A man by the name of Raymond Scott with an accent said he was from the Investigation State Texas Office, he told me back on 7/30/12 that I had 24 hours to pay $ 500 because i owe to Cash Net USA, and if I didn't pay a Constable would come to office to pick me up not only that they will put a lien against my house, vechical etc... he threaten me so bad, I told the man i had no money for him to give me over the weekend to see if i could get the funds.  Well monday came, I had to get a money pack card to put funds.  Monday afternoon funds were paid.  But I'm going to report this number 888-314-7674-Raymond Scott
I only would like to say please do not believe any State Investigator or FTC, I've received both type of calls.

he call me at work and on my cell phone saying he was going to send the police to arrest me

Called me at work and I called him back.  Then he gave me to someone who said I had three criminal charges against me in the Courthouse.  He said in the message that he worked for the State of California.  I asked him several times if he got a check from the state of California as an employee.  He said "yes" then he said he worked for all 50 states.  I said so you are a State Worker of all 50 states and he said yes.  I laughed.  He told me I had three felonies and that the police would be out to get me.  They are so stupid.  The message the leave is "...call me back the very instant you get this call!!".  Like hell - He swore and yelled and was a total a**.  And he did not speak english very well at all.  He said he was in Texas....Texas, India.

I HATE THESE JERKS

They claim to be David Jones or Ben Johnson.

These people just wont stop!

Thank goodness it is not only me. They keep calling for my fiance saying he is in big legal trouble but I knew it was a scam. I asked him where they were and they said PA...yeah right with that accent. I could not understand the company when I asked him he said TBI or TSI I researched all of them and not one thing came up. They say they have my bank account info. Does anyone know if they can go in and try and take anything? They wouldnt tell me the account so I am not sure if they really do or not.

his name is alex turner and he told me

alex turner

Same thing here i said send me letter in mail they refused bunch of indians w american
Names claiming people owe money i asked when was loan given in what date guy had no responce he got
Frustrated n hung up u cant go jail for oweing a debt first of all
I asked there address they refused idk how they scam people no one can stop these
Annoyin scam artist how they get people info needs be reported

This man named Daniel Smith Bureau of Crime and Legal called and left a message about funds to cash. Pay Day Cash Loan... fraud

I received several messages from obviously Indian call center originating from India trying to scare me of money I owed that does not exist or some payday loan I did not apply for.  He used different numbers and pretended that he was with the investigations unit or whatever.  He then called my office.  The secretary was annoyed but knew it was as scam because the call center agent appeared to be pretentious and unable to provide the specific information that our office assisted asked him and then he hang up.

DO NOT BE SCARED JUST IGNORE IT.  BE CAREFUL WITH THE PERSONAL INFORMATION YOU ARE PROVIDING VIA ONLINE AS THEY CAN TRACK IT DOWN.  THIS IS NOTHING BUT A SCAM !

Got a call from some Indian accent talking SOB. He said I owed money on a loan that does not exist. He said his name was Ben Johnson, and that I had to pay it right away. It would be nice if his name was Howard Johnson, then maybe I could get some ice cream. What a joke!

MAN CALLED ME FROM THIS NUMBER 888-314-7674 SAID HE WAS OFFICER ALFRED SMITH WITH THE B.C.I. BUERO OF CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION AND CLAIMED THAT IF THE PARTY THEY WERE LOCATING DID NOT RETURN HIS CALL TODAY THEY WOULD BE PUT IN JAIL.  POCILE OFFICIALS NOT ONLY DO NOT HANDLE  SMALL CLAIMS AND OR COLLECTIONS, BUT SMALL CLAIMS AND COLLECTIONS ARE NOT CRIMINAL THEY ARE SMALL CLAIMS DUHHH!!!! SCAM ALERT AND NOT EVEN A GOOD OR HALF @#$ED SCAM!

Wanted to ask questions. Said they were some kind of agency and threatened to sen police to arrest me

Yeah, these people keep calling me, they are definitely Indian just by their accents.  I keep laughing at them and tell them to go ahead and sue me or send the fbi or the cops.  Problem is, they use alternate numbers, so it's hard to block them, and reporting them does no good.

yup got a call from an Indian speaking guy named Alfred Smith.  B*****d even had the balls to call me at work.

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

they called me several times and claimed to be an investigator/ agent said if i don't do as they ask they will send an officer to my work for an unpaid payday loan i informed them i never had an online payday loan they hung up. they are very hard to understand and do not speak english very good.

Received a call from an individual stating he had a claim against me and my manager, wanted to brief me on the claim and or speak with the legal department.  He had all of my personal information

guy called asked him to send me any information that is about this case. he proceeded to yell that this is a damn important matter I told him that cursin was not nessecery and that I would be reporting him. he hung up. I call back and asked to speak to a manager he claimed he was the manager. Told him dont call me any more send me information by mail!!!!

30 calls in 45 minutes and as soon as we hung up, he was on the other line asking for employee again.  very rude, stated he was with the department of criminal investigation and he was going to press charges against me for misbehaving by not putting him through to employee.  finally had administrator speak with him and he hung up and hasn't called back.  called police to report.  sounds like a call center in India as the people in the background all had same accent and when i called back, they hung up on me.

the company had all my personal information and has called my relatives threatening to have me arrested and reported to the fbi...i have called the police and made a report against them

Person claims they are from the legal dept of us payday advance. Told him he was not and hung up

Call claiming he is an representatrive with the legal dept of us payday advance. Toldhim he wasnot and hung up

claimed to be a state investigator calling for one of our employees who is off today.  keep calling multiple times then switched phones now using 318-990-5231

Person keeps calling for one of my employees.  If he is a collections agency or attorney he should know that it is illegal to call place of employment.  Was going to record our conversation and he quickly hung up.  Was not very professional with rude comments.

It's some sort of scam.  They claim to be a collection agency, but they are not.