has called my place of business and personal cell phone non-stop. i filed a harrasing phone call report with my local police department. hope this helps

I have been receiving phone calls from different numbers on my cellphone as well as work (not to mention numerous calls to my innocent friends as well).  I took out a few payday loans and somehow that information got leacked to these scammers.  
I work in collections and I know it is not legal to leave messages like this, or to disclose your social security number.  
Today I had an officer by the name of "Alton" call me from 970-614-0700 and talked like he was reading a script of a bunch of legal stuff and told me "CashNet" was the payday loan that I had an outstanding balance with and they are claiming to arrest me, but to resolve this he gave me two choices:
1.  If I wanted to solve this by going to court, he will send a court settlement case by mail and I will need to hire an attorney which will cost a lot of money.
2.  I can settle this out of court by paying back what they claimed I owed over $4000.

I immediately told him I have all the documents required to prove I borrowed money, and the documents that state I paid them all back in full, and I that I would gladly take this to court.
He hung up.

This group has been called up to my place of work identified as a law office,threatenig me to send an agent to my workplace to arrest me. They call using "1010 call" or unknown and you are asked to call the 9706147000.

These people are a scam.  I have a family member who works in the government, she said they ARE A SCAM report to the attorney general.  They have called me multiple times at home and at work.  I have our security involved with these calls at work as well.  They will call on different numbers.  One of the origination areas is India they are calling from, however, they ALL HAVE american names.  The first one they left was Mel Gibson....really, your kidding right?  I blocked their numer and they call under a different number.  I believe I will be changing my number as well.  If you pay attention to what they are really saying, you will note obvious mistakes alerting you they are not legitimate.  Do not answer, do not call them back, and do not give in.  They told me they were from New York for the Criminial Investigations and Allegations.  Does that even exist?  They are nasty and try to threaten.  If it was legitimate "investigation, allegation, or legal matter."  You would receive legitimate notification in the mail at the very least....anyway...good luck and DON'T ANSWER, OR TELL THEM ANYTHING!!!!!!

yeah i got a call from these guys today i am in alaska so i was still sleeping lol so i wake up i relize hey this is a scam so i hang up then her leaves that threating voice mail so i call him back me being of good credit and and clean record i call and talk to them and start laughing at him he got frustrated and hung up on my because i was just fooling with him because grew up with a indian friend so i sounded just like him these guys are nothing but scam artist and just want you to give them info do not and i mean do not give them anything pull there chain a little bit and mess with them seem to work for me :)

just got this call now from this guy.....hung up on him 4 times and he called back then he called my work....im glad i read up on all this and that im not the only one

Funny this guy called my girl friends phone while she was at work and she answered and he started talking crazy so she told him 2 call back and leave a msg 4 me 2 hear and he claimed his name was officer Roger Hardin he sounded as though he was Indian... He said on the msg dat he needed a phone call immidiately because there was a serious case against me so I look up the area code and it said Colorado I then try 2 call back private and it said this number can not be reached at this time so I tell my girl friend it seems like a scam and sure enough I read all this stuff its crazy..... I wonder if they have our Socials and what they are doing with all of our info dat we might have givein.....???? Hmmmmm.... What can we do 2 stop this stuff.....

For at least the last four years, possibly longer, a group has been calling former payday loan applicants advising them that they have defrauded a bank and are now being sued for non-payment of a loan.  The callers will claim to be calling on behalf of an attorney's office (name varies), the Dept. of Law and Investigation, ACS, or other similar combinations below:

United Legal Processing Division
Midline Marketing
Crime Monitoring Services
Monetary Crime Division
U.S. National Bank
Attorney General?s Office (usually in California)
American Legal Services
Affidavit Consolidation Services (ACS)

You will be threatened with arrest, a costly trial and possibly worse.  In no shape, way or form can you be arrested for non-payment on a consumer debt.  Do not believe these threats, as they are without merit and cannot be carried out in the manner they allege.  

Who are they?

In the past when pressed by law enforcement for an address, the callers have provided the following information:

David Morgan and Associates
Morgan & Associates
Morgan Associates
954-727-8481
1155 Northwest 85th Street
Wintergarden, Florida  33150
(Address is likely invalid)

The collector's MO matches a once legit collections agency called Ellis Crosby & Associates.  Here are some links on them:

http://www.budhibbs.com/collectorpages/ellis_crosby_and_associates.htm
http://www.budhibbs.com/collectorpages/EllisCrosbyJudgment.pdf

They have been previously fined over $1.3 million for various violations.  They have been known to use phone banks in India to make their calls, which more or less coincides with the difficult to understand accent many of us detect when we are contacted.  

The last time this group went by any "official" name was back in 2008:

Ellis Crosby & Associates / Douglas & Morgan Associates
4494 Southside Boulevard Suite #200
Jacksonville Florida 32216
Phone:  800-928-3536 / (904) 928-3536
(Address is likely invalid)

There are NUMEROUS consumer alerts out against this group of individuals:

Florida:
http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/061107/met_176207561.shtml

Kansas:  
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2010/01/ks_debt_collection.html

Colorado:  
http://www.coloradoattorneygeneral.gov/press/ ... lls_likely_orig

Rhode Island:  
http://www.collectionscreditrisk.com/news/rho ... -3002135-1.html

West Virginia:
http://www.wvago.gov/internetloanscam.cfm

Missouri:
On July 15th, 2010 a Public Awareness Bulletin was sent out by Missouri Information Analysis Center.  

"..received reports from individuals in Ohio and Illinois reference suspicious telephone calls they received. In both instances, the callers are reporting that a voicemail is received from a man, with a Middle Eastern accent, identifying himself as an officer working with the Financial Crimes Unit.  The message indicates that the reason for the call concerns a loan made by the receiver or someone in the receiver's family. The voicemail requests that a return call be made and a telephone number is provided. When a return call is made, the caller is asked to provide personal identifying information such as their date of birth and social security number.

Reports indicate that the calls are frequent and persistent and that they even threaten arrest or legal action if information or money is not provided. It appears that the individuals making these calls may have access to some records connecting individuals and their relatives.  Missouri does not have a Financial Crimes Unit and all indications are that this is a fictitious agency. If you receive a similar phone call, please be advised that it is a scam and please contact your local law enforcement agency or the Missouri Information Analysis Center at 866-362-6422."

Bottom line:

Do not supply the callers with any additional information.  Inform them you have reported them to law enforcement and hang up.  If you haven't already, go ahead and report the calls to local law enforcement, your state's Attorney General and beyond.  Look up the local Secret Service branch's information in your area and get in contact with an agent there.  

If you ever applied for a cash advance online, your information is out there.  
Possible sources for the breach of your privacy are:

* The scammers obtained your information from Teletrack - a reporting agency used by many cash advance lenders to determine their risk lending to you.  The service is able to tell cash advance lenders if you have existing loans with other companies, for example.  Many state laws prohibit borrowers from having more than two cash advances out at the same time.

* The scammers created their own fake payday loan application site.  People looking for a cash advance went to the site and applied, thus freely providing the scammers with their information for malicious use at a later time.  

* The scammers were able to get into the database(s) of cash advance lenders - probable targets being Sonic Payday and Cashnet USA.  


How to protect yourself:

* Inform your employer.  You are likely getting calls at home and/or at work, so make sure your employer is aware the calls are part of a scam and to not take them seriously.  Advise the callers that they are no longer allowed to call you at work.  If they continue to call, document the date and time of the calls you received.  Save voice mails left if at all possible.  

* Change your number(s).  For some this may not be an option, for others a one-time number change can be done free of charge.

Be advised - any references you listed on your payday loan application will be contacted.  Let those people know that this is a scam, and they can disregard.

* Use Google Voice.  Google Voice is a great replacement voice mail system for just about any phone number you use.  Messages can be transcribed and voice mail recordings can be saved as mp3 files.  

Pro Tip - call the scammers with a Google Voice number before turning off your old phone numbers.  Make sure when you call you identify yourself so they can start up their script.  At any point after they have your information pulled up just hang up.  They will then start religiously calling your Google Voice number.  At this point, you are free to change your regular phone number(s) and enjoy not having these people ever call you again.  (And laugh at the fact these people are basically talking to a brick wall several times a day)

The scammers change their numbers frequently.  Law enforcement used to think it was because the callers ran out of minutes on their prepaid wireless accounts or they were shuttered due to fraud, but now they understand it's simply to evade detection by savvy consumers online.  With the proliferation of VoIP, it's even easier for the crooks to stay a couple of steps ahead of law enforcement.  Below is just a sampling of the 30+ numbers that have been used in recent memory.

1-201-244-7722
1-209-349-7382
1-209-797-2212
1-212-500-0839
1-213-256-0408
1-213-995-3039
1-281-763-0433
1-347-289-3902
1-347-844-6817
1-347-844-6831
1-424-354-4270
1-516-232-8905
1-516-232-8935
1-518-212-0219
1-561-300-8018
1-561-210-4185
1-626-200-4646
1-631-456-4041
1-646-274-1143
1-646-810-8635
1-650-241-4604
1-707-401-4056
1-707-633-2789
1-708-401-0535
1-716-442-2824
1-717-862-4080
1-718-705-8669
1-760-514-0132
1-760-563-5384
1-772-318-4938
1-850-201-1111
1-858-777-1977
1-859-908-2281
1-866-860-4509
1-877-226-7488
1-888-706-7463
1-888-771-9249
1-888-785-4479
1-909-327-4870

So can they really do anything to you?

It's not a simple yes or no answer.  Logic dictates that, if they really wanted to take you for a ride and drain your bank accounts, they already would have.  

So, why haven't they?  

Authorization.  

Why do you think you are being called so much?  Perhaps it is because they like the sound of your voice?  No, they have to have your authorization to take any form of payment from you, period.  The callers know their audience, and that audience is typically a bunch of people that have applied for payday loans in the past.  Most of those people they call couldn't afford an attorney if they wanted one, and are so used to receiving collections calls that so long as they sound like a real collector, they will likely be perceived as one.

Furthermore, they don't even really want to talk to your attorney - that just sounds official and scary enough.  A real attorney would take the callers to task and write them off as two-bit con artists.  The callers need you, in writing, to authorize payment against the fictitious debt they claim you owe.  Go ahead, ask them for proof you owe the debt - more commonly known as verification of debt.  See what they say.  A phone authorization carries very little weight, so if they have something signed by you on file, you are done for - and the callers know that.  That authorization is the only thing these callers are doing by the book, and for good reason.  If they just went all willy nilly and made an ACH debit from your checking account, without your written approval, you could in turn report the transaction as fraudulent to your financial institution.  In about 7-10 business days, you would get the funds returned to your account.  Then the scammers would be up against a bank and their team of lawyers and investigators.  

Bottom line:

If you haven't paid the callers a dime, don't.  If you planned on paying them to shut them up, just don't.  Remember - you are not being contacted by a legally licensed, ethically owned and operated collector.  Read up on the FDCPA - http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre27.pdf - and know your rights.

http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-646-274-1143/3

When they called I emailed the FBI and told them I was being threatened by these people and that they were claiming to be law enforcement. We will see what happens.

I am a family member that received this call for my brother.. the guy claimed to be an officer by the name of steve louis. he said that my number was on his refrence paper work.  who claimed to be in the department of law investigation.. he could not release any information...
i called this number back and blocked my number and the same guy with the same voice as he has an accent .... picked  up and said how may i help u... i have worked with officers in tbe pass and they do not answer the phne without sayin officer ( name).... i do believe this is a scam.. glad we all gettin the same results...

WIll do! Will they stop calling post-police report? They've literally called me 4 times today within an hour. It's just frustrating that they got my innocent friends involved when they have nothing to do with it. I hope these scumbags get caught!

Definitely do NOT go along with it or agree to anything with them. They're threatening you, impersonating law enforcement, and least of all harassing you. They have no power to send cops to arrest you and they definitely don't have the right to harass and threaten you or your friends. Contact your local police department and file a complaint, something to get it on record with them that this is happening. Then next time these scum call you, you inform them that you've contacted the REAL police and they are to desist their harassment campaign against you immediately.

Do they eventually stop calling?! They have been calling me for the past 2 days and they even called two of my friends saying if I don't pick-up or comply, they're "coming to get us." I said they have the wrong number and they even threaten my friends and said if they don't give them my number, they're sending cops for them. They claim to be from the "department of law and investigation." I looked it up and know that it doesn't exist. Should I go along with it for awhile to have them stop? HELP!

ya I just got a call for the 3rd time .......I played the game...............listen people I know you don't. Know me but I got this Guy to admit he was a scammer. I'd talk more but I'm typing on my blackberry.......know it!

Again same thing over and over.  This number is a bunch of people that call trying to tell you that you have never paid on a cash loan and they try to scare you and tell you if you don't help that you are going to be put in jail.  They tell you that they have all this information.  HANG UP.  First the are calling from a computer line. But to tell me that I can't find them or do anything about it.  How stupid they leave me a noice mail with a number to contact them back.
These people (if that is what you want to call them) are SCAMMERS.  They steal money from you account.  Cash loans that you get on line are automatically deducted from you accounts so how can you not pay.  They decided to keep calling me and call me a bunch of nasty names.
Don't believe anything they say.  Since I won't take their calls and got really nasty with them they called me 13 times in a matter of 5 mins.  I ended up changing my phone number.
AGAIN HANG UP THE PHONE.  Or if you really want to get back at them when they give you the information that they have tell them it is the wrong information.  That you changed banks and make up numbers.  That will really get them going.  I guess I got the last word anyways.  Can't get a hold of me know.