This is a scam. It was on our local news. DO NOT give out any information or return the calls.

They keep calling me and harrassing me and calling my job.

I am so glad that I found this site. cause I keep getting phone calls from some guy that I can't understand, he also called my job threatening and saying that they have a lawsuit against my name and ss#, cause I want pay back a loan, I did get a loan, but not from whoever that is. I told him that I have been paying the loan and he said I haven't, so I told him that I wasn't about to pay two companies back, so I told him that I was going to call the other company and find out what's really going on. They call constantly, all day from this crazy #1-770-037-70037, what kind of # is that with the last four digits is five digits,Kevin Hart say,  "IT'S CRAZY"

I have received a called from this number 760-284-1433 also and he had threating me and told me that i owe 400 and something dollars because I took out a payday loan which is a lie I mean he had all myinformation and that is really scary I called my lawyer and I am about to take out a law suit because they are on the news about these bill collectors calling threating you and its not true also he said that the GOVERMENT is looking for me for FRAUD..lol..and it was a chinese man i could barely understand him.he called my cellphone several times and also called my grandmother house.by the way his name is JACK WILLIAMS he said he was an officer calling from the laaw office..people its a prank call dont listen to that bs.Because if the cops are looking for mw my town isnt that big so I would have been caughtt by now,and its funny because I work inside a law office.Lol..seriously you could get a law suit do what I have did recoreded him every single word I wrote down his information and now I will see them in court.YAY me.

I get these calls many many times a day at work and at home.  I have never had a loan like they want me to repay.  I wish that they would stop calling.  I have an attorney and even when he calls them, they continue to call me.  I am getting the same story that I am reading on this web site.

SOOO FRUSRATING!!

I received a call from this group as well.  The person had a heavy east-Indian accent and introduced themselves as "officer"  Mark Greenwald from the "Law Investigation Department".  He told me that a friend of mine had taken out a loan and defaulted on it so, as the guarantor, I was required to repay it.  I told the "officer" I had not signed any loan papers either as a borrower or a guarantor and asked him to email/fax me a copy of the document.  He stated that the only thing I could do was give him my banking information and make an immediate payment otherwise he would be calling my local police department and having them issue a bench warrant for my arrest.  I asked for the name and address of where he was calling from but he refused to provide same.  He ended the call by saying he was going to now go and enter my name in the national criminal database.  I then called the friend who I as the alleged "guarantor" for and he stated he has received similar calls (he is in default and needs to make payment or be arrested for fraud.  We have both filed complaints with the FTC and our state Attorney General.

I got 22 calls from these wonderful people in a six-minute span. . . . didn't even have a chance to  answer.  When I finally did get it answered, they hung up.  Definitely not a reputable company.

My bestfriend sent me a text messages stating that she got a call from these people. They were telling here that I owed money and they just needed to know how to find me. I had her give me the number and I called back. The number was (760) 284-1433 and BOTH of the reps I talked to were named Chris. I knew it was a scam before I called because I already know who I owe money with and they know how to contact me. I just enjoy hearing what they have to say and calling them out on their bs. They say they'll send the police to my house to arrest me, I say go right ahead. Let the courts handle me.

I wonder if anyone falls for this. I don't see how since people should always keep track of who they owe money to and how much. For those out there who still aren't sure, just remember that lenders are professional and lenders know how to find you properly. They are also forthcoming with all the information you need to be able to get things settled. They will never insult you or threaten you and of course, if there is a problem they will contact you several times before they threaten legal action.

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

I received a call from them yesterday and when he started in about it being the legal department I hung up.  I googled the number found the above comments and the disclaimer on CashNetworks website, I went to their website and read it for myself also.  I do have a payday loan but with a different company, I called them and asked them if they were affiliated with the Cash Network or their affiliates and they told me no but that a LOT of their customers had received the same call this week and that we should just hang up.  So I called the number back and got Michael (Indian accent) that had called for me, he started in with his whole speech and I said I don't have a loan with Cash Network nor have I ever, I have one loan and I just spoke with them and they informed me that your comapny is a scam and a fraud and in fact I googled your phone number and there is a whole posting dedicated to the fact that you are and in fact Cash Network is encouraging everyone to call them and the FBI to report you and he kept trying to read his script of crap to me and I said you can stop reading that to me you are a SCAM and a FRAUD and you will be reported so he said to me stop shouting and I said no I can shout all I want don't call me or any other innocent person trying to scare them...then he said I will have the attorney call you and I said that's fine I will hang on while you put them on the phone and I will tell them the same thing...I then said if I have a debt with Cash Network or any of their affiliates send me proof of the debt, you have my information so send it to me via regular mail and I will then call you back...guess what.....HE HUNG UP.....

Also to prove this is a scam from the CashnetUSA payday loan website:


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Security Alert - Debt Collection Scam

Cash America International, Inc. and its subsidiaries (Cash America, Cashland, Payday Advance, SuperPawn, and CashNetUSA) along with many other lenders have been targeted by an unknown group that is making telephone collection calls attempting to collect debt on our company?s behalf. We want to inform you that these calls are not being made by us or anyone affiliated with us. The Cash America family of companies values all of its customers and we are working directly with authorities to stop these fraudsters.

Recognizing Fake Collectors

Our in-house collectors follow strict policies and procedures, industry best practices, and comply with the law. These fraudulent collectors do not. You should be suspicious that a collection caller is fraudulent if:

   * You have never received a cash advance from/through CashNetUSA, Payday Advance, Cashland, Cash America or SuperPawn.
   * You received a loan with one of our businesses, but paid it back in full.
   * The caller threatens violence, intimidation or uses foul language.
   * The caller threatens arrest or other criminal action, or references your driver?s license or check fraud.
   * The caller threatens to garnish your wages.
   * The caller is unable or unwilling to provide loan agreement information or payment history when you ask for it.

According to some of the people who have received fraudulent collection calls:

   * The callers have a strong Indian (Asian), Middle Eastern, or other foreign accent.
   * The caller reads out your bank account, Social Security Number or date of birth (this is done by the fake collector to show legitimacy).
   * The caller has very poor English speaking skills.


Reporting A Fraudulent Collector Call

   * If you have never received a loan from/through CashNetUSA, please call 888.801.9075 to provide us with the details of the incident that we can share with authorities.
   * If you have never received a loan from/through Cash America, Payday Advance, Cashland or Super Pawn, please call 800.773.3147 Ext 3822 to provide us the details of the incident that we can share with authorities.
   * Contact your State Attorney General?s office and the Federal Trade Commission and file a complaint. Use the FTC link https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/ and reference ?fake payday collection fraud.?
   * Do not give out any personal information to inbound callers.
   * Tell fraudulent callers that you have contacted the authorities and that you have been instructed not to pay or give out any personal information.
   * If you are a current CashNetUSA customer, log in to your online personal account to confirm the status of previous loans. If you are a current Cash America, Payday Advance, Cashland or SuperPawn customer, please contact the customer service number located on your loan documentation.

For more information, please refer to the CFSA or Better Business Bureau websites or read this consumer alert from the West Virginia Attorney General?s Office. The FTC has also published a list of Debt Collection Questions and Answers to help consumers found at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre18.shtm

I too have received several phone calls from this number. At first I was throwned back by the voice message that I had committed fraud and that he was giving me ample time to call him back to fix the situation. I soon learned that this had to be a mistake because I for one do not go around committing fraud, I am a honest person and have always tried to live life in that manner. the voice of this middle eastern man who i could not understand was not going to make me uncomfortable , you can tell he is the fraud by the message alone. someone needs to stop him and I am glad that I have read someone elses experience with the same caller , it's unfortunate that people can have the power to get your personal information and harass you, but this guy has called the wrong person. there is nothing or none in this world who can threaten me. This Indian guy better watch his back, you could get hurt when you try to mess with peoples lives.

This indian guy (who i could barely understand), called me on my cell phone AND at my JOB!!!  I couldnt understand the voicemail so I called back to see what it was regarding.  He said I have fraud charges for taking a loan from 'Cash Loans' or something like that and did not pay it back.  He had ALL of my information.  SS#, DL#, bank info, e-mail addy, my ADDRESS!! EVERYTHING!!!  He then proceeded to insult and threaten me stating I will lose my job and will be treated as a criminal since he will release my information into the state of california system (i live in NC) and the cops will either come to my job or my home to arrest me for fraud.  He gave me the options to pay him $2000 right now and clear it up, handle it on my own and get my own lawyer, or not do anything and i will get arrested and i will never be able to take a mortgage or buy a new car ever again and i will have a criminal background.  I spoke to my lawer and he contacted the people and they sad they are going to send the paper work so this is still in waiting.  but guarantee im calling the FBI on the F'ers today!!!  This is a SCAM!!! i have never taken a loan from this "company" and they are threatening my life?!!? NOOOoooooooOOOooooo....you messed with the wrong Bee guys!!!!