I received this email below, today February 2nd, 2016.
My name is MICHAEL MARTIN from CASH USA. Reason of this email that we have registered a case against you.
Following is your information.
Name
Social Security Number
Outstanding Debt: $875.75 (including late payment charges)
Penalty in the court: $8000+
Attorney and court fees: $1500+
Creditors- Cash USA which is a parent company of more then 400 cash websites and internet web portals in USA and operates under different names in different states.
Apart from getting laid off by your current employer after we send them the legal notice you will be blacklisted from getting any job.
Through an IRS (Internal Revenue Service) your social security number will be put on hold causing severe damage to your credit history or credit report and your income paychecks will be put on hold.
Any child support, disability, unemployment or retirement benefits will be either place on hold or will be stopped until the outcome of the case.
Our primary job was to notify you about the case before we send you legal document in the mail because once this case gets registered then we won't be able to help you out of court. Our client is least interested in getting the money at this point as they want to just go ahead and start taking legal actions however we wanted to contact you and give you last chance to resolve this case out of court.
If you take care of this out of court then we will release the clearance certificate from the court and we will make sure that no one will contact you in future.
Please let us know what is your intention by today itself so we can hold the case or else we will meet you in court house.
REGARDS,
MICHAEL MARTIN
CASH USA
#1-650-690-8974
A phone call, email or text message from a supposed debt collector is not legally sufficient evidence of debt.
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) includes statements such as this:
Every collector must send you a written “validation notice” telling you how much money you owe within five days after they first contact you. This notice also must include the name of the creditor to whom you owe the money, and how to proceed if you don’t think you owe the money. ["Written" means snailmailed - US Mail ... not emailed or texted]
Therefore, if that caller wants you to pay immediately, before you get the written validation notice via snailmail, or if the caller wants payment via Green Dot, MoneyGram, Western Union, prepaid gift card or other untraceable means, then the call is definitely not legitimate.
IF you wish to communicate with the supposed collector / creditor, visit the following page, for example "Action Letters" to snailmail:
http://www.consumerfinance.gov/blog/debtcollection/
If you KNOW you owe no money, or believe the call was from a fake debt collector, please take the time to read this:
http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0258-fake-debt-collectors
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Please reply to this post, to let us know you read it, or have taken suitable actions to protect yourself.
I received the same email, disturbing fact is they have my social security number. I called, some jerk answers and and just says hello. Then you ask for Michael Martin and he says yes from Cash USA.
This is a common ploy by criminals masquerading as debt collectors who are attempting to extort money from people by scaring you into believing that you will be criminally charged, go to jail, lose your driver’s license, have wages garnished, be sued, and a variety of other variations on this, all for an alleged or nonexistent debt. One of the tricks they use is to call your work place, friends, or relatives repeatedly in an attempt to shame you into paying. They also use the “process server” ruse who calls and claims he is going to serve you, but then says you could avoid it by calling another number
Federal law (FDCPA) requires them to send you a letter (US MAIL ONLY) within 5 days of their first contact that contains their name, physical address, the creditor’s name, and the amount of the alleged debt. It also must contains “mini-Miranda” telling you that it is an attempt to collect a debt and that all information will be used for those purposes. The one other important thing that this letter must also have in it is that you have a right to dispute the debt within 30 days of receipt of the letter and if you do so, all collection activity must be stopped until the debt is verified.
Read up on your rights here, get template letters to send and also make a complaint at this government site: http://www.consumerfinance.gov/
Also file a complaint with your State Attorney General's office.
List of State AG’s offices: http://consumerfraudreporting.org/stateattorneygenerallist.php
If you feel you SSN has been compromised, in addition to putting a fraud alert at the 3 credit bureaus, you may want to notify the IRS. Here is the link, fill out the proper form (probably 14039):
http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/How-Do-You-Rep ... aud-Activity%3F