they called me and threatened that i would be arrested for taking a payday loan online from a2bcash.com. Me knowing that it was a fraud i closed my account because they kept on taking money. They said i could pay over the phone instead of being arrested and they wanted me to pay $2,500.00 from my debit card. The man said he was calling from the FBI. This really scares me because he has my date of birth and social number.

I just got a call from someone who said they were going to have me arrested for a default payday loan.  Would not work anything out or give details about which payday loan.  After I said I could not pay today, just hung up and said I would be arrested.

I just got a call at my job by this man name john said he was a investgation and i need to call and talk to officer sam and when i did call him back they was saying that i have a faud charge against me and i will be paying like $8,900.00 and would be arrested at work or home and then i talk to his boss and told him that i wanted to settle out of court and he was like do you have $789.00 and i told him i don't have that just laying around and then he said that i will be arrest so i was like cause i don't have the money right now you going to put this on my credit report that i'm fraud and have me arrested so i was like ok.

I have goten 2 phone calls like this and I was really scared because they have my social number and bank account.  They also told me i could pay 798.00 or be arrested. We need to band together to do something about this and how to make it stop.  Does anyone have any ideas?

What can we do about this? These people can't be calling us threating and scaring us. They have our personal info and they need to be arrested for pulling these scams. Does anyone know what to do first???

It's a scam, and all their threats are false and illegal.

ABC News recently did a report on this particular scam. Here's the link to the report:  http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5621205&page=1

And the West Virginia Attorney General recently issued a press release warning consumers about this scam. Here's the link:  http://www.wvago.gov/internetloanscam.cfm

This is a very active group of scammers, many of whom are calling from India (and probably other countries) and are in cahoots with a group of American pay day loan scammers. They attempt to extort money from consumers with a myriad of false and illegal threats, and alternately pose as debt collectors, federal and state law enforcement officers, lawyers and bankers. Their trademark is to use meaningless legalese gobbylgook phrases like "We are downloading warrants against you" or "We are filing an affidavit against you." Another trademark phrase is to threaten the consumer with something like this ridiculous phrase: "If you don't pay then only God can help you."

Typical of many financial scams of this variety, they usually demand payment via Western Union or MoneyGram or credit card. They use any number of phony names such as US National Bank, Federal Investigation Bureau, US Legal Investigation Bureau, US Federal Bank, Sonic Bank, Hopkins Law Office, United Legal Processing, Morgan Associates, United Pay Services, National Processing, White Collar Crime Unit and many more.  These criminals also use many phone numbers from many area codes; they're probably using caller-id spoofing software and/or VoIP to disguise their real location.

The main thing to remember is that anytime someone calls you demanding money to prevent your arrest, or demanding your lawyer's name so they can sue you, it is ALWAYS a scam. No debt collector (let alone criminals posing as debt collectors) has the authority to have anyone arrested for anything. (And it's illegal to them to threaten such a thing.) And since these foreign dirtbags routinely impersonate law enforcement, it's also important to remember that American law enforcement officers aren't in the business of debt collection.  (Debt is a civil, not a criminal, matter.)

The bottom line is, these are criminals trying to steal your money.

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 (
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. And if the crooks claim to be law enforcement or lawyers, officers of the court or bankers, be sure to include that information 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.)

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/1-310-909-8245
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
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-858-244-0444

This man called me and said he was from the "financial crimes division." He told me that I borrowed money from a payday loan and never repaid it, and they were pressing charges against me as a criminal. When I tried to figure out who it was that I supposedly owed money to, he would just said "First US Bank." He then wanted to confirm information- SSN, bank account #, address, place of employment, and two contact names I actually had on a previous payday loan application. All of this information was correct! He wanted my attorney's information and told me that I would have to get myself out of this mess. I asked him for his phone number to call back at to speak to someone else, and he said the phone number really fast. I made him repeat it and he told me that since I was guilty it didn't matter, and he hung up.

I got a message today stating that i needed to call them back at this number. When i did I spoke to some middle eastern guy that I could barly understand. He said that he was a law office for the FBI and that he needed to ask me some questions and I needed to answer them yes or no and dont interupt. So he stated my name my address and then my SS# and thats where I stoped him and said what is this in refrence to. Well he got very upset and said I told you not to interupt you are an idiot and you are going to be arrested and hung up on me. So I called back and said I needed to find out what this was about and he asked me if I thought he was my servant and that I was a stupid stupid idiot and to be prepared for whats going to happen and hung up on me again. So I went to my city investigator and he called and stated who he was and the guy told him to call back in 20 or 30 mins with a relative and hung up on him. So I called back and he told me O you think your smart acting like I had a cop on the phone. Your and idiot and hung up again. ITS A SCAM... DONT ANYONE FALL FOR IT.... Its just scary that they have your info. Im making a police report, everyone else should that they have done this to. They are out of San Jaun Capistrano, CA. Call they're police Dept and report it. Police # for this city 949-770-6011

I got a call from this number today and i talk to some guy name sam and he told me that i was going to get arrested at my job or my home so i need a lawyer to call them and make this matter solved and then i told them i wanted to settle this out of court and he ask me if i have $789.00 to pay right now so i told him i don't have it laying around so he boss to me to be perpare to be arrested and i told him cause i don't have the $789.00 right now you are going to put this on my credit report that i'm a fraud and i will be arrested.

I have been being harassed by this Michael Sinclair, telling me I took funds from some company and that I would be being arrested within 30 minutes for fraud!  They tried making me pay some ungodly amount!!

They called me and said they was the FBI...and i was in  a lot of trouble for fraud.It was a middle eastern guy named Michael Sinclair. So i had my city  detective cal and they denied everything. Very funny

calling about an urgent issue. sounds like a person from the middle east trying to speak english. Very hard to understand.
did not state company or any other info just sounds like a threatining voice asking to call back.