claims i have legal charges against me...all my accounts r current and this call came out of nowhere and i cant even understand him due to a badbad accent, it just seens fishy

I got this call from a guy saying his name was sam Watson.he said someone was going to file a suit against me and I need to resolve this matter........I turned him into our local police and Comcast

These people threatened me and told me if I didn't want them to take me to court they will charge $5000 or I can make a payment of $870 in an hour.  I called the police and filed a report.  The so called name of the guy was Griffin Bell and Justin White.  They sound like they are from India.  I closed my bank account and will inform my company.

Have gotten  many calls from different numbers wanting to talk to my husband. They say its a legal matter and needs his attention right away. I told the man on the phone I was his wife and he wanted my husbands information. I said I will not give you that information and wanted to know what the call was to do with.  They said he took out a paydayloan and was going to be in jail soon and even got really nasty. I let them know that I contacted the sherriff department and they would contact them soon enough.They said they were from the State Department Federal  Credit Union.

these are the thick indian adent {indian} plz be aware with them .........................dont give ant details

they call me at work and on my cell. saying i owe money from a payday loan. they say i now its like 7-8 thousand dollars if i dont want to be arrested.

These people keep calling for my employee. I went round and round with them telling them to quit calling that this was a place of business ect. I asked the guy for his badge number because at first he said he was an investigator then he said he was an employee of the credit union. i ran him round in circles until he couldn't even make sense of his own stories. He started trying to recite statutes to me, and i told him he didn't speak English, he doesn't know sh*t about American statutes. Idiot. I like how all the people who are trying to defend this group, cannot even type in proper English. Go buy a camel and float your sorry a***s back home. Can't they be sued by the REAL State Department?

YES THEY ARE!!! I have never in my life borrowed money from a cash advance place. They have been calling me telling me that I owe them money and they will be taking legal actions against me for non-payment. I told them to do what they have to do because I owe noone anything.  He asked for my last four social and I asked him since I owe you, you tell me what my social is. He got very upset and started yelling at me and I told him not to call me anymore or he will be hearing from my attorney, plus I will be contacting my local law enforcement to report this number. DON'T GIVE OUT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION!

This is a scam. DO NOT speak with them. They will harass you and harass you and try to scare you. This is the address and phone number for the real State Department Federal Credit Union:


State Dept Federal Credit Union
1400 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22209 map
Phone:(703) 243-5937

No one there is Indian so give it up you freaking losers.

They are a scam, and are attempting multiple postings on here claiming to be from people this "attorney" helped.  All these supposed different people use the exact same phrases, syntax, poor grammer and shorthand.  Don't let them scam you into believing their scam.  The Saint posted great information.

No, you are wrong (or a fraud) and Saint is right.  Saint posted information on FEDERAL LAW. Knowledge truly is power, fear based internet postings are garbage.

SAINT U R WRONG TOTALLY WRONG...................................................................................
because i pay to them 1000$ n they are genuine this number is not belongs to the scammers so plz u are not suppose to tell that they are scammers . attorney roy miller had resolved all my case n with in this much only n i got legal documents from the court house o9f these cases so they are prooved genuine .

IF you truly had to appear in court you would receive a legal summons or subpoena, not a phone call from a legal department.

this number is connected to the legal department n atorney roy miller . i got call twice a day from this number n they were asking about money. i thought this is scam but they are really from the legal department. so i had to appear in the court house because not to paying money to them. they are not scammers so aware that STATE DEPARTMENT FEDERAL CREDIT UNION IS A LEGAL FIRM.

Griffin Bell Is A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him. all competitors attorny are trying to harras him with the help of google so dnt worry this is not a scam u r safe with them . i got cleared all my debts with some discounts n i got resolved all my case. just with the help of griffin bell attorney n his team.

i got the call from this number n they r not scamer this number is totally connected to the legal department

I received a call from this number and they stated that I owed a substantial amount of money and that they would take me to court and sue me. They had my last 4 of my social, my email address, and obviously my personal phone number. They also had secondary contact information if they couldn't get in contact with me to include my current job. When I called the company that these scammers had called on behalf they notified me that they have called the FBI and that indeed the people contacting my are scammers. So please be aware!!! Do not let your information out to them do some background check especially if you don't owe any one any money as in my case.

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