Do not give them any personal info!

Same story as everyone else. I was called by an alleged John Smith from the Federal Legislation Department of Justice. This guy was a piece of work.  He got my information off an online payday loan application.  In hind site that was probably one of the dumber things I've ever done. He could tell me he was a lawyer but didn't know the address there at his fake firm.  I told him that he has probably had a lot of luck ripping people off, but to rip me off he was going to try harder.  I told him to hang up the phone and call me back with something a bit more creative than a fake Federal program.  I told him a quick google search only brought up info about how he was a scam, not how it was a legit branch of our Federal Government.  He got extremely flustered after he kept trying to talk over me about how he was going to take me to, "the courthouse" and I responded with, "Just shut your mouth and listen." I asked him for his phone number which he provided and was completely fake. I asked him why he gave me a fake phone number and he got even more upset.

The guy has buttons.  Push them until he finally hangs up on you.  He REEEEALLY doesn't like it when you tell him to talk slower because his super thick middle eastern accent is way to hard to understand.  End of the day, he's not legit.  If anything, be excited!  You just spoke to a real criminal who was trying to rob you and he didn't get a dime of your money.

LOOKS LIKE THEY CHANGED NUMBERS. I TRIED CALLING THEM AGAIN, JUST TO MESS WITH THEM, AND THERE IS NO ANSWER.....
I CAN'T WAIT TIL THEY TRY AGAIN WITH A NEW #.

THESE IDIOTS CALLED ME AGAIN THIS MORNING. BEFORE HE SAID ANYTHING, I TOLD HIM I KNEW ALL ABOUT THEIR SCAM AND HE ASKED ME WHAT I'M GOING TO DO ABOUT TI. I TOLD I WILL HUNT HIM DOWN AND TAKE CARE OF HIM. HE ASKED HOW WILL I TAKE CARE OF HIM. I GAVE HIM GRAPHIC DETAILS AND HUNG UP.

yes i got a call from that number today for 6 times and its and middle eastern woman. same number 573-340-5294. yes a tried to applied to payloans and was never approved and then so many payday loans popping out saying complete ur applications then suddenly they will bring u to another window. but anyhow i got a payday loan but i got it here in my own state and went there personally. So as i was reading all the comments against this number that has been calling me. she keeps calling me cos i dont answer her calls. so now i know that this people cant do anything,

THESE IDIOTS CALLED ME AND ASKED ME FOR MY ATTORNEY'S INFO. I TOLD THEM MY ATTRONEY IS JACK MEHOFF AND HIS # IS 800-666-KCUF. THEN I CALLED THEM BACK AND THEY ASKED FOR MY # AND I MADE ONE UP AND MADE UP A FAKE NAME (JACK MEHOFF) AND THEY SAID THE REASON THEY ARE CALLING IS THAT I OWE MONEY TO THEIR CLIENT......THEN I TOLD HIM I GOOGLED THE # AND SEE THEY ARE A SCAM COMPANY. HE GOT PISSED AND ASKED WHY AM I WAISTING MY OWN TIME....I TOLD HIM I AM WAISTING HIS TIME AND HE STARTED TO YELL AT ME AND I TOLD HIM TO COME GET ME THEN HE HUNG UP.

Update from my earlier message:

So I called Dennis Warely back and after he asked my name and the number where they left the message. He then went on to say that he was calling from the Federal...and I stopped him right in the middle of his sentence. I said, I just want you to know that I am recording this conversation and saving all voicemails messages that you leave on my phone. Please be informed that I work for the federal government and your company is being investigated for fraud. He hung up!

I called back and he started singing some indian song in my ears. I said, are you seriously singing in my ears; well it does not matter because you already called my job and left your name and number on my voicemail which I am turning over to the FBI...he just kept singing. I finally hung up on the fool but made sure I let him know not to ever call me again!

In response to KC...it is indeed a fake I actually got my first call a month ago from a Joe Brown and it was from a number based out of the Washington state area. When I called them back the guy was very rude telling me I was going to get a letter of termination from my job. He would not give me any information as to when I supposedly took out this loan. But serious red flags went up when he said they tried to extract the funds from my acct and the transaction was declined, therefore they are suing me.
I never had a pay day loan in fact the I remember clearly the day I applied on line for a personal loan, but I never went through with the process.

I kept calling them back to get more info and he kept hanging up the phone on me. Telling me may god bless me and the matter is in my hands. So on my last call to him I told him I work for the federal governement and I've been told to record any calls from their company, And I've reported them to the FBI, he got very angry and started yelling at me "do what you gotta do, we will send our people to serve you your court documents tomorrow."

Well needless to say, I never got any court documents, he stopped calling and this happened a month ago. And I searched various sites and found there were a lot of people getting this same exact call. However, today I got a call from Dennis Warely and Im getting ready to call him back and tell him the same thing I told Joe Brown, which is the phone call is being recorded so that I can turn the tape over to the FBI as their company is currently being investigated for fraud. And hopefully this will stop the calls completely.

pretty much the same as everybody, all the threats.  they could not and would not give me any information.  if they call again i will tell them i reported them to the authorities.  what a bunch of crap.

This lady calls me at work and claims I took a payday loan from tham and never paid it back.

1. I keep track of any payday loans I current have
2. I ensure I have the funds available in the bank on the due date

She was able to provide me with my email address and work number only.  these payday sites require a home number.  

The pay day loans I currently have are being paid and taken care of in a timely manner.  I because freighted at first, thinking perhaps I missed one.  But, there are no charges to my account for a lack of funds for a payment.

She was not able to give me any detailed information.  Seems fishy to me now that I think about it.  I asked she to send me information - she said I need to get this taken care of - they will send a supeona to my place of work by 3pm today.  Is it real? Is it fake, I do not know.  But, it all seems fishy to me and they are not getting my money.

Today I received a message from this phone number.  My experience with these people was similar to what others have already listed.  I spoke with "Dennis Wurley" who was rude and hung up on me even when I told him I was willing to take care of whatever they were calling about I just wanted to know what it was (and he continued to refuse to tell me).  I asked for something in writing...he told me I would get that after I was arrested, taken to court, and lost the case.  He did have a lot of my information-email, references I had listed, etc.  Then he offered to allow me to pay what I owed in two equal payments (after a half-hour of yelling at him to tell me what this was about and on my fourth call back to them).  I insisted that he give me the name of the "law firm" and address, and I told him I would call him back.  That was just to buy time...I looked up the number for the Attorney General's office in Missouri and called the Consumer Protection number 1-866-362-6422.  The gentleman there advised me to let them know if they called again that I did report their calls to law enforcement and that they needed to stop calling me.  He was very nice and very helpful explaining how these people were contacting people on the east coast and the west coast, that it was a scam, and to not give them any personal information at all.  Please be careful of these people.

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 filed a complaint with the FTC on him. I suggest you do the same. They won't give you any information other than you will be arrested and taken to Missouri. I told David Cooper that I could not take calls at my work regarding issues like this. I haven't heard anything from my employer regarding this issue, but then again there is nothing legally they can do about it. They have to provide you documentation for the bill they are trying to collect on. You can't find this company in Missouri, they are not listed with the BBB. They are trying to get people to give them a debit card number and bam, they have your money.

I received this call regarding a case being filed against me. David Cooper would not state who I owed the money too, only that the paperwork would be sent to my employer, that he had my social security number and that I would be arrested and taken to Missouri for this issue.He called my employer and said this was regarding a lawsuit. He was very rude and hung up on me. I do not need this kind of abuse at my job.

Received this call regarding a case being filed against me. David Cooper would not state who I owed the money too, only that paperwork would be sent to my employer, that he had my social security number and that I would be arrested and taken to Missouri for this issue. I asked for documentation and he stated it would be sent to my employer. He called 4 times within a 15 minute span and left 2 voice mails stating I needed to call 573-340-5294 immediately. The papers are going to go out to my employer on Monday he stated.I told him I cannot take these calls at my employment.

Yeah, I think the reference to the "Federal Legislation Department of Justice" would probably be the first tip-off...

This company called a client of mine at the bank I work for telling her that her husband recently took out a payday loan and never paid it back.  They claimed that they were the Federal Legislation Department of Justice and that they are suing my client.  When asked about information about the case, the man on the phone was unable to give any to me.  He was also very rude, would not give me the address of his company, and it sounded as though the "law firm" he claimed to be with was just an outsourced call full of people trying to scam innocent Americans just like my client.  Do not give this firm any of your information.  Contact your bank and perhaps a lawyer and go from there.