I got a call and they told me that they would like to F me!!!! I hung up on them and then they called back I told him that if he did not stop I would have him deported

heavy accented person (middle east accent) called to speak with someone (named a person that works here by name). The person is never reachable in the office. After not being able to help connect him he stated that answering phones all day is boring. Everything he said he needed to repeat due to his accent. After I told him I could not help him, that I had many things to do, he asked "could we go on a date". "I am sorry sir I cannot help you any more". Some people have away too much time on their hands & clearly need something to occupy their time that doesn't involve wasting others'.

Eric Mathews call from a number saying he is a lawyer and there's a warranty for my arrest.is this a scam the number is 914 920 6842.

I have been receiving these phone calls but mine are from Mike Anderson, and Morgan Simons.  The number that I have been getting mine from is 203-992-9765.  They would not allow me to use anything but a Greendot Money Pack to pay the amount that they accuse me of owing. I came within 18 hours of paying this until I finally found out who the lawyer office is suppose to be and I found all this information on the web about them.  The law office is "Allen Richie & Associates" .   When people start threating jail... I tend to get real nervous because that can royally mess up a persons life.  Thank you for letting other people know about your experiences to help other unfortunate people.

Just got same call wanting money from me too. Wanting me to pay with green dot prepaid card which made no sense at all. Thanks for the info. It was real helpful. These crooks need to be stopped ASAP.

NO THREATENING PHONE CALLS TO MY PLACE OF BUSINESS......I see by all the posts that this is just what they do!!!

These people need to stop calling my work phone!!!!!!  727-827-8215 ERIC MATTHEWS and his threat and legal crap!  They have nothing better to do indeed!!!!  What the heck...oh yeah wished me luck too and then had the nerve to end the call with GOD BLESS!!!  Honestly....!!!

Add the name Andy Brown to the list of scammers from the fictitious Allen Ritchie & Associates. Also, another similar scam going around has people calling themselves "Officers" of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation. These people also have foreign accents but claim names like Ryan Jackson, David Cooper, and Steven Jones. There are units within some state governments with similar sounding agency names but threats delivered by phone with no written documentation are scams. All the same, make sure you check your credit reports for any illicit loans or accounts set up with your name , SSN or other information

had the same calls several times today, even called my friend and had her  very scared for me , i click in on the computer with the number and found out it is a fraud, thanks for the information

scam

today july 13,2012, had a call from this number saying that i had a fraud lawsuit with jpmorganbank for 20,000.00 drl fraud that i had collect, i never had a jp morgan account, or chase spoke with the bank and they saying that they dont have anything under my ss or name, i even got a case number ca98799, i call the police depart in the state i live the fraud department and gave my case number thay say is jp morgan who do i believe i fanally hang up and say the F word to the person who call

I just got a call also. He was very vulgar, mideastern accent. He told me to kiss my a@@
mutherf#%$@&*er, after I told him this was BS. I then called him back and he was rude again thanks to caller ID.

I think that this is a scam to make you pay debts that are not legitimate. I am reporting it to the police.

Ange1072006

Just received a call from this number also pretending to be an attorney named Eric Mathews.  He called out four numbers and asked me if they were the last four of my social.  When I said no, he went crazy.  On top of that the birth date was wrong also.

Yes..call them back and tell them it's a scam and they will swear at you.

Thsi guy just called me back after I left them a messgage to not call me anymore and he said "Kiss my a** M@#$  F%$##.  How can we stop these crooks from using the phone to harass and try to scandle people?

This guy names Allen Parker and another one named Eric Mathews called me last week and today. I can barely understand them but they also said I owe them money or they were going to send papers to law enforcement for my arrest and fax paper to my employer.  What the heck. Their numbers are  727-827-8215?. 727-827-8215. We should call them back and harass these crooks.

rec'd the same calls as you all did, sick of the BS

No one can ever touch child support.  That is actually illegal. They are actually calling and cussing me out. Say they represent Cash ADvance USA. I don't know the company so I said I was reporting their number to the FCC to which he hung up and called back and only cussed me out again.

OK they just called my number again from 727-827-8215 and I answered. Foreign guy says his name is now Eric Matthews and he is an attorney. I asked who he represented and he replied Alan Richie and Associates then said Cash Advance USA.  I have never done any business with either of these companies. I finally told him about what he said in his prior conversation (his colorful words). I told him I was reporting his number to the FCC and hung up.  He called back and "Kiss my a** you f*****g Bi**h. Obviously not an attorney.

I received a call today from this number and because I didn't recognize it waited to call back. I made sure that my phone number didn't show up and asked whose number I was reaching and the guy with a heavy foreign accent said Alan Richie and Associates and that he is Alan. When I apologized and said that I had the wrong number he told me to "F" off and decided to call me a Mother F*****g B***ch!  Wow

I also have been receiving repeated calls. One that was just twenty minutes ago. Stating I had a loan that I didn't repay. I stated that I would like to speak with this company I have a loan with. He told me that i'm not allowed to speak to them. That I should get an attorney and have mine contact him. I said I was not going to give out any information, and that he is not going to call and speak to me in the manner that he has been. He has a thick middle eastern accent. Hard to understand. Then he said that he was going to throw me in jail. If I wanted to go to court, it was going to cost me 8,000 in fees that I would have to pay back. I'm glad to hear that this is a scam. I was getting worried.

Thank you for the info. I plan on calling the numbers provided to report this. I have been receiving calls on a continous basis since last week. I just want the calls to stop. It is very annoying.

I did received this phone call also this people are scammers as of today  6/12/2012 I called the FBI and I report this issue with them if you would like to do so here is the number 202-324-3000
This people has a tick accen that they Identify themselfs as Ritchie & Associates in Sherman Oaks, California, to all of you be carefull this people are up to take your money.
Have a good day all of you if you need to contact myself my number is 6502769123.
FYI I just talk to the FBI and they are asking for people to report this numbers to (888) 382-1222
and to go to the FTC and report a case on this matter.
Have a good day all of you! :-)

Yes Jamie, I just received a reply because I just recieved the same call from the same person. It is a scam and we can relax.

Thanks for this information. I was kinda scared to the point I was gonna give them my information to pay whatever it was that needed to be paid. They are very rude, and everything you posted compared to what I have experienced today. Thanks so much now I can relax at work.

I just got a phone call at my place of employment and they stated that it was a legal emergency. I called the number and the man said his name was Eric Matthews and he wanted me to know that the creditor that he was calling for had a warrant for my arrest and that there was no way to get out of it. He said I should go to court and if I lost the case it would cost me $18,000, he also said that I would lose the case. He said we could settle out of court but he needed to talk to his supervisor, Simeon Morgan. Then my cell phone cut off and we were disconnected so he called back and said since I hung up on them they would not settle out of court and I better go ahead and tell my employer. He also said that they would hold my child support until the amount was paid. He was very rude about everything and he knew all of my banking information. It scared me but then I started to do some research and see that it is a big scam.

They can't do anything but blow their noses. The FTC has frozen the assets of one of their co-conspirators funneling money to this organized crime syndicate in India and criminal indictments are pending. It was covered on "ABC World News" and "Nightline" last night:

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

Got a call from these fools talking about his name was eric Matthews, and from reading this review a lot of people got a call from the same person. Talikng about call back or good luck.

Got a call from this number saying I have a warrant for my arrest cause I committed fraud! Is this a scam