888-481-1146
Alfalfa
Alfalfa
2012-07-23 18:42:57
Unknown
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
minnie
minnie
2012-07-23 18:31:11
Unknown
They keep calling my phone and I am going to block the number.  They keep calling my work and I don't know how to block the call from them.  They told me they are from Attorney General Office, United CashPayday Loans and from a lawyers office and I owe them money.  Tell me I need to have my attorney call back within one hour or they will call my employer.  They won't tell me where their office is when I ask because I said they all sound foreign not from the U.S.  He will only say it is in Florida and that it's not important.  When I ask about this supposed loan and they amount they say why are you so interested now you don't need to know details you should know them.  They have said nasty things to me on the phone and that I will go to jail and god help you if you ignore this.  I am going to call the Attorney Generals office to see how to report this.  They are rude and annoying.
maryanne
maryanne
2012-07-21 00:19:47
Unknown
TAKE NOTE PEOPLE...DO NOT FALL FOR THIS...IT'S A SCAM..


This Business is not BBB accredited
US Cash Advance (Phony Debt Collectors)
Phone: (888) 296-4293


Description
Consumer Alert!

According to reports received by BBB, 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. The scammers often 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.

BBB is unable to locate the persons responsible for the phony debt collection calls.  The scammers claim to be debt collectors for US Cash Advance and CashNetUSA.  US Cash Advance is the name of an actual company with a retail store location in Florence, KY.  US Cash Advance and its employess are not affiliated with the persons conducting this phony debt collection scam.  US Cash Advance does not issue loans over $450, does not collect debts over the telephone and will not ask you to repay a debt via wire transfer.  Click here for the separate BBB report on US Cash Advance.  CashNetUSA is the name of an actual company headquartered in Fort Worth, TX.  Click here for the separate BBB report on CashNetUSA.  Neither CashNetUSA nor its employess are affiliated with the persons conducting this phony debt collection scam.

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 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.
? File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission online if the caller is abusive, uses threats or otherwise violates federal telemarketing laws.
maryanne
maryanne
2012-07-21 00:09:02
Unknown
i received 25 calls in a row from these idiots...that was today, so i blocked their number at my work...so  now, i have been calling them from a blocked number and when they answer i just hit numbers on phone pad...makes them crazy..lol
maryanne
maryanne
2012-07-20 23:09:40
Unknown
i also received a call from 888-481-1146  Ben Johnson saying i had to pay or the police would come, i kept hanging up on them ,they called me at work, he said if you hang up again, i will call you boss, so i blocked the number, but they called me 25 times.. how do we get these people to stop calling.  it sonded like he was from india or pakistan..bad people.
i don't have a loan or anything like that.
Alfalfa
Alfalfa
2012-07-20 15:41:43
Unknown
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
Receptionist
Receptionist
2012-07-20 15:40:37
Telemarketer
Rcvd a call from a Alfred Smith.. It was very hard to understand him, since he had a very strong accant.. He asked for a co-worker who works on our overnight shift. This Mr Smith still wanted me to take a message he sad it was very important and he was call with the "Legal Dept" he never mentioned a business?
Kiki
Kiki
2012-07-19 01:36:57
Unknown
I have received calls from the number 1-888-481-1146. The guy's name is Joseph with a heavy Indian accent. They have called my jobs numerous times until we had to block their calls. When he calls he says I owe $300 and if I don't send the money through western union by 5 they will be sending a sheriff after me. We get into so much int the phone, he has called me a b**** and told me to suck his you know what . I know this is a scam but it is very aggrevating. I just wish these people would stop. I have contacted the police but they don't seem to care. Help me!!! What can I do?
Gage Zimmerman
Gage Zimmerman
2012-07-17 21:06:38
Debt Collector
Just had a long drawn out battle with these people it is a scam and I have reported them to the local police in ofallon il. They went as far as to call my work and my wife claiming to be a st.louis county officer and if i didn't pay they would have an arrest warrant for me by 5. It sounded funny so I called the county office they have no officer by the name of David Smith and the badge number wa false as well. The scary part was that the number that popped up was really the st.louis county sheriffs number. THIS IS SCAM FROM THE SCUM OF THE EARTH!!!!!!!
Danna
Danna
2012-07-16 15:59:07
Unknown
I also jsut got a threatening call from a guy who said he was an attorney by the name of Joseph Garner with this phone number as his number.  We googled him and did not get anyone by that name then looked up this number.  He claimed he was from the Attorney Generals number.  Somehow these people do know if you have a debt and they are using that to call- very scary!!!
ROBERT DAVIS
ROBERT DAVIS
2012-07-14 17:21:02
Unknown
U ALL FRAUD PERSONS CHASING MONEY AND RUN AWAY FROM THE SITUATIONS....
Jamarri Kelly
Jamarri Kelly
2012-07-13 19:15:44
Unknown
same call saying that his supervisor would talk to me and that I had for a few months but wouldn't say how many months and ask me why am I asking all these questions
Pam
Pam
2012-07-13 18:55:51
Debt Collector
A David Jones just called my phone for my husband saying that him or his retain attorney needs to call him immediately the issue at hand is extremly time sensative and the hot line to his organization is 1-888-481-1146 do not try to regard this message.  Do return the call if you do not return the call or from your attorney the only thing I  do for you is wish you good luck (long pause) as this issue unfolds upon you!  Really!!!
Mandi
Mandi
2012-07-12 16:16:31
Debt Collector
they are scandals. and i am reporting them to the louisville police dept now.
emerson
emerson
2012-07-11 15:16:03
Debt Collector
They called me yesterday early in the morning saying that someone had taken out a loan on my name.. and that i needed to pay them 440$ by today if i wanted all the charges cleared out from my name, if not ill be paying 2,100$ and serving 4 to 5 years in prison. Thats how i knew this a scam.. The guy name is Robert david.
Ali
Ali
2012-07-11 04:16:14
Non-profit Organization
Yeah one of my co workers just told me they called here.i knew from the jump it was a scam.......how do i get them to stop calling my job??
Chena
Chena
2012-07-10 15:12:04
Unknown
keep getting call from kevin Smith harassing all my co-workers and me,constantly all day everyday stating this is a legal matter and that I have certified mail, I told them to send it to my house this is 100% a scam and they won't stop calling.
M2J
M2J
2012-07-10 14:43:03
Debt Collector
Received a call from Frank Hudso at this very #. He has been leaving threatning voice mails and he called my job.
Told my supervisor to hang up on him if he calls back. It is all a scam.
Krissy
Krissy
2012-07-09 22:31:55
Debt Collector
The man I spoke with "Nash" told me that I had taken out a loan and did not pay it back. He said that since i was late on my payment and made no attempt to contact or resolve that matter that I was being served by the court any day now. I knew it was a fraud, as I have never taken a loan out, and when I told him this, a variety of off color perverted things were said!!!
tra
tra
2012-07-06 19:32:54
Unknown
YES! They are scammers from india do not give them info they tried it with my husband and myself and we went to a lawyer and he investicated it and got them to stop calling
swh
swh
2012-07-05 18:40:03
Unknown
Its a fraud, a scam!  Sean Williams called me, from legal Services.
swh
swh
2012-07-05 18:36:08
Unknown
Its not real.  Its a fraud.  I've been called twice now!
Kristen
Kristen
2012-07-04 00:39:11
Unknown
I got the same call. I didn't know if it was real either. I got very upset with them. Did they know all ur info?
Ivana Lopez
Ivana Lopez
2012-07-03 22:55:52
Debt Collector
i just received a call from this number. the person asked for a payment today by eight or go to court. this person said it was in referrence to a student loan. I have a deferment, so I was not sure if this person was legit. something didn't seem right. is this a fraud?
1-904-567-2458 1-407-702-0538 1-781-339-9997
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