I also received a call from this number. What i did is say my name was roger goldstein a lawyer for the federal trade comission and that i also had interpol fraud detectives on the line. The scam artist i think urinated in his pants and quickly hung up the phone and i have not received a call since. A little payback is always fun and i advise anyone wanting their number off the list to do this.

I had a voice mail from a computerized voice saying 'his' name is Steve Sebastian in an accent so thick I had to play the recording five or six times, including for my co-worker ('he' called my work phone). The name 'he' said 'he' was trying to reach was so unintelligible I gave up trying. As annoying as the call was, I did find some amusement in the tag line - "All I can say.....toyou....is.....the best of luck.....toyou.....and.....have.....a blest day"

I had my call go basically the same way...once I figured they were scamming me, I called them back to let them know that I was aware of what they were trying to pull and that they were in some trouble for it.

I received a call from this company claiming that I owed on a loan...very thick Middle Eastern accent...very difficult to understand. I was told there was a court date set for today...without being served any papers...I know for a fact that I have to be served 10 days prior to the court date...red flag there...I don't deny owing a loan...but it is being paid back...then I was told if I did not take care of the matter whether talking with a lawyer or paying for the loan then I would go to jail...lose my job and my kids would be taken away....the guy that called originally, put someone else on the phone that I could barely understand...i asked him to put on the lawyer...needless to say about 10 minutes later I received a phone call back from "the lawyer"...the same guy who had originally called me in the first place... I decided to research this number...then called them back to let them know that I was taking legal action against them for trying to scam me.  Needless to say when they heard that, they hung up the phone quickly and I have not heard back from them.

when they call just tell them that you know this is a cam and that you are going to report them to the FTC.  They will stop calling. They continue to call because they are trying to get you to cave in.  Just let them know that you know who they are.

Thos foreighn guy John Smith called stating he was sending the police to my address becas I suppose to have gotten a loan from online and state that it was in Nov 2011 he wouldnt give me thr suppose to b number for the loan company and hung up in my face becas i begin to raise my voice they even called my old job asking for me who are these poeple?

We had 567-248-4517 call me and my husband 20 times within an hour yesterday, between my cell phone and my husbands cell phone. It is crazy they said we are being sued for a payday loan, that of course we never gotten. They have been calling us for months now off and on. When they first started calling they were talking very sexual to me, telling me what they could and wanted to do. My husband called them back and that is when they said we were getting sued for the payday loan. Thank god they don't talk like that anymore but the threats keep coming. Who can I report this to because it is just getting to much for us? They know so much of our information like our bank account number.

We had 567-248-4517 call me and my husband 20 times within an hour yesterday, between my cell phone and my husbands cell phone. It is crazy they said we are being sued for a payday loan, that of course we never gotten. They have been calling us for months now off and on. When they first started calling they were talking very sexual to me, telling me what they could and wanted to do. My husband called them back and that is when they said we were getting sued for the payday loan. Thank god they don't talk like that anymore but the threats keep coming. Who can I report this to because it is just getting to much for us?

Is this phone number really who they say they are? They called me and said I was going to go to jail unless I sent them some money.

This number keeps calling my home back to back to back.  When I called them back, they hung up on me.  Everytime I attempt to call, they hang up on me.  This the second time this has happened to me, before it was from a NY number.  Same deal, attempting to collect for a payday loan that was taken out on the internet.  They try to scare you by saying they know where you work, and that they have your social security number.  I want this stop, if anyone has any suggestions, please advise?

5672484517 called me and its the same as all the others have said, something regarding a loan and not being payed back. they even got the number of the owner of my work and left a message on his machine.  and as someone said ask them questions have fun with them, just dont give them legit information. also as others have said in my case this has been going on for about 5 months.

They told me that I had a lawsuit filed against me.........

This is the 5th message I have received from the same caller with a think middle Eastern accent.  He says his name is Steve Sebastian and this is the 2nd phone number that he has left as the "hot line" to his department.    It is totally a scam, feels threatening, and is definitely harassment.

They called me and said something about legal issues. Asked what it was and if I do owe send me a bill so I can see it. Said they can't. They called back...same guy..said he was a investigator for the credit buera. I asked him which one, said all three. Horrible scam, but funny when you ask them questions.

They called me twice two day and said legal charges against me and ask me if i had a lawyer. I said what legal charges and he said oh noone told you about the charges, i said why don't you tell me all about it. Jim morgan was his name and he said he would put his supervisor on the phone and he acted like he was the supervisor but it was the same guy. he asked again about a lawyer, i said for what? The man said nothing so i hung up. He left a message saying he didn't appreciate me hanging up and that i would be arrested. this man call me about a month ago and said the exact same thing. i'm glad i looked  the number up on the web to see the complaints. Sick crazy people out here in the world! first call number showed567-248-4517 call me twice back too back making threats third  call same threats couldn't give me info on these so call legal matters i hung up fourth call more threats on my voicemail and telling me to call him if i wanted to get the matter resolved.

Just received a call from 567-248-4517 in which the caller identified himself as Kirit Patel with a thick middle eastern accent, but did not say the company he worked for but that I would need to return his call immediately due to pending legal action against me or my attorney. He did not specify any other information regarding the case only that I would need to return his call right away and if I did not he wished me the best of luck. I am so glad that I checked online regarding this things due to so many scams occurring out there. Please be cautious about the information you give over the internet or the phone you just never know who you can trust out there.

Caller stated his name was Mike Johnson on a message, then Michael St. Clair on the phone.

They have called me now for the last three days, even called my work and wont quit calling then I try to call them back and they dont answer or wont talk to me, just leaves me dirty messages.  This is ridiculous, especially since I have no idea how they got my information. They say basically the same thing that you guys say they say.  The number is 567-248-4517. This scares me.

They call over and over and over again NONSTOP even after numerous warnings

They call over and over and over again. Relentless and abusive

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

Recieved a call just now, they're a scam!!! The same people with a middle eastern accent calling you to pay a loan you don't own!! They called me before but from different numbers, apparently they are now using this one... Beware!!!