Person calls by name of Mark Walsh saying he's with investigations regarding EZ Payday Loans. Saying we owe money and if not called back by tomorrow afternoon will take legal action. Moron even went as far as to say "caught on surveillance". Wow! scammers are becoming desperate. How you morons put enough effort into filling out an employment application instead of trying to steal from us hardworking citizens!
FYI - The number they provided to be called back was (855) 584-6184. When this number is googled many comments that they are being scammed.
This number is associated with a known crew of phone scammers in the North Carolina area see
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-855-791-9102
For at least the last year, an illegal group of debt collectors have been terrorizing consumers, their family, friends, and employees threatening to arrest the individual of an unpaid loan or other debt (their generally don't even owe). Be aware debt is a civil matter, not a criminal matter, and you can't be arrested. They threaten a warrant if the victim does not pay a sum of money by the credit card over the phone.
Some of the people they are calling do not owe a debt. Others they are calling have already settled their debt with the organization who owns the accounts. Even if you do owe a debt, do not be deceived by the actions of this group. Many of the accounts they are attempting to collect they do not own. In other words, if you pay these people, that is not going to clear your debt with its rightful owner.
Although when pressed the callers give the victim an address in Columbia South Carolina (usually a vacant lot) or Atlanta GA (often a parking lot near the bus station or a Peachtree Road Address). They are actually out of the Charlotte North Carolina area. The scammers are using the following business names (and there are many others, and they seem to create new ones daily). They will normally answer the call back number as “Investigations”
Holland, Dempsey, and Associates
Berkeley and Hughes
RJ Financial LLC
Reynolds, Hill, and Associates
Berkley and Associates
Kaufmann and Associates
Sanderson Blaine & Associates
Blaine and Associates
McKenzie Reid Associates
Kennedy, Kline, & Associates
Nationwide Asset and Recovery
Piedmont Investigations and Procurement
Raffino, Garrison, & McCoy
Greenman, Schwartz & Associates
McCoy Law Group
Salem Associates
Reynolds and Associates
Ryan, Carter and Fields
Berman, Maxwell and associates
DOF Investigations
Vaughn & Associates
Bailey Rowe and Associates
Berkley Hughes and Associates
Here is a set of links to a variety of threads on this forum that document this group and its behavior. They include the experiences of victims as well as a former employee or two that quit within a week of finding out exactly what was going on. They also include responses from consumer advocates and people who are really criminal justice professionals advising victims of what to do
Since this group is actually operating out of the Charlotte area, the proper local jurisdiction to file police reports would be the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department
http://charmeck.org/city/charlotte/CMPD/Pages/default.aspx
You can make a report by telephone - If calling outside the Mecklenburg County, the Non-Emergency Crime Reporting: 704-336-7600
You can also make a police report online at
http://charmeck.org/city/charlotte/CMPD/Pages/ReportACrime.aspx