Foreign man who you can't really understand - I think Jason Hung.  Told me not to disregard the message. I should call back or have my atty of record call back. Wishes me good luck at the end of his message.

I received the same call from a person who claimed to be three different people, James Matthews, James Stone, and Jason Hunt. He said he was with the IRS, then with the Crime Prevention Unit. He told me that I was being charged with felony charges for check fraud and theft by deceit. He said I borrowed money from a cash net.com and that I owed $300. I asked him for the number to this so called website that I never borrowed money from. The number he gave me was a 219 area code and it was to a Mental Health Organization.

received a call saying i owe money. his name was matthew

So glad I found this!!! Its been a few weeks now since vie been receiving these same calls. I never answered the phone but they always left me a message and the only thing I could understand were the last 4 digits of my social and the number to call back. Eventually it got me so upset I called my mother and asked her what to do. She called the number and told them someone was calling and harassing her daughter and they immediately hung up. I went and spoke to the authorities just so it would be on record jut in case anything happened and they also called them and were given the run around. It's so obviously bs that I just blocked the number and haven't heard from them since...except my mothe recieved a phone call the day after I blocked the number...interesting. I just suggest to block the number nut write down when they called and from what number...just to be safe! I'm glad I'm not alone!

I got the same call today - thick accent ... same scenario - I asked him for a call back number and he hesitated - couldn't give me dates when I was given the so called loans which seemed strange to me - I told him I'd call him back and he pressed for a time - I advised that I wanted to review his allegations before I say or do anything further. I then checked my account just to make sure there was no error on my part and found no credit(s) were posted to my account for either of the months he claimed a loan was issued to me - I'll enjoy talking to him if and when he calls back again.

I got a call today from Alex Ferguson but he had such a thick middle eastern accent I could hardly understand him. He said he was invegstigating <my friend, name withheld> for crimnal state fraud. He also gave a name of the department, which he said was a state department. I asked which state and he said Florida. He wanted me to get my friend the message and to call him back at 863-949-0900. I did a lookup on the number and it is in Florida. My friend lives thousands of miles away from Florida. The incoming number was 052-538-374. I knew from previous scams that numbers with a 0 preceding them and only 9 digits instead of 10, are out of the country cell phone numbers. I asked Alex why the number on my phone was different and he said the incoming call to me was from another private number. When I called it back, I got "the number you are trying to reach is not a valid number; Verizon code 014". THIS IS A SCAM. The 863 number in Florida is more than likely automatically forwarded to a cell phone out of the country. Right now that number has a full voice mail and won't take calls. There is the proof. SInce these are out of the county SCAMS, there is little or no protection other than to beware it IS a SCAM. My guess is Lagos Nigera; the SCAM capitol of the world.

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

He is now using 863-949-0900 and also contacting a person I put as a reference on a payday loan. He is calling my work and leaving unprofessional messages.He says he is Alex Fergeuson and I am being criminally investigated. Number is in Florida. He called and I spoke to him and told him I knew his game and told him to never call again. Don't get fooled by this idiot. He is very rude and pushy.

I just got the same call with the exact same thing...Thank you so much for posting this...you saved me!!! Please don't give him any information, they want to steal your identity!

The caller had a thick middle eastern accent and said his name was Officer Eric White from the Law and Investigation Office calling about a "friend" of mine that had commited internet fraud. That this friend had mentioned my name and cell phone number, along with his SS no. That a lawsuit was being filed against him. I was to tell my friend to call 866-994-7554,ext. 1013. And, if I didn't, I would have to represent myself in a courthouse as well. They called last fall threatening me. But then it was the U.S. Crime Investigation Office. I contacted my local U.S. Marshalls office and they said it sounded like a scam and not to confirm or give any info to them.

I got a call from a samuel Bishop and Alex Ferguson regarding the exact same issue, when i asked the guy what comany did i owe the money to, he said Cash Central so i said i would give them a call and confirm and he said no there is no time he will have an offcier waiting to pick me up at my place of employment and i said that's fine and I hung up. he then called my job and left a message with a call back number, my co-worker gave me the message and after calling cash central it was confirmed it was a scam, i called the idiot back and played along with him until I got him to give me all the information again, and this time he said the company I owed was Cash Co so I gave him a ear full and considering I am an investigator i was able to track the number to a routing service from India. I contacted the federal trade commission and report him.

My husband received a call from this number: 860-257-5801 (using the company name of "Department of Crimes Prevention"), with threatening, not accurate legal-sounding language about coming to his work place and detaining him.  Don't listen to this caller.  
He will have convincing personal information and he will call the co-workers around you.  Just warn your co-workers and have them look up this web page,and whatever you do... don't give out any banking info and don't wire money!!

This same person, with a thick accent, called me and said his name was Robert Newsome from "Crime Protection Services" he leaves threatening voice mails daily and says "call me back or else" despite me telling him he has the wrong number. WHen I try to call the number back I always get a voice mail.

BEWARE. They are also calling from Texas number 210-787-1228 using american names.  DO NOT GIVE THEM any information and let them do the talking.

EXACTLY word for word what happened to me. Very scary, since I have had Pay Day Loans in the past and paid them off.  Thanks to all who contributed to this site - it was quite helpful!  My attorney suggested I call my Attorney General's office and file a complaint.

From: http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-201-234-4602

It's a scam. And all their threats are false and illegal.

ABC News recently did a report on this particular scam. Here's the link to the report:  http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5621205&page=1

And the West Virginia Attorney General recently issued a press release warning consumers about this scam. Here's the link:  http://www.wvago.gov/internetloanscam.cfm

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, US Federal Bank, Sonic Bank, Hopkins Law Office, 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.)

The bottom line is, these are criminals trying to steal your money.

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/1-925-262-1327
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/1-949-743-1156
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

...and many more.

well someone called me today too and said thatt i owed them money, but from the number that im reporting, these people told me that if i paid them 149 dollars, i would get a card with 2500 dollars on it. im glad i found this web site also!!! thanks everybody. im having a real police call them tomorrow!!!

I have been getting phone calls 2 or 3 times a day from 860-257-5801. he calls MY WORK every day. threatens me with jail and legal actions. Thank you for all of your posts.

I received a call this morning at my job frm Steve Black saying the exact same as the previous calls I knew these people were a scam. My call was almost verbatim as the previous comments.

I received 3 voice mail messages from this number(860)257-5801 and the guy's name was Sam. He had a thick Indian accent also and was threatening me that I will be facing legal action if I did not call him back. I do not remember getting involved into something that's illegal or owe anybody  from Connecticut so, I am so glad that I googled this number and it turned out to be a scam...I am so relieved, Thanked God. I hope and pray that this person will be caught as soon as possible. It's good that I did not call him back in anyway... now, I have all the reason to ignore his calls. Thank you so much to all the people who came out here and reported and thanks to google!

My sister is recieving harrassing phone calls from this number also. She called me, upset because he is telling her she is going to jail if she does not pay him the money he says she owes.  He states his name is James, but she can not understand what last name he is using because of his thick, Indian accent. I googled the number also, and found this and a couple other sites with complaints from this number. I also tried to call the number but all I got was a very generic voice mail message. This is a scam and I am glad I looked up this information. DO NOT GIVE these people any information and I would file a report with your local police department if you recieve a call from this number!!  She is calling the police, and also informing the man that if he calls again she will report him again to the authorities.

I recieved a call form this number -860-257-5801 from a man who identified himself as Jason Hunt from the Deptartment of Crime and Investigation.  He had a thick accent.  He informed me that as of today at 1:30 eastern time he would be filing a suit against me and I would be going to jail.  He wanted to give me a chance to hire a lawyer and get bail money cause I was going to need it.  I asked him why and he said I owed his complany 700.00 and he was going to get the money one way or the other.  I did some searching on my own and found out that this is crap and that no one should believe it.  I have filed a complaint with my local police department.

I received a call from this number--860-257-5801--from a gentleman who identified himself as Don White.  He had a thick Indian accent.  He was trying to get in touch with a previous co-worker of mine, said he was from the Department of Crime Prevention and my co-worker was the primary suspect in a case file.  He was requesting her cell phone number.  I did not give it to him.  I googled the number, called back and spoke with a gentleman named Sam Bishop (sounded like don white).  When I read to him the above notes, he put me on hold for 15 minutes and never returned.  This is DEFINITELY a scam!!!!

I was called from this number this morning.  The guy had a very thick accent.  He said his name was Sam Bishop and he worked for the Dept of Crime Prevention.  He told me if I didnt pay $700.00 by one o'clock today he would have the local authorities to pick me up at my place of employment. That I owed this money for a payday loan that wasnt paid back in full.(which is a crock of bull) When I tried to ask him questions he was very vague with the answers. He said since I wasnt cooperating he was going to start legal proceedings.  I said that was fine, go ahead cause I was calling the authorities also.

I recieved 2 missed calls from the number (860)257-5801 one minute apart this morning. my girlfriend also recieved a call from the same number 5 minutes later. he did know certain info about me, but i did not confirm any of it. He spoke with a middle eastern accent. i asked to speak with a supervisor and he stated he "was the supervisor up in here". i informed him that this was harrasement and he threatened me with criminal charges. i then called back and same person answered and i asked to make an appointment with FRANK SMITH the attorney whose name is being used. he would not transfer me to a receptionist or anybody else. upon further searching there is no FRANK SMITH with the connecticut bar association. This is obvioulsy a scam.

he call me today . say i had to pay at least 800. today or they will take me to court. i am glad i found this site

I received a phone call on my cell phone and my work phone from phone # 860-257-5801. The person calling had a very thick indian accent and was hard to understand. He said his name was Rydell with Eagle Eye Asscociates. He said that his firm was taking legal action against me regarding a Pay Day loan I had supposedly taken (which I did not!). He did read back all my personal info, my address, the last 4 digits of my social security #, my mother's name, etc. When I told him I didn't know what he was talking about he told me he would have an officer of the court come to arrest me at my place of business if I didn't pay $5000 dollars immediately. I told him to to please go ahead and try because I would be filing a complaint against them for trying to scam me. He then hung up. Then he called my co-worker's desk and told her the exact same thing. He also said that he would be filing legal action against her. After she hung up on him he called another co-work and said the same. We all have the same # just 1 digit difference, so it was easy for him to find them from my #. He is phishing for your credit card or bank information! DO NOT GIVE HIM ANY INFO!!! Just report him to the authorities.