This call was from financial crime division.

Relaxed...it's a scam..They will call you from different numbers and locations.They purchased phones and only activate that number for 30 days and then switched numbers this is why they cannot get caught according to the Police Department. Play their game and thell them well you know her address send me paperwork and hang up. They will probablyu keep calling you so my best advice is change your number. Did your mom ever apply for a Pay Day loan?. I was informed this is where they get their information.

I have also received these calls but I scren them so I do not pick up the phone anymore, it has been 8 months already. police department has been notified but because it's always a differnet phone number coming from different states in the US it's hard to catch them. My advised is next time they call just tell them that person no longer live there or works there or wrong number. They may call again but it may work. If they keep calling don't answer they have to give up sooner or later.

713-366-8138 Financial Crime Division got $1250.18 out of me on 09/11/2008 and has continues to call me even as recently as last week FROM 718-425-8336 wanting more money and treatning to take me to jail and garnish my wages

It's ridiculous to call them businessmen, these guys are lowlifes, thieves, and pondscum.they hide behind a telephone calling and using scare tactics to con innocent Americans out of money. they are merely terrorist. do not send them a penney.

same guy called me a few times saying my mother's name came up in a criminal investigation and she should be worried if she doesn't call him asap. but he told me his name was william smith. he could barely pronounce william smith! i told him i wanted his company name, his location and everything and he said no, then silence, then blurted new jersey and hung up.

ABC News just did an investigative piece on this particular scam operation. Here's the report:  http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5621205&page=1

They aren't businessmen.  Rather, they're criminals who break numerous federal and state laws with every call they make.

To those who are targeted by these criminals, be sure to report them to all the following federal and state law enforcement agencies (most of these 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. And if the caller posed as a law enforcement officer, lawyer, banker or officer of the court, be sure to include that informantion 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.)

They aren't crazy...they're businessmen.  It's all about the money, just like with salesmen.  It's not personal against you.  They make one call after another and somewhere, sometime, the person buys their shtick and pays them.  So what if it takes them 2 hours to find a mark?  Well....in those 2 hours, they've made $1,000? $2,000?  Maybe more?  That's a pretty nice salary....I wish I earned that (legally)...it works out to $2,000,000 or more a year....

They do all this because it WORKS (unfortunately for some folks).

I received a call today from a Christopher Washington claiming to be from the financial crimes division. he informed my wife that I was a suspect in a financial crime. And that it was vital that I return his call as soon as possible. When I called him back he told me that I owed 1085.00 in payday loans...which I have never taken out. And that he was filing court documents today for me to be sued. I then asked him what county he was calling from, who the creditor was claiming I owed this debt, and what company he was working for. He then told me that I would be arrested and avoided answering any of my questions? Lucky enough my wife had heard of this type of scam before and found this website to compare the same information was being used as their M.O. and it was. I then told them that I was recording our conversation and that I was going to file a complaint with the attorney generals office, Federal trade and commissions, and the Better Business Bureau. He then told me that he would let me speak with investigator stewart. Who then hung up on me when I asked him the same questions. These guys are crazy...LOL

Update:

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 (Read 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 who are posing as federal law enforcement. Be sure to give as many details as you can.

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://rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01

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

i received same call also i made a complaint they stated i owe a payday loan
from 2005 of $500.00 my interest now i owe they state $2,900 i have called
everyone to report them now the new name is steve martin telephone no.
908-244-2001 stating he is officer martin  states he will be coming to my
employer also when i questioned him  he hangs up and recall,and curse
you out and everything i reported them now i am calling the police in fla.

They called me too, and said that I owed them 4000 dollars from a Payday Loan from two years agp, that I know had been taken care of, and gave me the wrong email address that I had supposedly used, and they also threatened to have me arrested if I did not pay them and said I was the prime suspect in a case regarding a financial matter. So I reported them to the FTC and the BBB and contacted my local police. This is ridiculous. They wouldn't give me an address or a real name, he said his name wad Danny Archer, and the other guy was Investigator Stewart. Danny Archer is the character in Blood Diamond, lol.

See my message above.

This gentlemen called and asked that I send money right away to prevent them from coming to my employer and arresting me for some kind of debt.  They said I was the prime suspect in some fraud case.  He asked me to give him my debit and or credit card number to run to pay for a loan in the amount of 575.28.  Is this for real,  He is threatening me and saying the police will be coming to my work.

They will never give a valid mailing address because, most likely, they're overseas. Instead, they usually insist on wiring them the money. That's always a red flag that a scam is afoot.

And remember: it's always a scam whenever someone demands that you pay them money to prevent you from being arrested.

Oops. That second sentence should read "These criminals just use Caller ID spoofing software to make-up some official-sounding name."

But I'm sure you got the idea. :)

It's a scam, of course; there is no such thing as a Fraud Crime Pervention Division. This criminals just use Caller ID spoofing software to make-up some official-sounding. Most likely, it's the same group of crooks who scam consumers through these numbers, too:

http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-856-831-0640
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-925-262-1327
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-949-743-1140
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-410-505-8128

Their ludicrous attempts at impersonating law enforcement officers or bank officials and making moronic threats such as arresting you are not only ridiculous, they are illegal. This was nothing but an attempt to steal your money.

Just remember this: no debt collectors (let alone criminals pretending to be debt collectors) have the authority to have anyone arrested for anything. Also, it is ALWAYS a scam whenever someone calls you and demands that you pay them money to prevent your arrest.

Anyone being targeted by these vermin should do the following as soon as possible:

1) File a complaint with your local police. (Many police departments can take a complaint such as this over the phone.) Be sure to tell them that you're being harassed by an extortionist who is calling you and threatening you with arrest at your office or your home if you don't pay him money.  File a complaint each time they call you.  Filing a police report about this is important so your employer knows that you're being harassed by criminals at if they should start calling you at work, too; if these turds do start calling you at work, you may want to ask your employer to help out by filing a police report. (By the way, if this were a real debt collector you can tell him to stop calling you at work and, by law, he must comply; but since these are criminals calling you, I seriously doubt that they would feel compelled to abide by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.)

2) File a complaint online with the FBI at https://tips.fbi.gov  Include in your report the same information about how these crooks are attempting to extort money from you under threat of arrest.

3) File a complaint with the consumer protection division of your state's attorney general. The contact for each state's attorney general is at www.naag.org

4) File a complaint online with the Federal Trade Commission at https://rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01

5) If these crooks call you again, just ignore their threats and tell that you know they're a criminal operation and that you've reported them to the FBI and your local police.  Once they know that you're aware that they aren't legitimate, I'll bet they cool it for awhile or stop altogether.

Hope this helps.

Di they doo anything against you? they have been calling me over and over back to back at work

This man has called me too Shawn Robertson and has told me that if I did not pay him right away that I would be facing hard time in jail and that they were going to pick me up from my job and or house, and then he asked me what my home address. I told them that why did they need it if they have it on the documentaion. Then he gets really nasty and hangs up on me and continues to call me back. I am going to get some legal advise on this and see what happens because these people got almost 5000.00 and now they say I owe the other company a little over 2000 and I only got 300 from them

I got the same kind of call.  Was any legal action ever taken against you?  He wouldn't state who I actually owed the loan to but did say his client was Fraud Crime Prevention Division.

A man named Mario stated that I needed to pay a debt today or I would be arrested.  Gave me a fake address when I asked for it.

I got the same phone call but from a Mario and the last 4 digits were 2537.  He also stated that I would be arrested if I didn't pay the debt.  The company name was Financial Crime Protection Division.  I called the FTC today and filed the complaint.

Call thte FTC at (877) 382-4357 and file a complaint if enough people file, they will sue this company.

Mr. Robinson also called me and told me I was going to get arrested unless I paid $800 to the company.  When I stated I wanted to dispute this claim.  He stated ok but refused to provide me with an address and/or fax number.  If you have had any calls from him call the FTC at 1-877-382-4357 because if there is enough claimants, the FTC will sue this company.  SO CALL.

Shawn Robertson called and threatened to have me arrested if i didn't have my attorney contact him on my debt. But he wouldn't tell me who the debtor was or what the supposed amount was. Very heavy Indian accent and VERY abusive. Kept hanging up on me when I insisted he give me his mailing address so I can request a stop call order.