I work for a Car dealership & we kept getting callls from this exact number. Very thick arabian accent, very hard to understand. Asked for one of our sales guys.. after numerous attemps to transfer the number to the right person, he kept calling back. I finally asked what I could do to help him& told him I was the manager( when im really not) ( thinking this was a legit customer) and he said the employee that works here has committed a financial crime while getting a loan & never paid it back & we need to fire him on the spot. Was very confused & told the employee about it, luckily he knew what this was a fraud b/c he's never even had a loan to pay back. Told him if he calls our place of business ever again, that i was going to file a report to the police or calling the fraud division! Haven't called since.

Same threatened to put me in Jail, already filed a report am gonna have to add this number too. These ignorant b*****ds said they where tracking me with GPS bwahahaha. Just one of many numbers That have called me with the same crap. Best thing to do is file a report and keep filing complaints

I just received a call from man who said his name was Nick.  Stated that he was with my Bank and that I had just been approved for a Platiumn debit card.  I asked what bank he was referring to, since I alredy have a platiumn card with my bank.  He gave me the name of a bank that I used years ago, so I knew that he was a scam at that point.  I explained to him that he was calling on a recorded line (true), and that his number was in process of being traced at that moment.  He called me a choice name, said try, they will not find him, and hung up.

I received 6 phone calls from this number in one day.  The man had a thick accent.  I could barely make out what he was saying.  He said he was a police officer, saying that many people were complaining about "my name."  Then he asked to call back at his hotline at this number regarding this issue.

I don't know what this is for, but I'm only a kid and I don't know who would see fit that they report me to the police when I have done nothing. at. all.

I just got marry and i went on a trip and i put my card on hold for a hotel room. My card has been debit with all different types of amounts. When I got back to work 08/20/2012 i had a voicemail and they said it is very important so i called back a guy name Melvin Brown. He had a very strong accent and i couldn't really understand him. This man told me that i had a payday loan from United Cash and i havent had a loan over 6 years. Then he gave me all my information my license number, routing number, account number, social, and address. Then he told me that he will send the police to my house cause i havent a paid my debt. I was very confused so i called my card and they said nothing havent been placed in my account. Whats the date and i'll need a e signature. So i knew then it was a scam. They called a few days later like 12 times in a row. They said give them five min. and they will have the police at my front door with my papers. i said f*** you and stop calling my phone. So then they started calling me from other random numbers and one of them was a cell phone. i text them and said if this a place of business why are u calling from a personal phone line. They texted back of course this a cell phone. I called United Cash to see if someone has used my name and they didn't have any docementation and told me to Home Land Security. They still havent stop harassing me and im very upset that they have all my personal information. EVERYTHING!!!!

We just got a phone call from this number less than an hour ago. They told my father in law that he owe money and that they are pursuing a legal action against them if he doesn't pay back. My father in law was confused, had them talk to her and they told her the same thing which sent my mother in law in livid rage because they haven't signed for any loan recently.

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

I have received threatening calls and messages as well and am considering giving this information to the police or fraud division.

I keep receiving calls from this number for a woman named Lily Clayton. I have asked them several times to stop calling and the calls still come. They leave threatening messages saying they are going to issue a warrant for my arrest and send the police to my house. They say they are with FinCent which is Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, but when I looked that up their phone number is no where on the website. Beware of these people they are a scam and I will be filing a harassment suit against them if I get another call.