i got a call from this number 10/19/10 its was a middle eastern guy who said his name was "stephen wright" (yeah right) and that i better call him back or all he can say is "good luck" and something else about the "situation that will unfold on me".

Got a first call from this number a few days ago.

I am going to set reminders for myself to call this jerkoof back around 20 times a day.

i kept receiving these calls from various numbers.  the calls stopped about a week ago so i thought they moved on, today there was money missing out of my bank account.  a bogus check number was used and the company they used was called "chitwit".
do not take this lightly.  if they were able to somehow gain access to and steal money from my bank account, they may be able to do the same to you.
i filed a report with the FTC.  CA and my state's attorney generals office offered no assistance when i contacted them 2 weeks ago about the phone calls.

I just received the same calls as described above. James White and the second caller Eric Johnson.  I have turned this over to the FBI as these guys are calling from LosAngeles.  It is extortion and pure fraud.  

They are the ones really in trouble.

I received the same call from a middle eastern man stating I owed a large sum of money from a online cash advance. He said his name was James White. He was extremely rude. When I was denying the charges and payments, and asked for the information of the company they represent he got all crazy, yell at me saying I was a "f****ng fraud" and told me to "take a big dick and suck it".  This language just verified that they are fraudulant so do not give them your information.

Middle eastern accent; Dexter Tayler stated urgent legal matter for Jacque Bradley...called work number.  Did not give name of company representing.

I received a call from a middle western man twice within a month the same man. The first time he gave a different number and contacted my job. The second time he gave the number 909-580-9997. He says I am in serious trouble and a lawsuit and when I questioned him he has no real answer. I am contacting the attorney general in this manner.

i just received a call from a middle western man as well - saying i owe money as well - just hung up on him

Michael Fuller(909-580-9997)called my work, cell phone, and a relative to inform me that I owed money from a payday loan.  He said he is a paralegal representing Kevin Thompson.  Then I received another phone call from a officer joseph woody from the financial crime division .  He told me that a warrant would be issued for me either at my work or at my job at 2:15 that afternoon.  He does not give you too much information only that i am in big trouble and that he wishes me good luck if i do not listen to what he  wants me to do about this loan,  I told him he was a scamer and that i will be reporting him to the local police dept, as well as homeland security.

I received a phone call from aaron saying i was being in a lawsuit and they needed my social security number but i didnt get it so i hang up and then they called my brotherinlaw gene and he call me about it to so i had my phone number block so they cant call me and called the attorney general to.

I recently starting getting these calls from a man with a eastern accent, he leave really nasty messages, and threats on my phone. Do I just ignor the calls or should I change my phone number. The caller says their is a lawsuit pending, I have no idea what he is talking about.

I have been recently been getting these phone calles from a man with a middle eastern accent saying I am in big trouble, he leaves really nasty messages.  What did u do?

Please call and report this matter to the US Attonery in your state... They are now working on this case in MIchigan

I recieved another call from the AMERICAN LEGAL SERVICE from a Max Clinton this time asking why i haven,t returned his calls. He said if i didn,t call him back that he was going to call my two references that i had put down, also repeated my ss# to me.

Must be a scam.  When I asked for proof of a debt he claimed I owed, and quoted to him that this must happen first, he said that he could send it only to my attorney.  This is clear violatio of Federal Fair Credit Standards Act.  I laughed at him when he told me I didn't know the law.  As a lawyer, I don't know full details of FCSA, but threatening me with jailtime for a debt I don't know about is off the charts.   And threatening jailtime is a big NO NO.  if somehow I really owe this money, let them come to PA and I will stand up in court with them.

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 just received a phone call on my cell phone from American Legal Services, said his name was Ernie Cooper, heavy accent.

Told me I was a fraud and being sued.  I have been being harrassed by this company for about 6 months.

I have reported it several times to the Attorney General and they do nothing about it.

i too have the same problem ! same kenneth tompsom! he has my debit card number !!!!!!! said i owed 825.31! i dont ! i contacted ftc , and police and froze my account , what else shuld i do to protect myself????

I also got a call from a person with a heavy accent. He never left his name or where he was calling from or what he was calling for. He threatened me and then said "have a blessed day".  He called a friend of mine and said he was trying to find me because I committed fraud.  I have no idea who he is or what this is about.  I have certainly not committed any fraud.  I have reported this to the FTC and blocked his number.  Since it is a CA # I am going to file a complaint with the Attorney Generals office.

I just had written my message my encounter with ACLS and wrote down the wrong first name of the preson who had contacted me i wrote down the name Kennth as the first name of the person who contacted me it should have been Kevin Thompson my error.

I recieved a call from Kenneth Thompson that i owed a debt of 825.37 for a pay day l had gotten from a pay day loan company. I tried to find through my bank whether i had any record of such loan they could find none. I,ve been threaten with a law suite from ACLS . they had my banking info and faxed me paper work tobe filled out and faxed back to them attention Mark Brown file codeCA98904.A

I have received several phone calls from Kevin Thompson and his gal and boys.  They have called my family member and saying they are from American Legal Services that I owe them money.  I owe them nothing.  They also call my job.  What is it that can be done legally?

I received the same phone call from Michael fuller on my voice mail with the same bullshidd accent leaving the same BS message.  I later returned the call from the Police Department phone number.  I asked for the Shiddbag in question and the same foreign type of Shiddbag that answered claimed to be the attorney citing the the original Shiddbag was his paralegal.  I began to question his motives obviously without giving him a lick of my info.  I began berating him as making fraudulent calls and advising him that he is most definatley full of shidd  He then began to console me on what my mother and sister was currently up to and hung up on me.  I then returned the call and began to harass him for a little what comes around....  He continued to spew possible activities that my mother was doing and hung up on me about four more times.  He then began to cuss at me in what either sounded like Arabic, or Hindi.  I wasn't sure which, so I then advised him that while his family was washing, drinking, and shidding in the same river in India, or riding camels wiping their a$$es with their left hand and sand washing in Saudi, both living backwards in squalor,  I would be going to dinner to enjoy some nice pork chops and a bacon and beef cheese burger.  I then bid him farewell in my native tongue of English, stated ala uh akbar, and hung up on his dumb a$$.  Anyone receiving this call from these obviously idiotic douches with American names and backwards a$$ primitive accents, should report the number to their state attorney general's office.  Please feel free to *67 this number from your cell phone to block your number from them, and since long distance is mostly free on cell phones, and harass these d****eads to give them a taste of their own medicine.  I have never been known for being politically correct.  Anyone that thinks this is wrong is part of the problem who condones ILLEGAL Aliens invading our country and muddying our constitution as well as diluting our culture!  I say FUGG their Culture and religion.  We Live Here!  IT'S OUR COUNTRY!  Get it together and start speaking your voice or lose it forever.!!!!

I also received a voicemail from Kevin Thompson of American Legal Services. On top of calling me at 6 in the morning, he has also been calling my references and advising them that I am being accused of fraud. Before calling the number back I researched it, and found this website.

When I phoned him he was very polite at first, but wanted me to confirm some info about myself before he would give me more information regarding a "law suit" that has been filed against me. I did not give him any information, and informed him that I was aware that he was calling me with fraudulent information; at which point he hung up.

When I called back and asked to speak with a supervisor he hung up again. Do not give this guy ANY information!

p.s. he doesn't take kindly to being called an a***ole.

i received the exact same story. Michael Fuller called from an unknown number at 9:21 am. I was able to call back the number 909.580.9997 asked for a supervisor and was hung up on.

a middle eastern accent speaker called me 2 time and then called my work. his name "michael fuller" from "american legal association". he said i own money and he will take me to court. he game all my personal information and wanted me to pay my "debt". which is not real. beware of this calls. i think they steal personal info and then need to confirm other info like mothers maiden name and date of birth, etc. do not give them anything.

some jerk called my friend and told her that she was being sued as a co-borrower of a payday loan from some company called Cash Advance USA.  he claimed to be from the law office of American Legal Services and refused to give me an address.  he told me all my info from a payday loan i applied for, bank bank account number (account is now closed) and other stuff.  

1. there are several companies in the US called American Legal Services, none of which were law firms.
2. when i told him that i could get copies of my bank statements proving i did not get a pay day loan, he told  me i was a liar and they could prove the money was deposited
3. he then tried to give me a bunch of crap about the Fair Debt Collection-i told him i had a copy and we could read it together, he got angry and told me to "shut my mouth" and let him finish
4. he told me only certified copies of bank statements would be accepted in court-told him not a problem, my banker would be more than happy to provide those to me
5. he informed me he could only talk to my lawyer once the "court case is downloaded"-i corrected him and told him that you file a court case, not download it and that he is required by federal law to send me certified copies of my docket and court date via certified mail or courier

in the end he told me "good luck. only God can save you now" so I told him i was pagan and didn't believe in God (not true) but in gods and goddesses.  he then said he would fax my paperwork to me and hung up.

yes someone called me today, and called my job.  I dont know who this man is, he started calling me private, six times in a roll 1:21  1;22 1:23 1:24.....he had a thick middle eastern accent as well.  I dont know how he got this i did sign up for a payday loan..and put my info down.  they must of hacked into peoples account and got their information or something.

A guy with a heavy accent named "kevin thompson" called my friend saying I was in big big trouble and was in a big law battle.  The company names is supposedly "American Legal Services" and he gave me the address 600 Union Ave  ??? (couldn't understand through his thick accent), CA, 92614.  I can't find the address or company on the internet.  DO NOT PAY THESE CON ARTISTS ANYTHING!  I'm reporting the number and flagging my credit, because I'm afraid they have all my personal info from a payday loan company application.  URGH!