Who are these people?

Just to let everyone know about this number: I received a call about 8/20 and this guy, "Alexander Davenport" told me that I owed about 900 dollars on a payday loan and that I was schduled to appear in a court in California ( I live in Vermont) to face charges of check fraid for not paying the loan back. At first I panicked..cause I did apply for one, but didnt get it. Anyway...I asked him who the payday loan company was, and he told me I'd get all the information in court. THen I told him that there is no way id be able to go to california..and he said if I failed to appear, I'd be arrested. Then, I asked him, ok what do I have to do? and he said I could give him my credit/debit card number and they would charge the 900 plus another 1000 in court fees. I told him that first of all....I am not paying on a payday loan without PROOF that I actually got one, and that I wanted teh name of the payday loan company first. He got very angry, left me the docket number and said I better pay or I'd be sorry. Next day....went to see my attorney...turns out its a fake docket number. He calls this guy back, and this time gets told a totally different amount. This is DEFINENTLY a fraud, so please please do not give them any information. Report them to FTC and the Attorney General if you get a call like this.

I have received numerous calls from these idiots over the past month or so.  Yesterday was the first day I talked to them to get some information.  "Mr. Jack Benson" threatened me with lawsuits and jail time over bogus criminal charges.  Because I know I have never taken out any loan, besides federal educational loans, I knew they had to be a scam or I was the victim of identity theft.  Unfortunately its both.  These jerks have all my personal info, including bank information and last 4 of my SS#. He refused to give me any information on who the loan was through, what is was for and what the name of his "company" was.  He kept stumbling over his words, and I eventually heard a faint voice in the background feeding him every line to say!!!  I confronted him about this and he got very angry and denied this was happening.  He wanted to put me on hold, but everytime they do, it hangs up and they call back, so I refused to be put on hold and demanded to speak to whomever was feeding him lines.

So I get to finally talk to this anonymous man whose dictating the conversation, and he tells me he's the one who will be handling my case.  So he then gives the phone back to the first guy.  So I start to act like I want to quickly resolve the matter out of court, since he refused to give me any relevant information without having an attorney.  So he gives me some words to write down and a fax number.  He also says that in order to pay, I have to pay via prepaid checkcard--LOL.  He then says I must sign the note, have it notarized and include the card # and information on the note so i could be processed.  Then I hear the man in the background again, saying, "You have one hour".  The man on the phone repeats this and I say ok.  In this very critical hour (sarcasm), I researched the fax number and scam was on every link that popped up.  After reading more, I contacted the FTC and filed a complaint.  today they called back and tell me I'm in trouble because I didn't pay within the hour yesterday.  I let him know that I knew that the operation was a scam, he was not to contact me anymore and that I knew his real phone number and location.  I also informed him that I had contacted the FTC.  He then told me to hang up the phone, and I told him I wouldn't until I was ready.  I stated twice more that he was not to contact me anymore and then I finally hung up.  If they call again, I'm going to do the harrasing!

I recevied a call from a martain brown and a ronnie cooper stating that i owe money other wise i am going to jail.  they told me that i have to appear in court by 11 am on monday today being saturday i did not have any time to look into anything.  The man had an indian accent.  He gave me a court house ref number which was 50302 he said that i owned him 989.99 with the court cost.  he wanted me to write an apoligy letter that was very detailed with information.  He stated that i was going to be arrested for banking fraud, check fraud, money launderying.  He stated that if i lose the case i would owe over 10,000.   He informed me that i needed to fax the letter before they would process the payment the fax number was 858-435-7639.   He stated that all of this was from an online payday loan which i had never done but he stated that i would have to prove it and then the money would be refunded.  He didn't offer this information until i asked about getting the money back.  He told me i only had 30 minutes to complete all of this.  In that 30 min i looked up the bbb and found out it was a fraud and called him back the man has no longer tried to contact me.

they have called my wife twice harrassing her at work saying there was a law suit being filed everything listed on here is true as i looked it up myself they are from poway california and again it was for an online loan my wife already got scammed for $1500 for a loan in nigeria that was sent to the internet fraud division of the fbi you are right these people must be stopped and that phone number is 858-248-4816

sorry that number is 858-248-4816

they have called my wife twice harrassing her at work saying there was a law suit being filed everything listed on here is true as i looked it up myself they are from poway california and again it was for an online loan my wife already got scammed for $1500 for a loan in nigeria that was sent to the internet fraud division of the fbi you are right these people must be stopped and that phone number is 10858-248-4816

I was called 8-17-09 atleast 30 times from these people. (Hey left 10 messages on my voice mail that I saved where they threated me if I didn't contact them as soon as I received the mesage. I was upset about the messages and called the number left in the message. The man I spoke with was persistant in trying to get me to give him my personal information. When I wouldn't give the informatiion out he began to threaten me. I asked him not to call my phone and told him I would contact the police if he did and he said he didn't care. There were 3 different names give when the calls were made to me. They called my phone intil around 10:00 pm.

http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-714-333-2981

This is just another one of hundreds (and perhaps even thousands) of numbers these overseas payday loan debt collection scammers are calling from:

http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-904-425-9141:

It's a scam, and all their threats are false and illegal.  The bottom line is, these are criminals trying to steal consumers' money.

Here are a few news reports and government advisories warning consumers about this scam:

ABC News:  http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5621205&page=1
West Virginia Attorney General:  http://www.wvago.gov/internetloanscam.cfm
WTAE TV4, Pittsburgh:  http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/call4action/17285785/detail.html
Florida Commissioner of Consumer Services:  http://www.800helpfla.com/newsletter/2008/092008.html

This is a very active group of scammers, many of whom are calling from India (and probably other countries) and are in cahoots with a group of American pay day loan scammers. They attempt to extort money from consumers with a myriad of false and illegal threats, and alternately pose as debt collectors, federal and state law enforcement officers, lawyers and bankers. Their trademark is to use meaningless legalese gobbylgook phrases like "We are downloading warrants against you" or "We are filing an affidavit against you." Another trademark phrase is to threaten the consumer with something like this ridiculous phrase: "If you don't pay then only God can help you."

Typical of many financial scams of this variety, they usually demand payment via Western Union or MoneyGram or credit card. They use any number of phony names such as US National Bank, Federal Investigation Bureau, US Legal Investigation Bureau, Christian Nicholas & Associates, US Federal Bank, Sonic Bank, Hopkins Law Office, CashNet, United Legal Processing, Morgan Associates, United Pay Services, National Processing, White Collar Crime Unit and many more.  These criminals also use many phone numbers from many area codes; they're probably using caller-id spoofing software and/or VoIP to disguise their real location.

The main thing to remember is that anytime someone calls you demanding money to prevent your arrest, or demanding your lawyer's name so they can sue you, it is ALWAYS a scam. No debt collector (let alone criminals posing as debt collectors) has the authority to have anyone arrested for anything. (And it's illegal to them to threaten such a thing.) And since these foreign dirtbags routinely impersonate law enforcement, it's also important to remember that American law enforcement officers aren't in the business of debt collection.  (Debt is a civil, not a criminal, matter.)

A consumer posting a complaint about these same scammers at http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-718-831-7157 notes that 718-831-7157 is associated with an India-based "outsourcing" telephone bank.  Though a reverse search on WhitePages.com shows that 718-831-7157 is an unlisted land line in New York City, information on Debtbuyers.Com shows that that number is used by India-based Intellisourze. (Source: http://www.debtbuyers.com/debtbuyers.asp ) My guess is that it's a VoIP phone number.

This is another piece of the puzzle that fits in perfectly with other information about this scam. There are some reports on 800Notes that have suggested that the crooks behind this offshore scam are also the crooks behind the notorious Bass/Ellis Crosby & Assoc./States Predisposition scams in Florida and Georgia. The interesting thing is that the number of complaints on here about the US National Bank/US Legal Investigation/Federal Investigation scam skyrocketed *after* April 7, 2008 when Florida obtained a $1.3 million judgment against Ted Ellis Crosby, shutdown his operations and barred him from ever conducting debt collections in Florida (
http://myfloridalegal.com/newsrel.nsf/newsrel ... 5257424005858A6 )  There's certainly a good chance that the crooks placing these calls from India are doing so on behalf of the American crooks behind the Crosby/Bass/States Predisposition scams.

Here's the contact information for the phone bank in India:

IntellisOurzE BPO
701, Sapphier, Nr. Cargo Motors,
C.G. Road Navrangpura,
Ahmedabad - 9. (Guj.) INDIA.
E-Mail: info@intellisourze.com
Website: www.intellisourze.com

A check on the domain name "intellisourze.com" shows that the website and name registration was created on May 8, just one month *after* the Crosby scams were shut down in Florida:

Domain Name: INTELLISOURZE.COM
Registrant:  Pragra Infratech Pvt. Limited.
Email:  ankur.ranpariya@pragra.com  
908, Aksaht Tower, Nr. ICICI Bank
Opp. Rajpath Club, S.G. Highway
Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India 380054
Tel. +91.7926871353
Creation Date: 08-May-2008
Expiration Date: 08-May-2009
Domain servers in listed order: ns5.znetindia.com ns4.znetindia.com
(Source: http://whois.domaintools.com/intellisourze.com )

Though scam calls from these crooks have been going on long before May 8, the frequency of complaints about these calls increased considerably after Crosby was shut down in early April.

This is conjecture, but appearances suggest that Crosby and company were originally running a two-pronged payday loan scam operation -- with some calls being made from Jacksonville, Florida and other calls being made from a phone bank in India (and possibly other countries); then, after the Florida Attorney General shut down the Crosby scams in Florida, the Crosby crooks transferred most of their scam efforts to the India phone bank.

If you are targeted by these criminals, be sure to report them to all the following federal and state law enforcement agencies (most of which you can do online or over the phone):

1) The U.S. Secret Service is responsible for protecting the country's financial infrastructure and payment systems from international and domestic threats. Call or write your local Secret Service field office to alert them to the details of this attempted extortion. The addresses and phone numbers for the local Secret Service field offices are listed at http://www.secretservice.gov/field_offices.shtml or in your phone book.

2) Alert the FBI at https://tips.fbi.gov  Be sure to tell the FBI that you are being targeted by extortionists over the phone. And if the crooks claim to be law enforcement or lawyers, officers of the court or bankers, be sure to include that information in your report.

3) File a complaint with your local police. Most police departments will take a report over the phone.  Be sure to tell them that you're being targeted by an extortionist and give them all the details.

4) File a complaint your state's attorney general, the contact information for whom is at www.naag.org

5) File a complaint online with The Federal Trade Commission at https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/FTC_Wizard.aspx?Lang=en

If these crooks call back, promise them nothing, pay them nothing and tell them nothing other than that you know they're a scam and that you've reported them to law enforcement. (And be sure to report them to all the agencies above each time they call you.)

By the way, here's just a *small* sample of numbers used by this particular group of scammers. Read the reports and you'll see the same pattern time and again -- phony organization names, thick foreign accents, and oddly worded threats that are so melodramatic and ridiculous that it's laughable:

http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-336-553-3965
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-888-909-6789
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-925-262-1327
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-678-954-6346
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-888-341-4004
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-856-831-0640
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-949-743-1140
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-410-505-8128
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-917-464-2534
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-210-858-6602
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-888-775-2121
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-310-909-8245
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-949-743-1156
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-214-245-1402
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-214-245-0922
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-214-723-5572
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-904-425-2863
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-718-831-7157
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-904-425-2857
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-858-244-0444

At LONG last...these scammers are fimally getting the national attention they so richly deserve:

Full release from the Better Business Bureau:

Widespread Harassment from Phony Debt Collectors Raises Concerns of Mass Data Breach, Warns BBB Scammers may have Social Security and bank account numbers, home addresses and employer information

Chicago, IL ? August 5, 2009 ? The Better Business Bureau is issuing an alert about phony debt collectors that are calling consumers nationwide and claiming that they have defaulted on a payday loan and will be arrested if they don?t pay immediately. Claiming to be lawyers, the scammers say they are with the ?Financial Accountability Association? or the ?Federal Legislation of Unsecured Loans? and are equipped with a disconcerting amount of personal information about their potential victims.

?Because the scammers have so much information about potential victims, the BBB is concerned that this may be the result of a data breach,? said Steve J. Bernas, president & CEO of the Better Business Bureau serving Chicago and Northern Illinois. ?Thousands of people may have had their personal information compromised, and given the scammers? tactics, it appears that those who have previously used payday loan services could be particularly at risk.?

According to reports received by the BBB and posted online, the scammers accuse the victim of defaulting on a payday loan and claim they are being sued. The phony debt collector threatens that, if the victim doesn?t pay as much as $1,000 immediately via wire or by providing bank account or credit card numbers, he or she will be arrested and extradited to California within the hour to stand trial. The scammers often may have the victim?s Social Security, old bank account numbers or driver?s license numbers as well as home addresses, employer information and even the names of personal friends and professional references.

The BBB offers the following advice to consumers if they receive a suspicious telephone call about an outstanding debt:
* Ask the debt collector to provide official documentation in writing which substantiates the debt.
* Do not provide or confirm any bank account, credit card or other personal information over the phone until you have confirmed the legitimacy of the call.
* Review recent copies of your credit reports to ensure that the alleged debt is not affecting your credit. Consumers can do this for free once every 12 months, and can find more information here: http://www.ftc.gov/freereports
* Under the Federal Trade Commission's Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, debt collectors may not harass, oppress, or abuse any person while attempting to collect a debt.
* A debtor may be contacted between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. only and can be contacted at work unless instructed not to.
* File a complaint with the FTC online if the caller is abusive, uses threats or otherwise violates federal telemarketing laws.
* File a complaint with BBB online at www.bbb.org if you believe a debt collector is trying to scam you.

http://www.thinkglink.com/article/2009/08/06/ ... eading-says-bbb

This is an ongoing fake debt collector scam written up on this site http://800notes.com/articles/News.aspx/UmghNAGYQwANpAjL5OOhYA

Complaints are best addressed to the authorities rather than the BBB, since the BBB cannot really do anything to help you.

This is a scam and needs to be reported to the Federal Trade Commission. They can be reached at 877-382-4357. They tried the same with me and when I told them I was going to report them to the Federal Trade Commission he hung up. LOL

I have received three messages all within several minutes of each other. There was a guy named David Cooper and he told me that he needed to speak to me or my attorney. He also said if I do not return his phone call then it is on me and he said god bless me. I am tired of people like him calling me and I keep reporting these numbers and they keep calling. I haven't even seen any paperwork. This is crazy. They need to be stopped.

THESE PEOPLE ARE CALLING ME TO HOW DID THEY GET MY ss# AND THE PHONE # PLACE WHERE I WORK HOW DID THEY GET ALL MY PERSONAL INFORMATION WHAT CAN I DO I DON'T KNOW WHO THEY ARE. BUT I WILL TURN THEM IN TO STATE ATT.

It's bad enough that many US companies force us to deal with individuals of other countries to pay our bills, even when we can't understand a word they are saying. Because it takes away jobs from American Citizens in these dire economic times. But, now to be targets of vicious monetary schemes, that's robbing us twice, and I am going to report these criminals until something is done about it.  Just who do they think they are?  People work hard for their money.  This number is actually a cellphone# located in Poway, CA.  (858) 248-4816  Lisa Ray is the lady who left a threatening message, cursing on my job#.

You will not see a Caller ID#  Beware of these people.  Also, alert your credit companies right away.

I am facing the same thing with these crooks and they will be stopped.  I am reporting them to the District Attorney, to my job and the Police.

Tired scam artists with accents from India.

These people are calling me again to try to scam money from me.  They have called in the past demanding that I send money or face punishment in court.  They even threatened me with jail time, have continually called my workplace and they knew all of my information (ssn,etc).  They even knew who my friends were as well.  Filing yet another report with the police for the harrassing phone calls, when I did call them to tell them to stop and told them the next time they decide to call I will call the police they said they don't care, go ahead call the police.