continously harassing me and I have notified the local authorities. If needed will contact further resources it is really getting to be a bother Todayhe changed to a american speaking english from 2 days or so ago he had an indian accent very rude toned angry threateing to put in jail.Please dont answer 919 scam #.

Same story as everyone above. He called the first few times from 760-483-3761. When I told him that he was a scam....he started calling from 919-249-9733. He got my info from a check advance application and has also been calling my husbands work

Friday July 27th I received a message in regards to this. Yes, he has a thick, rude India indian accent and went by the name of James Anderson. He asked for me to get an attorney as this was a damn sensitive serious matter and that if I don't call him at the number he provided, 919-249-9733, he wished me luck as the situation  entails me.

After that he called once again stating the matter that I had a deliquent loan and that if I do not pay them (no amount was spoken of), that I will be under arrest by Monday this morning. Did not happen.

Now a person unknown name called about a car loan stating that I have been picked for a car loan. Number that was provided was 401-648-7436. Simular to the man I spoken earlier as regards to an India indian accent, but not as rough or rude as the one before. After telling him that we have the FBI/Police involved he had chickened out. As for James Anderson, he was being a macho a--hole.

I have filed a complaint for the both of them as well as changed my email address cause I was getting spam mail overload which I had to secure and remove any vicious programs on my computer. I have blocked both calls and have not recieved any from them since Friday. Soon phone numbers will be changed hoping that this terror won't happen again and to protect us the best we can. I see I'm not the only one dealing with this.

If anyone who reads this or receives calls like this, please file a complaint right away. You can go to FCC.gov to do so. Besk of luck to all of you and God bless!

I just got a call from this number at my place of employment. A man said his name was Al Smith and he was definately a foreign person. He said that I needed to call back NOW or my attorney or Good luck to me because something bad was going to happen. So happy that I knew enough to check out this number!!

A guy named Tony Abraham called and said I recieved a loan for $453.00 and that I would lose my license and my job if I didn't send them the money (through walmart) and that I would have a warrent out for my arrest. He had all my information (ssn, dob, address, phone number) I told him I would call him back by monday with some info, then I looked the number up and found this page. Needless to say I will not be going to walmart to pay them. I will be calling the Indiana Attorney Generals office to file a report on Monday. Don't fall for it, he really had me nervous over something I knew wasn't right.

This guy called me and told me I was wanted for writing fraudulent checks and I needed to pay or be arrested. I was told he was with a law firm representing American Payday loans. Since I have never had a payday loan I questioned the validity of his call. He started yelling at me OMG and told me not to call him again. Since I can not find anything on this company, I will be filing a complaint with the attorney general's office. Watch out for this wanna be scam artists!

someone called me from this number acting like a lawyer and are trying to scam money from me.

The person calls with the accent of an indian or someme alien pretending he is a officer Tony Abraham at Ext 505 and when he calls again I will have the police standing by. so please dont be a fool they are yelling and very threating on the phone call you at work and everythin. # 919-249-9733

Again I went out like a fool and applied for a payday loan and now these calls have started coming again. I called the individual back and told him I was recording the call and he hung up. Two individauls called and asked if I had an attorney I said yes. I asked them both could they give me a file # or case # of course they can only give to attorney, have attorney call us. I asked for the extension - one was 123 and the other was 110 a James Asher. I asked for James Asher, he got frustrated and he said stay by your phone I'll have someone call you back...I spoke with the District Attorneys office in Charlotte NC and they said they were aware of this and was working on catching these individuals and to report these types of calls to my local Sheriff's Department - fraud department BUT under no circumstances give them money. If they have all this info tell them to send paperwork to your home at your current address BUT don't give them the address. This is so frustrating.

your debt on Viagra is due...!

When this # called me i didnt answer and he left a voicemail saying..this is Mr. J. Anderson of Walter & Downward Assoc. and i tried to reach you before, and because you did not call me back, I realize you intnetions are not good, so all i will say is good luck Iand I hope you have a good attorney, because the Police will be there shortly at your place of work and you will be arrested.  Well Im still waiting for that police officer to show up.  These people really are suh jerks!

They keep calling saying i got a payday loan and that i have a warrent for my arrest he gave me my social security number then hung up on me so i called him back and he told me he was goin to get me for harrassment!!!!

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

My neighbor is an officer I had himm come over while I called this number back and asked them if they would like to tell the officer of what this is in regards too, i got hung up on so i called back and same thing...lol definately are scammers...

theese people call here and say they are going to call the f.b.i sweering at me telling my wife is going to loose her job,and my wife dont even work

won't stop calling! never answered, since I was smart enough to search the # first, since it not one I know

I recevied a call from this # yesterday & did not ans the 1st but they did leave a msg but @ the time i had not checked it. They called back a few hours later & i answered. He started talking & since i have had close to fifty solicitation calls over the past few weeks since booking a hotel room w/ hotels.com. I sipmly told him to remove my # from his database as i have also told the others. He proceeded to tell me he didnt have a database & he name was Jeff Scott w/ the Dept of Crimes & American Payday is pressing charges against me on 3 counts. 1) writing worthless checks, 2) fraud, 3).......(i couldn't understand). He has a very think indian/arabian accent. He asked if i would like to talk to one of his officers. I said yes & he sent me to Tony Abram (who also had a think accent @ which time I knew for certain this was a scam). Tony proceeded to give me my name, my full social security #, email address & checking account #. Told me he was w/ Walters & Downard Associates & i owed American Payday a total of $6753.29 he could settle w/ half today otherwise an officer would be here within the hour to arrest me. I proceeded to argue & get irate w/ him. He kept asking for my personal atty & I told him I would have my atty contact him in the morn & got this # as a contact # & that he was located in Raliegh, NC.I immediately callded my bank to have them put holds on my account so nothing unauthorized would clear my acct. I also made a report w/ sheriffs dept. He then called back being very irate w/ me & i told him I had filed a police report & would be pressing harrassment charges & he hung up. No more phone calls have been made. I just hope now that w/ him having my social this deosnt mess w/ my credit or my checking acct. I hope something can be done w/ these immediately.

When this phone  # called I answered. Shortly I realized it was a  solicitor, so I hung up. They ended up calling back a minute later,but I didn't answer. They left a message saying since I hung up on a federal agent I would be arrested @ my mailing address and that I would lose my job. I called the # back and asked who am I speaking with? He claimed he was with some type of federal agency and I was a primary suspect but would not say for what. This guy then started freaking out when I told him I called the real cops on him.He became frantic and hung up. He sounded like some foreigner trying to scare me. Didn't work. He is deffinately a scam artist. I called the local authories and made a report. Cops are looking into it. Everyone needs to report it,or he'll keep at it. And remember to be careful who you give your personal information too. Obviously I was not careful enough.

called harrased me told me i would go to jail if i did not give themm 8000.00 forget it very rude

Received a call from 919.249.9733 on 7.24.12 while at work!

they are scam artist..dont pay them. i am currently working with the police dept to have there number traced. they have a thick indian accent and will harrass you either at work or at home. true collection companies are professional.