No one is on the line.

I keep getting calls from this number threating me and wishing me good luck if I do not return his phone call, I have received so many call from the same people threating me. they are terroist. they have very heavy accents. I owe not money and they are even calling my call workers, I work for a forturn 500 company and they did stop them for a while, the calls were coming from another state. someone has to stop them.I have also notified the police in 4 times.

Glad to hear that you filed complaints, Katie.  Because more people are filing complaints, law enforcement and the press are taking notice of this scam.

Here are two more advisories about this scam that you may find interesting:

WTAE TV4, Pittsburgh:  http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/call4action/17285785/detail.html
Florida Commissioner of Consumer Services:  http://www.800helpfla.com/newsletter/2008/092008.html

I got a call from a female with a very strong accent.  This is not my first call so I told her that I would not talk to her and to quit calling me.  I then put my phone on busy (I was at work)and she called back at least 15 times finally leaving a message.  It was hard to understand but I was able to get the phone number and the last comment was that only "God could help me".  I Googled the phone number and came up with this site - thank heavens someone else is aware of these people.  I have already filed a report with my local police.  After reading the above messages I will be filing more reports with other agencies.  By banding together we can get them to stop.  I too am worried about people who are paying these thieves because they are afraid that they are real.

i received a phone call at work asking if i was sharon i said yes they gave me my ss# AN A OLD EMAIL ADDRESS, I ASKED THEM HOW THEY GOT MY SS# THEY WOULD NOT TELL ME. THEY SAID I HAD A PAYDAY LOAN IN 2006 ON A ACCOUNT I HAVE NOT USED IN 5 YEARS, I TOLD JACK THOMPSON THAT I WOULD HAVE MY LAWYER CALL HIM BECAUSE I WAS TAKING NAMES OF ALL HIS PEOPLE AND TURNING THEM OVER TO THE POLICE. JACK HAS CALLED ME TWICE IN ONE DAY HE DOES NOT GET IT. HOW CAN THIS BE STOPPED? THEY ARE TAKING MONEY FROM SOME PEOPLE WHO ARE SCARED THAT THEY ARE REAL. I WISH WE COULD ALL BAND TOGETHER TO PUT A STOP TO THEM, SOMEONE COULD LOSE THEIR JOB BECAUSE OF A LIE.

I have been threatend with having my SS# number blocked and having a case downloaded and he is with the Fed's and reading this its funny his name is Adam  Told him to call my attorney and he said it was the wrong number.

You have gathered a great deal of interesting information here. You should be working for the FTC and other agencies that can't (or don't seem to want to) gather what is required to stop these criminals. My challenge to the FTC is - no more excuses, get off your butts and do your job. We know you monitor this site.

You fu.... a.. You go to take a bath as u'r stinking.

You type English as poorly as you speak it. You criminals may be able fool some people on the telephone with your phony American names, but it won't work on this message board.

Now go take a bath.

Hi! dear ec. I want to know about you that how you are catching these peoples atonce. You are smart enough that you r having these precious information on these callers. Please tell me who you are?

Waiting for your reply.....

It's a scam, and all their threats are false and illegal.

ABC News recently did a report on this particular scam. Here's the link to the report:  http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5621205&page=1

And the West Virginia Attorney General recently issued a press release warning consumers about this scam. Here's the link:  http://www.wvago.gov/internetloanscam.cfm

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 gobbylgook 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, US Federal Bank, Sonic Bank, 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 (
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) 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.

2) 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 or lawyers, officers of the court or bankers, be sure to include that information in your report.

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

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

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/1-310-909-8245
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

This man with a heavy accent said his name was Adam Smith and from the Federal Investigaion Bureau.  No black nor white nor hispanic man has an accent like that.  He said he needed me to go to the store and call him from there and he would give me the information about where and who to send a payment to.  He would not say who I owe or what he wanted.  He refuse to call me at home.  He tell my co-workers he will have the police to come on my job.  He is very, very rude.  These people need to say why they are calling and give some straight answer.  This has got to stop.

I had a man named Richard Rich from this company who was very rude. I work in a federal office and he was asking for a co-worker. The first week he called the co-worker was on vacation and I asked him to call back the next week, but the next week the co-worker had been sent on assignment to New Orleans and he was very rude and accused me of lying to him. This idiot had better not call me anymore. He says he's from the Federal Investigation Bureau. I work for the feds and they have better means and ways of getting in touch with federal employees than using this rude fool.

I had a lady call and ask for one of my co-workers. we work in an operating room. I am just a person who answers the phone and she was very rude. she said give her this message or else, and then hung up. she said her name was christy johnson from the investigation department of the united federal beareau

THIS COMPANY IS CALLING ME AT WORK AND ASKING FOR ME BY NAME WHEN I TILL THWM IM NOT THE PERSON THEY ARE LOOKING FOR THEY GET REEL RUDE CALL ME NAME.  i HAD A GUY TODAY CALL ME AN A** SEVERAL TIME I JUST WANT THE CALL TO STOP

be frank budy