam artists, like fake debt collectors, can use your information to commit identity theft ? charging your existing credit cards, opening new credit card, checking, or savings accounts, writing fraudulent checks, or taking out loans in your name.

Contact your creditor. If the debt is legitimate ? but you think the collector may not be ? contact your creditor about the calls. Share the information you have about the suspicious calls and find out who, if anyone, the creditor has authorized to collect the debt.

Report the call. Contact the FTC and your state Attorney General's office with information about suspicious callers. Many states have their own debt collection laws in addition to the federal FDCPA. Your Attorney General's office can help you determine your rights under your state's law.>

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt076.shtm

I agree I am over it ... there has to be someone we can call

They call me about the same sh t . Im calling the cops on them.!!!

My wife received several calls from this number yesterday and she could not understand the people (who had Indian accents).  The people from this number (567-248-2754) did not say where they were calling from or give any names.  However the gentleman was able to speak clearly enough to wish bad things on our family if she did not pay the money we owed them.  We are not accustomed to paying money to people that we don?t know why or what we owe for.  I called the number back last night and spoke to Aleisha Jones (I?m sure this isn?t her name) and asked about the threats on my family and if this was standard practice for a law firm.  She said that it must have been a wrong number and hung up on me.

I got the same call and the caller was rude, he had all my info and he was stating that I was going to be arrested and lose my job as well, that I had a lawsuit on a payday loan. He stated his name was Daniel Ridge from Davis and Mckenzie law firm.

Stated they were a law firm, and they had my social security number and that there was a law suit and that I would be arrested. I do not have a law suit associated with me so know this was a scam.  Caller was rude with a India accent.