I received the same call as everyone else and immediately looked the phone number up online and found all this helpful information

This is a criminal extortion scam operating out of India. They are making the calls utilizing VOIP and the names of legitimate firms to make it appear the calls are originating from within the US. There is NO "company" or "debt" and you will NOT be arrested. They are harvesting and/or buying consumers' personal identifying information from unscrupulous websites like the one you may have filled out an application with, and you need to do whatever you can to protect yourself. This includes: Notifying the FTC: https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/, placing fraud alerts with all three credit bureaus, notifying your bank and employer and letting these criminals know you are aware they are attempting to extort money for a non-existent debt and have alerted the authorities.

ABC News released an investigative report on this scam in June. The FTC has indicted one of its ringleaders for criminal fraud:

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/phantom-debt-co ... 16512428&page=1

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2012/08/bgm.shtm

This man called my job left a threatening message on my answering machine, saying he was gonna have me arrested and I have no idea what he is talking about.

Detective Patricia Alexander, Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, Birmingham, AL 35203. One of my citizens just received a call from this "Joseph Parks". He scared her to death and threatened her about some loan she supposedly took out in 2006. She was so scared she gave him her account number then called us. I immediately told her to call the bank and get the card cancelled and to follow up with fraud alerts on her credit reports. I called the number and an English speaking man answered "Detective Park, please hold". He came back on and I introduced myself and asked him who he worked for and he said "State of Texas" I said no, what Law enforcement agency and he said "I don't have to tell you that". I told him to stop calling the citizens of my state and he beligerently said, "tell the person who complained to pay me my money!", and then he hung up.
Again, legimate law enforcement agencies will never ask you to send money to clear a warrant or a debt. Unless there is an underlying crime that has been committed, law enforcement does not intervene on debt collections. Please contact your local law enforcement agency if you continue to be harassed by these scammers.

I got a call from this man, he also called my sister harrasing her and telling her she would be subpoena to appear in court to testify. He said he was going to issue a warrant for a 200.00 payday loan. He told me that the loan which i originally took out in 2005, was fraud against a financial institution and that the total fine was $2000.00, however he could "adjust" the amount to only 500.00 if I paid it that day within the hour. LoL. He was out of Texas and I am in South Carolina. He said that a warrant was going to be issued, was very rude, and left 2 RUDE voicemails when the time had expired. I recorded those for the police to hear. I filed a complaint with the commission. I was glad to read on here that he was a fraud. I called to tell him about the complaint I was filing and that I was going to the police. He said make sure to tell them that I owed a debt and that he would be filing the warrant so he would speak to them today as well. I will post back if anything comes of this, which I HIGHLY doubt. PS: I had went online and given out information recently for a loan, that was probably a terrible mistake, I gave out personal info to these people and do not even know where they are located. Everyone... protect your information, if you are feeling unsure, cancel your accounts if you have given out anything to these people!

A guy calling himself detective Joseph Parks called saying I had an hour and twenty minutes to contact him or he would issue a warrant for my arrest and send a sheriff to my work. He said I had a debt from 2005 of a little over $3000.00 and would cost $1500.00 for a lawyer. He even called my mother-in-law that did not have her current number in 2005. Thank goodness for this site because he really had me scared.

Man identified himself as a detective and threatened to have me arrested for a loan that I thought was already paid.  I asked for proof that he was a detective and he got belligerent and hung up.  I actually called back to say that if there was a problem it can be worked out and he told me that he was going to cal my job.  The problem was the place of employment was from three years ago.  I knew from that moment it was a scam.

I HAD ONE TODAY TELL ME THIS AND EVEN NAMED 2 OF MY BROTHERS HE WAS RUDE AND YELLED AND SAID HE WAS  A DETECTIVE

I HAD A MAN CALL ME FROM THIS NUMBER TODAY AND SAID HE WAS A DEC. AND THREATENED ME MY HEART ABOUT POPPED OUT OF MY CHEST TOLD ME HE WAS GOING TO GET ME FOR FELONY FRAUD AND I HAVE BEEN SITTING ON NAILS TONIGHT EVERYTIME I HEAR A CAR OUT SIDE I THINK THEY ARE COMING FOR ME I AM A SINGLE MOM OF 4

I received a call from a Detective Parks on Sept 26 2012 he told me i owed a payday loan from 2005 it was 700.00 but if i didn't pay it, it would coast me 2,000 then 1500 hundred dollars for a lawyer. he threanted to put a warrart for my arrest and throw me in jail really scared me he was real intimdating., i gave him my account number but my mom quickly looked up the number she didn't think it sounded right, and the number was a fraud the 713 389 8700 thank god for my mom, i quickly cancelled my debit card. and call the police department.

I got a call on September 17th. I gave him my check card number after a screaming match. He threatened to put a warrant out for my husbands arrest when I questioned him. When he threatened me with his scar tactics to put a warrant out for my husband's arrest, I asked him does this mean my husband is going to get arrested and he said, "no". He also threatened to put a warrant out for my husband's arrest when I told him he needs to have my husband call him to discuss this matter as it is not MY DEBT. I thought about it for a couple of days and put a stop on my check card. After discussing this matter with my uncle who happens to be Sargent over major crimes in NC and a local police officer realized that this man has ABSOLUTELY NO legal right to get a sheriff to go to anyone's house or get a warrant. If this man harasses any of you again, please call the police department immediately and under NO circumstances what-so-ever give this man ANY personal bank information without written correspondence and proof of his credentials. YOU CAN NOT BE ARRESTED FOR A DEBT. If you borrowed money from a pay now loan check cashing place and the check was written agains a valid checking account, that is a bad check. NOT CHECK FRAUD. Check fraud is when you knowingly write a check against a fake or FRAUDULENT ACCOUNT. Also, check the statutes of limitation of bad checks in your state. I hope you canceled your check card in time. If not, call your bank and dispute it as fraud. Get a police report if you have to. Blessings!

This is a criminal extortion ring operating out of India. ABC News released an investigative report on it in June. The FTC has indicted one of its ringleaders for criminal fraud:

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/phantom-debt-co ... 16512428&page=1

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2012/08/bgm.shtm

In the meantime, you are going to have to do whatever you can to protect yourself. That includes letting them know they are running a scam and are reporting them to the authorities.

JOSEPH PARKS SAID HE WAS A DETECTIVE , CALLED ME LEAVING A INTIMIDATING MESSASE ABOUT GOING TO JAIL AND HAVING A 1500.00 FINE FRIENDS AND FAMILY BEING FORCED INTO COURT AS WITNESS, I NEED TO GROW UP I'M 30 YEARS OLD I DO NOT HAVE A CRIMINAL HISTORY AND IF I WANT TO KEEP IT THAT WAY I NEED TO CONTACT HIM WITHIN 1 HR OR I WILL HAVE A WARRANT ISSUED IN MY HOME TOWN. HE WAS VERY THREATENING AND IT WAS SCARY, BUT IT IS COMFORTING TO KNOW THAT THIS MAY BE A SCAM AND HE CAN NOT TREAT ME THIS WAY AND THERE ARE AGENCIES WHO CAN HELP.

The Internet Crime Complaint Center has received many complaints from victims of payday loan telephone collection scams. Callers claim the victim is delinquent in a payday loan and must repay the loan to avoid legal consequences. The callers purport to be representatives of the FBI, Federal Legislative Department, various law firms, or other legitimate-sounding agencies. They claim to be collecting debts for companies such as United Cash Advance, U.S. Cash Advance, U.S. Cash Net, and other Internet check-cashing services.

According to complaints received from the public, the callers have accurate data about victims, including Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses, employer information, bank account numbers, and the names and telephone numbers of relatives and friends. How the fraudsters obtained the personal information varies, but in some cases victims have reported they completed online applications for other loans or credit cards before the calls started.

The fraudsters relentlessly call the victim?s home, cell phone, and place of employment. They refuse to provide any details about the alleged payday loans and become abusive when questioned. The callers have threatened victims with legal actions, arrests, and, in some cases, physical violence if they do not pay. In many cases, the callers harass victims? relatives, friends, and employers.

Some fraudsters have instructed victims to fax a statement agreeing to pay a certain amount, on a specific date, via a pre-paid Visa card. The statement further declares the victim will never dispute the debt.

If you receive these calls, do not follow the caller?s instructions. Rather, you should:
?Notify your banking institutions.
?Contact the three major credit bureaus and request an alert be put on your file.
?Contact your local law enforcement agencies if you feel you are in immediate danger.
?File a complaint at www.IC3.gov.

Tips to avoid becoming a victim of this scam:
?Never give your Social Security number?or personal information of any kind?over the telephone or online unless you initiate the contact.
?Be suspicious of any e-mail with urgent requests for personal financial information. The e-mail may include upsetting or exciting but false statements to get you to react immediately.
?Avoid filling out forms in e-mail messages that request personal information.
?Ensure that your browser is up-to-date and security patches have been applied.
?Check your bank, credit, and debit card statements regularly to make sure that there are no unauthorized transactions. If anything looks suspicious, contact your bank and all card issuers.
?When you contact companies, use numbers provided on the back of cards or statements

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

That's what I thought, too. Thankyou

Thankyou so much.  I did just learn this, but hearing it again helps so much.  Luckily, the debit card number I had given him was for a paycheck card that no money was going to be on for two weeks.  The police officer I spoke to, had me call the card from the department to cancel it, immediately.  Thankyou again :)

You can't even be put in jail if you really owe a debt.

http://800notes.com/forum/ta-55aaf878cb7e2d2- ... 654448153805545

Danielle, I'm sorry to have to tell you this but you have been scammed. Immediately alert your bank and explain the circumstances. Change your account numbers, get a new debit card. I hope it is not too late and that your account has not already been drained. If so, call your local law enforcement immediately and file a complaint.
If/when this " Investigator" calls back DEMAND proof of his claims in writing. He is required by law to provide this. Do not accept any "proof" via e-mail. If he balks in any way at this point he IS a fraud. There is NO warrant. He has NO power to have you arrested. Cops will NOT show up at your moms work.
Scum-bags have been running this con for quite some time now. Don't let yourself be intimidated by these clowns. They will threaten, harass and attempt to scare you. All they can do is blow smoke up your a**.

I went to the local police dept.  He called the supposed detective, who tried to tell the officer he was a detective as well.  The officer asked for proof and  the guy hung up.  The police officer had me cancel my debit card and had me report the information I had on a guy to an agency that specializes in investigating people like him.

He just called me and scared me saying he was a investigator for the Fraud investigations unit in Tx.  He said I took out a loan in 2005 and I owed and that I have been running for 7 yrs.  I did take out a loan, but I paid it.  He threatened to have the cops show up at my moms work until I gave him my debit card number.  I am a single mom of a 2 yr old and was freaking out so bad bc he wouldn't stop yelling at me that I gave it to him.  He also said he had a warrent out for my arrest.  He said he would have an email sent to me, but I didn't recieve one.  I don't know if I should go to the police or what I should do

this person just called me from this number saying that if i don't contact him he put a warrant out for my arrest for fraud some one some thing i never did this is crazy i wish these people leave me the hell alone this is crazy they are taking this way to far for me and my family.