they called my cell phone then house phone.  told them they were nothing but a scam and to leave me alone.  see what happens now i guess.

Have been receiving calls for weeks on a daily basis from "Officer Neil Smith" of the Dept. of Law and Investigation. He has been calling the workplace, making threats and using vulgar language.  Call was from (719) 695-0726. I have contacted the authorities in the county the phone number is listed in. Just thought I would add this new number... wasn't on the list.

So my friend and coworker kept getting these threatening calls at work so I took matters into my own hands and pretended to be her (with her ok and listening in the whole time). I asked for them to give me her social security #, birthdate, address...all of which they had. This is scary enough, but for them to give it willy-nilly to anyone who picks up the phone...

So, we have made it our mission to call over, and over, and over...until they just hang up. It appears we've annoyed them enough for them to stop calling (for now)...

I Have had this same guy call me over & over & over. He's changed his name even a couple of times to try to throw me off I assume. Every time I asked for more information such as when I took out the loan, how much & from what company he just started yelling at me, saying that an officer would be at my job to arrest me. Now I contacted my local office & he assured me that this is not ever going to happen. But it sure scared the crap out of me. This guy is relentless, cussing me out, yelling, screaming...If I did owe money which I know I don't I wouldn't pay to someone who spoke to me like that.

I just called both of those numbers.  1st one is "not in service" and the 2nd goes to some tools named Mike's voicemail.  I left him a nasty voicemail btw.  DEATH TO SCAMMERS!  HAHAHAHA

I recieved a call from 7202301421 on 19 NOV 10 from a officer johnson from the dept. of law and investigation and he gave me the callback number 2032197220. He told me i was being sued for a unpaid loan and i know the only loan i have is being paid because the money comes straight out of my check to the dealership. He also told me that if i didnt pay them $513.00 today they would have me thrown in jail and they got mad when i said i didnt have the money and didnt know when id have it and that id settle it with my bank and he said he'd give me one hour to settle with the bank and hung up and i havent got a call back yet.

Yes I received the same call from 720-230-1421.  His name was Robin Wilson from Dept of Law and Investigation.  The first time he called I hung up on him for I knew it was a scam from his accent.  Then he calls back and leaves a voicemail saying why did I hang up on him and he will make sure I be put behind bars for that.  Also that this was a urgent matter if I didnt call back.

I got a call today around 3 oclock on my cell phone from number 1002 and the person left me a voicemail saying he is Officer Neil Smith from the Department of Law and Investigation and to call him back at 720-230-1421 immediately otherwise they wish me good luck for what happens next.
I called back and it was some guy of Southeast Asian (Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi) who said that because I had taken out a payday loan and was not able to pay it back, which is completely false, and I will be taken to court and I could lose my job. He told me the letter to type up to send to him via fax within 30 minutes, otherwise they will take me to court. He stated word for word what he wants in the letter and to fax it to him with all my banking information. He knew my ss#, my address, where i work and that i have a bank acct with my current bank.
My wife told me that it's a fraud and we looked it up on line and I guess it is. I notified my bank and the police as well as experian credit bureau.

I got two calls at the home number, I did the reverse look up and found that everyone is charging for that service now.  I went to google and put in the number and found this.  Thank you for being here.  I was not sure who "Officer Wilson" was but he said that he can't help me anymore and I would have to pay the consiquenses.  I have only recieved two calls so far and none have been at work.  They must be on the move because when I tried to call the "number is no longer in service"  They call me on Monday and Tuesday.   I was just able to get to my messages this morning (Friday).   The Indian accent with him talking so fast I really can't say where he is from.  I had to replay the message four times just to get Officer Wilson.   These people need to be stopped.......

I recieved a call at my work from "MICHAEL BRATT" from the Department of Law and Investigation. I was home sick so a coworker of mine let me know about the call. She said that he was very rude and threatening. I called the number and a man told me his name was Officer Austin and that he has been trying to contact me for a financial legal matter that I will be taken to court for it if I dont not pay him right away. He told me he was from the Department of Law and Investigation from Colorado. He had information about me including my address, my place of work, my email and last four digits of my SSN. As soon as things werent adding up I hung up the phone and looked up the Department of Law and Investigation and I found about this fraud thats going on. I called the number back and stated that i knew that this call was a fraud and he then told me to go to hell and kept stating that he would send someone out to my place of residence and have someone arrest me. I then just hung up the phone

i got a call threatening with suit and all kinds of crud. To his surprise I work in the County Courthouse and I made the report to my attorney and local law enfocement!! Watch out they sound very professional and threaten like such.

I recieved a call at my work from "Hal Smith" from the Department of Law and Investigation. I was home sick so a coworker of mine let me know about the call. She said that he was very rude and threatening. I called the number and a man told me his name was Officer Austin and that he has been trying to contact me for a financial legal matter that I will be taken to court for it if I dont not pay him right away. He told me he was from the Department of Law and Investigation from Colorado. He had information about me including my address, my place of work, my email and last four digits of my SSN. As soon as things werent adding up I hung up the phone and looked up the Department of Law and Investigation and I found about this fraud thats going on. I called the number back and started asking questions about his name, the company he works for and the address. The more questions I asked the more angry he got and he eventually hung up on me. DO NOT BELIEVE ANYTHING THEY SAY! DO NOT GIVE OUT ANY INFORMATION!

this number also called me and threaten to put me in jail if i did not pay $792.00 by tomorrow... they said my home was under investigation and that my ss was blocked...what a scam!

I forwarded the number to mylocal police department.  Having experienced a break -in of my home while I was traveling I was not taking any chances.  This call is a total fraud.

I received a call from this number 1 315 663 2862 last week sometime, they claimed i took a payday loan out. I asked them when because I have not received anything in my bank account. The person with a Indian Accent told be it was put in my bank between July and August, could not give me a specific date. He did know some personal stuff such as my social but only the last 4 digits but could not give me all of it.

This morning at 1051 hours 11/16/2010 I received a voice mail from a Micahel Bratt who claims he is with Law and Investigations who stated with an Indian Accesnt that this was a time sensative matter to return his call or there is nothing he could do for me. This is exactly the samr thing they said to me last time so I believe it is the same person.

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