Very rude guy. Told him that the person he was looking for did not work here. He told me that it was a emergancy that he talked to her. I told him she didnot work here and he mumbeled something then hung up.

ABC News just did an investigative piece on this particular scam operation. Here's the report:  http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=5621205&page=1

They're not a real collection agency; they're criminals posing as debt collectors, bankers, lawyers and law enforcement. So it's probably futile to fax them letters and insist that they abide by the FDCPA and other statutes. In other words, since they are in the business of breaking the law, there's little chance they will suddenly feel compelled to abide by the law.

The Indians placing these calls are doing so at the behest of a Jacksonville, FL-based group of grifters. See my message above from June 21 for details. If you want more information about these scammers, contact the the Florida AG's Economic Crimes Division.

I spoke with this Roy Lawson, clearly not his real name since he obviously from another country, on behalf of a client he called my client ten times a day so I called and explained to him the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act and that doing this was a violation of that law he said he understood and would govern his calls as such.  He claimed to be calling on behalf of Apollo Funding or Apollo Lending he was incredibly abusive and claimed I was not an attorney that I was just one of my clients friends.  THen he claimed that if I was an Attorney I was a criminal since I was helping my client, who is bankrupt, to steal and that he would have my client arrested.  This guy is NUTS, no matter what you say he is abusive, I was a collector years ago and I could never figure out why anyone would call more than once if the call did not end in a payment agreement.  THis guy called my client back at work immediately after I called him and swore he was going to discuss the bill with every employee at his work and that he was sending the police in a week to arrest my client.  So I called Slappy the Wonder Lizard back and asked him what he was not understanding he became very rude and abusive I asked to talk to his supervisor he claims he is the supervisor and I asked to speak with his attorney and he puts me on hold and hangs up on me, so I call him back and tell him that my client is going to file a chapter 13 banko and he calls me a liar and a thief again he says fax him a letter.  I did and had my client change his number.  God I hope this works to put him off until my cleint files.

Update:

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 suggest 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 (Read 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 who are posing as federal law enforcement. Be sure to give as many details as you can.

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://rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01

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/1-949-743-1156
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

Called me @ work says his name is Roy Lawson says the police are on the way to arrest me.  I told him to not call me @ work and to call me at home.  He said he would call me wherever he wanted and there was nothing I could do about it.  He called back 10 more times in a row.  I called a lawyer friend of mine and had him call "Roy" I got even more calls from him asking what I think my lawyer can do about this and that he will be calling me back as much as he wants.  Needles to say my attorney is having a hayday with this and is in the process of filing a lawsuit against "RoyY and Apollo Funding the company he says he is colecting for!

Received a call at work from a name of "Roy Lawson" saying that he wanted to talk to an employee. He said that he is from the State of California department and need to talk to (__________)name of the person. He said it is a legal matter. He was rudely speaking and has an accent. He doesn't sound like caucasian. He has been calling at work and at home several times a day. He has been calling early in the morning such as 5AM and so. He also rudely spoke to one of the employee. He won't listen to the person that the person he's looking for is not present. This is totally harrassment.

what happened when you file a police report?

thanks

It is illegal, period. This sounds like the same group of foreign-based crooks who use various phony names meant to sound like an American law enforcement agency or a law firm. Don't fall for this scam. There is no such thing as a US Legal Investigation Bureau. (If you peruse the reports filed here on 800Notes, you'll find many phone numbers that this particular group of criminals use to target their victims with exactly the same scam.)

Just remember: anytime someone calls you and demands money to prevent your arrest, it's always a scam. No debt collector (let alone crooks posing as debt collectors) has the authority to have anyone arrested for anything; and it's illegal for them to threaten such a thing. What's more, law enforcement is not in the business of debt collection.

Ignore their illegal threats and report their extortion attempts to the following:

1) The U.S. Secret Service is responsible for protecting the country's financial infrastructure and payment systems from foreign 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 an extortionist over the phone and give them all the details.

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://rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01

For more information on protecting yourself from crooked debt collectors and suing them, check out these websites:

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.

Hope this helps.

can they do this to people by law?

RUDELY EXPLAINING THAT I OWED A COMPANY WITH NO NAME $1100 AND TO GIVE THEM MY BANK ACCT. INFO AND HUNG UP ON ME. THEY ACCUSED ME OF HAVING TWO FEDERAL OFFENSES AND THAT I WAS GOING TO BE ARRESTED TODAY AT 4:00PM.

Will not give  HIS name - very abusive- will not give name of company shut up and listen he said- only when I am finished you can talk.I have filed a police report-