They have been calling my work and home. A man with a foreign accent states that I took a payday loan and that I never paid it back and they are pressing fraud charges against me. I told them it was a scam and hung up on them.

These guys are a joke, they call from all different number but its always the same scam. There always trying to tell people that they are from a legal service or law office and they are asking for your lawyers name or trying to tell you that you owe on a payday loan or something and they will settle out of court if you send them $3,000. "Haha yeah ok let me just write you a check" Then if they get mad they will tell you that they are going to send the police to your house or work and have you put in jail. Just tell them that you have the FBI recording this phone call and I promise they will hang up asap.

This another one of those fake debt collector!!! ignore their calls!!!!!!

wonder if they shut this number down? i got a call and called back and all it did was ring and let me leave a msg-no one has called back yet! would be nice to stop these friggin scammers!

yeah mike andersen called me too and told me i was going to prison in new york on tuesday if i did not pay  him 645.00 He told me to go to a gas station and purchase a green dot money card and load the money on  it and then call him back from the store. Let me tell you how this scam works............First you will recieve a call form someone about buying a car...........then they will ask for your info......ssn,  work phone , cell phone and banking info.......a week later you will recieve a call from Mr. Andersen stating that you commited fraud using a computer...and if you dont pay right now then you will go to prison.......next you will get a call from the NYPD stating that officers are on there way to arrest you if you dont call them back. how stupid do these guys think I am?  Next they call me at work......again its the NYPD saying that we have a "fraud person" working for us......blah blah blah. Im not affraid of these guys and im sure they dont care. So if "Mike Andersen"  is viewing this Let it be known........We all know your game and well......GAME OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

got same kinda call a while back, left it alone..no calls. Today, get a call from 1-347-827-3358, missed it but called back.. recording said person at this phone jack is unavailable..strange. Get another call from a local number in my state so I answered. The guy says there's legal action against me blah blah...Irritated, I hung up. Called bk mainland #, got more info..Some U.S. Cash Advance supposedly gave me a payday loan and I never paid back??? Bulls***!! Another guy called me back from local #, I asked him questions; when was the deposit, amount, what bank & account number..he hung up. Called back the other number and got info from the other guy...he gave me all the correct info, but I never confirmed it was correct. I researched my account just to be extra sure....Wow!! not surprised NO FRIGGIN DEPOSIT EVER from the company!!!!! BTW, I told the one I never got a deposit and I thought this whole thing was bogus...guess what? He hung up too. A***oles, they think they can scam me??? F*** THEM! Good luck everyone out there and be careful! God Bless

Told me there was a lawsuit filed against my name and on my social security number and to call right away.  Was asked not to disregard the message and given the number to call back twice and if I did not call he wished me good luck as the situation will finally enfold upon me.  Said "Good-Bye and Take care"

Consumers across the country report that they're getting telephone calls from people trying to collect on loans the consumers never received or on loans they did receive but for amounts they do not owe. Others are receiving calls from people seeking to recover on loans consumers received but where the creditors never authorized the callers to collect for them. So what's the story?

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation's consumer protection agency, is warning consumers to be on the alert for scam artists posing as debt collectors. It may be hard to tell the difference between a legitimate debt collector and a fake one. Sometimes a fake collector may even have some of your personal information, like a bank account number. A caller may be a fake debt collector if he:

is seeking payment on a debt for a loan you do not recognize;
refuses to give you a mailing address or phone number;
asks you for personal financial or sensitive information; or
exerts high pressure to try to scare you into paying, such as threatening to have you arrested or to report you to a law enforcement agency.

If you think that a caller may be a fake debt collector:
Ask the caller for his name, company, street address, and telephone number. Tell the caller that you refuse to discuss any debt until you get a written "validation notice." The notice must include the amount of the debt, the name of the creditor you owe, and your rights under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
If a caller refuses to give you all of this information, do not pay! Paying a fake debt collector will not always make them go away. They may make up another debt to try to get more money from you.

Stop speaking with the caller. If you have the caller's address, send a letter demanding that the caller stop contacting you, and keep a copy for your files. By law, real debt collectors must stop calling you if you ask them to in writing.

Do not give the caller personal financial or other sensitive information. Never give out or confirm personal financial or other sensitive information like your bank account, credit card, or Social Security number unless you know whom you're dealing with. Scam artists, like fake debt collectors, can use your information to commit identity theft ? charging your existing credit cards, opening new credit card, checking, or savings accounts, writing fraudulent checks, or taking out loans in your name.

Contact your creditor. If the debt is legitimate ? but you think the collector may not be ? contact your creditor about the calls. Share the information you have about the suspicious calls and find out who, if anyone, the creditor has authorized to collect the debt.

Report the call. Contact the FTC and your state Attorney General's office with information about suspicious callers. Many states have their own debt collection laws in addition to the federal FDCPA. Your Attorney General's office can help you determine your rights under your state's law.>

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt076.shtm


Reply !

Travis Walker says he's calling from a legal firm and wanted to know my attorney's name. When I asked why he couldn't say. He tried scaring me saying there was legal action being taken against me and that I needed to give him my info. I told him there's no way I was giving someone my personal info if he couldn't even tell my why. I tried calling the number back the day before and it wasn't even valid.

He just called again from another number 888-311-6369. When I told him I knew he was same person, that they were being investigated for fraud and I would report him no matter what number he called from he said "Ok, bye-bye" and hung up.

I started getting these calls last week after looking into pay-day advance possiblilties, I suspect that's  how he got my number.

Claiming that I owe money and that either myself or lawyers need to contact them immediately.  I is a scam my lawyers busted them

This number has called me at least 10 times in the past month. They tell me over and over again that they are going to have the police come to my house and have me arrested for a pay day loan that I got about 4 years ago. I have talked to harassment agencies and they reassured me that this is all crap. I decided to call the number back and talk to someone at the bill collector's number about this. I told them that I needed more information from them so that my lawyer could take care of my case. They then put me on hold and the phone went dead. I tried calling them back to let them know that I reported them to Ic3.gov a government website for this type of harassment and the number is no longer taking my calls. So I  figure that they got the message that I am not going to take their crap. If this number calls you and you know that this is a scam tell them that you have a lawyer and he would like to know more info and see what they say then. Or tell them that you looked up their number on this site and that you now know this is a load of crap. Good luck

i like to know who? is calling me everydav

One leg of this scam has been shut down:

Even scam artists are outsourcing. On Tuesday in its first crackdown on fraudulent telemarketing in South Asia, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it was shutting down two California-based companies that used a call center in India to defraud Americans out of more than $5 million over the past two years.

Workers in India made threatening calls to Americans getting them to pay money on debts that they didn't owe, the FTC charges. At an FTC press conference in Chicago on Tuesday, fraud victim JanLaree DeJulius explained that she had received a call from someone claiming to be an enforcement officer from the (phony) "Federal Department of Crime and Prevention," who threatened to have her arrested and have her wages garnished if she didn't pay a bill of more than $730. The scam artists had gotten her name and information from a payday loan her ex-husband had taken out in her name.

"It was very embarrassing," Dejulius said. "He knew everything about me so I agreed to set up an installment." She is not alone. According to the FTC, more than 8 million calls were made since 2010 and at least 17,000 transactions processed across the United States related to the global scam.

On Tuesday under request from the FTC, a U.S. District Court in Chicago stopped the international operation, charging Varang K. Thaker and two companies he owned, American Credit Crunchers, LLC, and an affiliate Ebeeze, LLC, with violating the FTC Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

"This is a brazen operation based on pure fraud, and the FTC is committed to shutting it down," said David Vladeck, director of the FTC's consumer protection bureau. "Consumers should not be pressured into paying debt they don't remember owing. Legitimate debt collectors must provide consumers with both written information about the debt, and instructions for protecting themselves if they don't think they owe the debt."

According to the FTC's charges, Thaker used Social Security numbers and bank account numbers obtained from payday lenders to identify the victims for his scam. He outsourced the work to an Indian call center, where workers made threatening calls to American consumers to pay fake debt or collect on bills for which they were not authorized.

Thaker was not available when contacted by telephone on Tuesday. A woman who claimed to be Thaker's older sister and asked not to be named for privacy reasons said he is working with the FTC to help the Indian government pursue the fraudster call center operators. She also said he was innocent in the scam. "He was being used by somebody. He didn't even know where they got the information," she told The Huffington Post by phone. She said that her brother got 10 percent of the earnings from the scam operation.

The FTC charges against Thaker are the latest in a series of police actions by the government agency to put an end to rogue debt collection operations that have become more frequent in the aftermath of the Great Recession. In January, the FTC struck a $2.5-million settlement with debt-buying company Asset Acceptance, LLC, charging that the company had falsely represented itself to customers, including making up phantom debts that customers no longer owed. Last October, the FTC filed a complaint against seven other fraudulent debt collectors, alleging that they had engaged in the same techniques -- demanding money from customers who owed nothing at all.

The growing number of Americans who are unable to pay their bills has meant there are more companies looking to profit from their economic difficulties.

Debt collectors have been taking more aggressive tactics as fewer people are able to make ends meet or are in a cycle of debt. More than 30 million Americans are in debt collection, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Since 2010, more than 4,000 complaints have been filed with the FTC and state attorneys general about fraudulent debt collection calls, the FTC said.

Charles Junitkka, a personal bankruptcy attorney who represents clients in the New York City area, said, "In the last few years, the desperation of the collectors and their efforts have intensified because of the economy."

This story has been updated to reflect comment from a woman who says she is the sister of Varang Thaker. Thaker himself was unavailable for comment.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/21/ftc- ... _n_1289751.html

Consumers across the country report that they're getting telephone calls from people trying to collect on loans the consumers never received or on loans they did receive but for amounts they do not owe. Others are receiving calls from people seeking to recover on loans consumers received but where the creditors never authorized the callers to collect for them. So what's the story?

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation's consumer protection agency, is warning consumers to be on the alert for scam artists posing as debt collectors. It may be hard to tell the difference between a legitimate debt collector and a fake one. Sometimes a fake collector may even have some of your personal information, like a bank account number. A caller may be a fake debt collector if he:

is seeking payment on a debt for a loan you do not recognize;
refuses to give you a mailing address or phone number;
asks you for personal financial or sensitive information; or
exerts high pressure to try to scare you into paying, such as threatening to have you arrested or to report you to a law enforcement agency.

If you think that a caller may be a fake debt collector:
Ask the caller for his name, company, street address, and telephone number. Tell the caller that you refuse to discuss any debt until you get a written "validation notice." The notice must include the amount of the debt, the name of the creditor you owe, and your rights under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
If a caller refuses to give you all of this information, do not pay! Paying a fake debt collector will not always make them go away. They may make up another debt to try to get more money from you.

Stop speaking with the caller. If you have the caller's address, send a letter demanding that the caller stop contacting you, and keep a copy for your files. By law, real debt collectors must stop calling you if you ask them to in writing.

Do not give the caller personal financial or other sensitive information. Never give out or confirm personal financial or other sensitive information like your bank account, credit card, or Social Security number unless you know whom you're dealing with. Scam artists, like fake debt collectors, can use your information to commit identity theft ? charging your existing credit cards, opening new credit card, checking, or savings accounts, writing fraudulent checks, or taking out loans in your name.

Contact your creditor. If the debt is legitimate ? but you think the collector may not be ? contact your creditor about the calls. Share the information you have about the suspicious calls and find out who, if anyone, the creditor has authorized to collect the debt.

Report the call. Contact the FTC and your state Attorney General's office with information about suspicious callers. Many states have their own debt collection laws in addition to the federal FDCPA. Your Attorney General's office can help you determine your rights under your state's law.>

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt076.shtm

guy called me and said that my name and number was part of a fraud investagtion.... i got these calls last year from the same people telling me that i owed a payday loan that i never took out so i guess they try and get you one way or another

These numbers keep calling me: 347-827-3358,414-215-3335,310-742-4798 and they are all the same person I even told them that I'm not stupid and I reported them and they still keep calling me and left a message on my voice mail. The funny part is on one of the voice messages you can hear them whispering in the backround and another time when I cursed him out and told him the call was being traced he said, "Sorry wrong number" lol

We received this same call for an employee at our work.  I did some investigating and found that this was a scam from an oversees company.  I guess the FBI has been investigating them since 2010.  The Dept of Financial Institutions gave me information and helpful tips on how to get them to stop.  I was also asked to go to the website www.ic3.gov to file a formal complaint.

This person keeps calling and not leaving a voice message. 9 times within the last 3 minutes. Thanks for the heads up on the scam

Yeah. Middle Eastern Mike Anderson called me as well, sad to say he got me too. But I have taken all the Federal, State and local actions against him as well.

This guy called me. I fell for his scam. I know dumb me. But I have alerted all agencies just in case.

What in the world is this Guy talking about

i like to know who is threating me