Someone from this number keeps calling me telling me i owe on a payday loan i never took out and put it on a discover card i never owned as well....they keep calling my work and my phone but they cant ever give me any proof of this happening they keep telling me that they will send the papers so i can see all this but i dont ever receive anything at all. They call with a very heavy accent and a horrible connection

Have been getting phone calls from these jokers on and off for nearly a year and a half, always the same guy with various names, that you can barely understand.  He has claimed to be calling from a law office and his most recent claim, is that he is calling from the Internet Crimes Complaint center, and "if you do not call back right away, I will have to turn your case over to the local authorities".  The number he is calling from is 919-665-5495.  I've had to change my cell phone number to stop the calls, yet he somehow got a hold of my new number.

Called twice asking for employee, very hard to understand, had India accent.  Has called previously a few months ago also making threats that they were on there way in to arrest her.  Now states doing an investigation.  Very unprofessional and someone needs to put a stop to this.  We are a business and our employees are here to work, not get harrassed.

Like so many others, I also received a call from these people claiming to be with the FBI Internet Crimes Division, with accents so thick you can barely understand what they're saying, giving me a line of crap about charges being filed against me for fraud and non-payment of a non-existent loan with Cash Advance USA. I've NEVER even had a loan with Cash Advance USA, much less not paid on it. These people are frauds and thieves, don't give them s***..I wouldn't even give them the time to speak to them.

Got called this morning.  With all these calls, I'm reluctant to answer any calls I don't know.  Humg up the phone and tried to call back.  A male answered with hello..If it is a business, why don't they identify themselves.

I WORK IN A HOSPITAL LAB AND WE GET THESE CALLS OFTEN. WE ASK TO SPEAK TO SOMEONE WHO SPEAKS ENGLISH AND THEY ACT LIKE THEY ARE GIVING CALL TO SOMEONE ELSE AND THE SAME GOOF BALL GETS BACK ON THE PHONE. ONE TIME THEY GAVE THE NAME JOHN MCCLAIN...I HAD TO LAUGH BECAUSE IF YOU HAVE EVER WATCHED DIE HARD THAT WAS BRUCE WILLIS NAME IN THE MOVIE.

Receieved a phone call from them and when they call they call like 4 times in a row. They also call from 714-982-9773. I have talk to them before and they threaten to have a warrant out for my arrest if I did resolve the pay day loan amount, which they wouldn't tell me who the pay day loan company was. Don't fall for them. I have been google the number and everything I find is a scam.

They call me at work every Friday and call at least  8-9 times in a row. There's the Supervisor John Smith, the Attorney William Jacobs, and the Columbus police officer Mark Davis(who all sound like the same guy) I keep telling him I am not going to pay anything to them and he gets very angry saying they are sending Officer Mark Davis to my work right now to arrest me and send me to jail for 9 months and I will not be able to work anywhere for 2 years. When I tell them to go ahead and send someone my way, they ask to speak to my manager which I'm sorry is just embarassing whether these guys are fake or not. When I say no he threatens to call back and ask for my manager so she can know she has a criminal working for her and that I've committed internet fraud. When Officer Davis called me it was from the exact same number I talked to William Jacobs on...when I brought that up he denied it saying I couldnt see his number and said he would call me back. I told him I could see it and it was indeed the same phone number the supposed Attorney had called me on. This needs to stop it is embarassing,degrading, and just out right wrong for these guys to do this  and if I keep getting phone calls like this I really will lose my job =(

While any broad attention to the issue is better than none, I'd commented a few days ago that the "Phantom Debt Collectors" segment airing on ABC Nightline last Thursday left me sort of dry. The report makes a tantalizingly vague reference to an organized crime family, Indian style, somehow orchestrating this most vile of debt collection frauds. Since Kirit Patel was content to hide under his cap from Brian Ross, and you can't fit much background detail into a five minute report which is mostly leaning on emotional impact, I rooted around with the few hints embedded in the piece.

Here's the FTC case from April driving the back end of the ABC report:

Court Halts Alleged Fake Debt Collector Calls from India, Grants FTC Request to Stop Defendants Who Posed as Law Enforcers
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2012/04/broadway.shtm

Here are the court filings, a pretty good read. The lady in New Orleans, Cindy Gervais, is mentioned quite a bit.

Federal Trade Commission, Plaintiff, v. Broadway Global Master Inc.
http://www.ftc.gov/os/caselist/1123215/index.shtm

Complaints against BGM here and on other sites are not hard to find. They and the FTC action describe most everything we've come to learn in piecemeal about how the fake payday loan collectors operate. The hardest part is following the money pipeline home.

When in the ABC report the Indian remote crew busts through a corpo door and is turned away, the name on the door and over the reception desk is "Ainstien Group", where "expertise" can apparently be used as a verb.

http://www.ainstien.com/AinstienPages/services.html

Ainstien Technologies is essentially a call center in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, presumably the one making all those illegal calls for Papa Patel. The current Web Designer at Ainstien Tech is one Nikunj Thaker, according to a resume site. Where have we heard a name like that before?

Court Halts Alleged Fake Debt Collector Calls from India, Grants FTC Request to Stop Defendants Who Often Posed as Law Enforcement
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2012/02/acc.shtm

Oh, right .....  Varang K. Thaker, the big cheese at American Credit Crunchers and Ebeeze, who was busted by the FTC in late February for pretty much the same sham collecting. It's from this outfit ABC got victim Mark Merola, named prominently in the FTC action. A contemporary news report from India fills in more blanks. The FTC found that "the call center was run by one Zeus Inc Private Ltd", and it also took the payments from victims. Its location? Almost a neighbor of Ainstien, in Ahmedabad.

http://www.rediff.com/news/report/gujarat-cal ... ud/20120223.htm

Ahmedabad is looking like the Buffalo or Atlanta of India. Well, there is one more American town which comes to mind. Another of Varang's properties is Thaker Technology, rather vaguely classified under "Business Support Services". It's reportedly going eight years strong in Corona, California.

Yes, THAT Corona, the home of about eight ska-million debt collection agencies all cut from the same polyester at Pacific Management - slash - Rincon. The FTC started cutting into this cancerous growth in late October 2011, ironically just as the Fair Credit Reporting Act was turning 41 years old.

At FTC's Request, Court Orders Debt Collection Operation to Stop Deceiving and Abusing Consumers
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2011/10/rincon.shtm

The Corona Cabal scthick is nearly indistinguishable from that of the South Asian fakies, with perhaps fewer Indian accents. The bogus debt claims, the phantom process servers, the threats of arrest, the posing as lawyers, the relentless bullying of everyone in contact with the victims ... the parallel is chilling.

Maybe the two Thakers are unrelated. Maybe Corona has attractive real estate. I grant margins of error as the dotted lines are drawn between entities and names I can only see from a distance. I don't think we will form a Grand Unified Theory of fake debt collection, but I have to wonder how much crossover and apprenticeship is in this racket. The art of the swindle is not learned in a vacuum. Someone has to either learn by trial or learn it from a master thief. It remains to be seen how great an extended family of criminals is at work.

Kirit Patel was found managing his "Broadway" show alone from his house. Thaker Tech boasts an employee roster of two. Is this part of the business model? Set a foreign call center grinding like a fraud sausage factory while a field manager works close to the cattle range?

Hilariously, the busted Varang Thaker copped the same plea as Patel would weeks later: "I have nothing to do with it. You please talk to my attorney. It's somebody else who has done this (scam). I am also a victim." We've heard that before, too. All the Goodfellas are innocent when you take away their guns and bodyguards and they're suddenly taking ill just before their court dates.  

We now perhaps see consistency in the way the thug collectors *think* as well as operate. Find the gaps in that thinking and we might break all the connections which make the racket work.


In case you missed the party last week:

Nightline from ABC News : 'Phantom' Debt Collectors Scam Americans
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpSeana_zY0

ABC Nightline 'Phantom' Debt Collectors Scam Americans
http://www.hulu.com/watch/368670

http://800notes.com/forum/ta-59eb4f862c0cfdc- ... debt-collecters

this number keeps calling me saying they are with a law firm and the fbi...scammers

Yes these people call me with a thick accent saying I got a payday loan and I'm going to jail and there crazy! I reported them to the police so hopefully it will be taken care of soon!!

They called my work phone, but it wasn't about me.  I couldn't understand who he was calling about.  But it was a different SSN than mine.

His name was "...Michael...BEE-SHOP!"  (Michael Bishop maybe? lol).

It was a really awful attempt at sounding scary.  Pretty comical actually.

I received a call at work from these people saying  i owed a loan and they have all my info and i need to have my lawyer call

This is the voce mail I was left. In thick Eastern Indian accent: This message is intended for Kristin Humphrey-Davidson, Kristin this is Officer Daniel Scott calling from State New York Investigational Department and the nature of my call is very serious to return call please and time sensative "Aportionally" there as been some kind of fraud, like Bank fraud, Check fraud, Internet Fraud or any "????????" the case file gets transfered to us, so this is my duty to inform you before something goes wrong with you. My name is Daniel Scott and a number "??????" 919-665-54....95, I repeat 919-665-5495. So dont disregard this message and do return the call...If you dont return the call the only thing I can do is wish you good luck.....................ah er I just inform you that as soon as possible call me back on my number you dont call me you will meet me in court. Better then that you call me, good bye and GOD bless you. This is warning "???" eh and this is charge "????" upset what can we upset "?????" okay good bye. When using Indiatrace.com The service Provider is BSNL Service Type CDMA, Serive Region UTTAR PRADESH (EAST) in LUCKNOW

called my work saying they are investigators makes me mad they called my work

Please do not respond to these a***ipes......they are infact fraudulent.Beware....

Called trying to collect a loan.

A person with a very thick Indian accent named William Jacobs was calling for an employee. I explained that we could not confirm or deny if someone works for our company without a signed release.  He asked if I could take a message and said that the person they are looking for is under arrest and they need to call him right away.

This number 919-665-5495 called me on 3-7-2012 at 10:31 A.M. and I could not understand him very well except he had a India accent they say there from the FBI but I think it's a scam so I did not talk to him he left a message and than called back again on 3-7-2012 at 10:38 A.M. from the same number and left a another message. These people should be stop from doing this.

This number was calling my cell phone so I blocked it, now they are calling me at work. I can barely understand the accent. I have asked them to stop calling me at work, but they continue. Can I report them somewhere to make them stop the phone calls to my place of business? They couldn't even tell me what the so-called "debt" is.

Extortion Scam Related to Delinquent Payday Loans

Washington, D.C.
December 07, 2010  FBI National Press Office
(202) 324-3691

? filed under: Press Release
The Internet Crime Complaint Center has received many complaints from victims of payday loan telephone collection scams. Callers claim the victim is delinquent in a payday loan and must repay the loan to avoid legal consequences. The callers purport to be representatives of the FBI, Federal Legislative Department, various law firms, or other legitimate-sounding agencies. They claim to be collecting debts for companies such as United Cash Advance, U.S. Cash Advance, U.S. Cash Net, and other Internet check-cashing services.

According to complaints received from the public, the callers have accurate data about victims, including Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses, employer information, bank account numbers, and the names and telephone numbers of relatives and friends. How the fraudsters obtained the personal information varies, but in some cases victims have reported they completed online applications for other loans or credit cards before the calls started.

The fraudsters relentlessly call the victim?s home, cell phone, and place of employment. They refuse to provide any details about the alleged payday loans and become abusive when questioned. The callers have threatened victims with legal actions, arrests, and, in some cases, physical violence if they do not pay. In many cases, the callers harass victims? relatives, friends, and employers.

Some fraudsters have instructed victims to fax a statement agreeing to pay a certain amount, on a specific date, via a pre-paid Visa card. The statement further declares the victim will never dispute the debt.

If you receive these calls, do not follow the caller?s instructions. Rather, you should:

?Notify your banking institutions.
?Contact the three major credit bureaus and request an alert be put on your file.
?Contact your local law enforcement agencies if you feel you are in immediate danger.
?File a complaint at www.IC3.gov.
Tips to avoid becoming a victim of this scam:

?Never give your Social Security number?or personal information of any kind?over the telephone or online unless you initiate the contact.
?Be suspicious of any e-mail with urgent requests for personal financial information. The e-mail may include upsetting or exciting but false statements to get you to react immediately.
?Avoid filling out forms in e-mail messages that request personal information.
?Ensure that your browser is up-to-date and security patches have been applied.
?Check your bank, credit, and debit card statements regularly to make sure that there are no unauthorized transactions. If anything looks suspicious, contact your bank and all card issuers.
?When you contact companies, use numbers provided on the back of cards or statements

http://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/paydayloanscam_120710

Called with a "serious" msg regarding fraud associated with my name. "MUST call back ASAP" with all of these vague scare tactics, but nothing concrete. Also had such a thick accent, I could barely understand him. Called back to back because his first msg was so long, he didn't have room to leave a call back number.