This is a criminal extortion scam operating out of India. They are making the calls utilizing VOIP and the names of legitimate firms to make it appear the calls are originating from within the US. There is NO "company" or "debt" and you will NOT be arrested. They are harvesting and/or buying consumers' personal identifying information from unscrupulous websites like the one you may have filled out an application with, and you need to do whatever you can to protect yourself. This includes: Notifying the FTC: https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/, placing fraud alerts with all three credit bureaus, notifying your bank and employer and letting these criminals know you are aware they are attempting to extort money for a non-existent debt and have alerted the authorities.

ABC News released an investigative report on this scam a year ago:

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/phantom-debt-co ... ory?id=16512428

my husband just got this same call from a man claiming to be attorney Alex Cooper, he was calling from 916-259-9381. my husband first got a disturbing voicemail message from a Hindu sounding woman named "Lisa White" (like that's her real name). She said that they needed my husband to call them immediately to discuss a legal matter. My husband called and another Hindu man named "Alex Cooper" said that he was with the State Attorneys office for the state of California and that  my husband was being sued for fraud for taking out a payday loan. He went on to say that the police were going to come to his place of work and arrest him. We did in fact get a pay day loan from a company, however the due date to pay it back isn't for another 3 weeks from now. Between me and my husband calling this "company" trying to get answers, we called them 4 times with us being hung up on by this "Alex Cooper" guy. We went online and looked him up and saw that all of these other people are getting the same kind of calls from all kinds of different numbers. We decided to call this guy one more time. He answered and then proceeded to call my husband a "mother f***er" and a "f****ng loser" and that we can not be calling his number all the time. This is obviously some kind of a scam and I do believe it is a federal crime to impersonate an attorney. I say everyone should call all these different numbers and give this guy a taste of his own medicine.

I rec'd a call from Alex Cooper, Attorney, threatening charges. He knew my Social Security number, and that is a concern. I called the number back, and asked what law firm he's with. He asked where I am calling from, I told him Texas. He Hung up on me.

The calls I am getting are from a 951 area code thay didnet cuss or say anything Bolger to me yet but thay won't stop how do you get them to stop calling?
Email me masonfreeland187@gmail.com with answers

Did u get arrested because got same call

Keeps calling my work and cell phone threatening to send the sheriffs for a debt I dont owe.  Trying to SCAM me for my social security number and threatening to send someone to my job. Attorney Alex Cooper 916-288-9343 out of Sacarmento CA

I took my pay-pal cards & receipts to the Illinois Attorney General's Office last week. I filed a suit against these people & received a letter in the mail today from Lisa Madigan's office in Chicago. I am out a significant amount of money over a period of 5 days. They are very aware of this scam & I intend to follow it through to the end. I was instructed to agree to any reasonable refund from this scam outfit before legal proceedings take place. I was also instructed by the Attorney General's Office to  file a complaint to the FTC. I have been checking my credit rating & nothing is out of the ordinary. I also check my bank statements on a daily basis to make sure nothing has been withdrawn. I have also notified my credit union that no unauthorized transactions take place. They are fully aware of this situation & will notify me of anything unusual.

I WENT ONLINE YESTERDAY IN A STATE OF DESPERATION AND FILL OUT A PAYDAY LOAN APPLICATION, AND IMMEDIATELY THESE REPEATED CALLS START COMING FROM AND INDIAN VOICE MAN WITH AN ENGLISH NAME,THAT WAS VERY WIRED, THE CALL STATED THAT HE WAS A LAWYER AND HE REVEAL MY SS # TO ME THEN STATED THAT I HAVE CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST ME AND READING MY RIGHTS OVER THE PHONE .. I PANIC AND AND HANG THE PHONE UP IMMEDIATELY I WAS SO SCARED THAT SOMEONE HAD COMMITTED SOME CRIMES IN MY NAME, I CALLED MY SISTER AND SHE SUGGESTED IT COULD BE A SCAM, SO I GOOGLE THE NUMBER, THANKFULLY TO ALL THESE POST I'M ASSURED. NOW I'M WAITING FOR THEM TO CALL SO I CAN TELL THEM WHERE TO SHOVE THERE CHARGES AND THERE DYSFUNCTIONAL ENGLISH ACCENT!!!!!

Me too is all that I can say. I am out 300.00 but wiser and know that if ever the words prepaid or Western Union are uttered there is a 99 % chance that criminal activity is involved. Do not feel embarrassed feel empowered and enlightened. Continue to share your story with others because knowledge is power.These people are professional criminals involved in organized crime that prey on the week and financially venerable. Our strength will be this character's downfall. Private collection matters are not criminal nor do they warrant arrest. If anything civil proceedings may be filed, but certainly do not warrant arrest by a sherrif.Knowledge is power.

I recieved a call from a Dan Scott from Johnny best law office saying i had a criminal suit against me for owing excessive money to a sent collector & if i couporated they rush to there  boss and stop the suite. I immédiately called my attorney wh said the states attorney office wouldnt call. To Tell them to mail it like everyone else does. When i told him that his tone changed his tone & hadnt realized id 3 way'd my mom who's a légal assistant  starter yelling at him saying this is a scam. He tried to over talk her & she repeatew this is a scam. He hung up.

OMG, these people need to be stopped!!!  What can we do to stop these annoying calls?  Please, it is very disturbing and I'm sure there are other people out there like me with health issues and this is not helping at all!!  I told them a few months ago to f*** off, and I said a few other select words as to how can they be an attorney here in the U.S. but not speak very good English and that just got the guy all angry and he called me a b****!  but it stopped them and now they're calling again, grrrr!!!!!

I just recieved this callas well and whats funny is that they are the same people from a different number. I am sorry but this people have no life and just want to scare everyone and you can report it but I believe that they are using their cell phones and using a phone number duplicator.

This phone number has called me several times saying that I have an unpaid payday loan. The so-called attorney (John Brooks) tells me that I need to pay certain amounts of money or I will be arrested at my place of employment or the local police will arrest me at my home. I went to out local police/sheriff's office today as well as the State's Attorney's Office. Unfortunately, I have been scammed out of several pay pal payments totaling over $5000. I'm sick over this, I have never been taken advantage of like this before. I should have been smarter. Tomorrow I am going to the Illinois Attorney General's Office in Springfield to file a formal complaint. This so-called John Brooks has indicated to me that my original 2 payments will be sent back to me in the mail tomorrow (cashiers checks). I'm not holding my breath!! DO NOT BE SCAMMED BY THESE SO-CALLED DEBT COLLECTORS!!!!!

I have had the same issue with this man calling me saying I'm being sued. He gave me the number to a so called lawyer named Alex Cooper(415)376-1474. I don't understand how they have gotten my information and I am a bit worried about what other personal stuff they may know since he knew the last four of my social.

I have received this multple times the last 3 days. Now they call my work..name was daniel hunter. Asked for my supervisor....who do I call to report?

i got a call from someone name dax something i cannot really understand him he is saying police will be at my job to arrest me and that i need to send them a prepaid card of 400 for my loan he spoke to me rude and called me at 8 in the morning yelling saying he is trying to help me if i dont want help thats fine he's just sent the police to me i do have a payday loan out but i have documentation for the loan as well as payday dates and the company he saying i dont even have a loan with them!!!!

Just got yet ANOTHER call from this same idiot!!  No words from me, just an immediate transfer to the Police Department.  I have had enough -- no more of this nonsense.  They haven't called back yet (it's been 5 whole minutes now), but I don't doubt that they will -- and I will keep repeating the transfer over and over.

I told them if they call me again Im reporting theyre azz. I dont have time for 6 in the morning bs calls.

This have happen to me today and he called my place of employment 16 time and cell 25. I know i have did anything wrong so I told him to call the officer because he just got caught my husband works there as and my mother so he Hung up in my face and wouldn't answer the phone. Have no idea how they have all if my information.

I've had several calls myself. This made identified himself as Attorney Alex Cooper, by the way, there is no such atty in California Bar...he stated that within an hour, sheriff's office would be at my place of work to arrest me. I asked for his casenumber. He said, "I am an attorney, I do not have such things." This is criminal. Needs to be stopped.

I recieved  the same call from a forgiener  I could not understand  him.  He said I would be in jail tomorrow  and I would lose my job.  He sqid the same thing to me as he said them too Alaalfa.  But  I am not scare.@

The person called me 5 times saying it was a legal matter but wouldnt tell me what it was about and that I needed to contact his attorney or they would turn it over to mny local court and I have not done anything wrong and wish they would stop bugging me and they are calling me on my cell. I could hardly understand the guy

Threatened me. I told.them I knew they were not legitimate and that I reported them to.FBI and.attorney general and they told.me to $$$$ off and.to "come under his table and.suck his.$$$$"

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

Hi, I received a phone call from this company too saying he was from the law office of John Best. Said I had paid w/ a bad check and they were going to arrest me if I did not pay $645.00 by 11 am. It was a middle eastern accented man. He also said they were going to submit charges to my local Court house and have the sherrifs arrest me.

Update, my husband called the number back and told the guy to stop calling our house, and he told my husband, "F*** You."  Nice and professional, huh?

They keep calling me at work saying there going to sue me this is a scam please stop the calls

Sam Scott calling saying I have criminal charges against me by Attorney Alex Cooper and Johnny Best Law Offices. Thye have the last 4 digits of my SS#! I have no unpaid loans...this must be a scam! I am concerned that they have my SS #!!!!

Some guy called my house at 6:45am this morning.  3 times in a row!  I guess he thought his long, monotonous, Indian-Pakistani-Sri Lankan-hard-to-understand voiced message wasn't long enough.  Retard.  Anyway, he said, "This message is for [my husband's name].  The reason for my call is because your name and social security number are being sued.  The attorney needs to get in touch with you as soon as possible about this law suit as soon as possible at (415) 376-1474.  If you do not contact us immediately, then we can only wish you good luck in your life."

Yes, these people call me saying the same thing which was Attorney Alex Copper that that charge was being made.