Can Payday Lenders Sue, Arrest, Or Put You In Jail For A Payday Loan?
August 4, 2011 at 6:12 pm
Many payday loan consumers live in fear everyday because of unpaid payday loans. The reason why is payday lenders sometimes threaten customers to pay back their payday loan debt within a short deadline or they could face serious consequences if they do not come up with the money on time.
We have heard several threats and here are some of the most commonly used ones:
- We will sue you for check fraud.
- We will have someone arrest you.
- We will make sure you go to jail.
Are these true? Can a payday lender really sue, arrest, or put you in jail for a payday loan? The answer is no. Defaulting on a payday loan is not a crime and cannot result in criminal charges. This means that you cannot be prosecuted, arrested, or put in jail check fraud, breach of contract, or anything else that your payday lender might threaten you with.
Making false threats to collect on a debt is illegal in every state. If your payday lender has threatened you with the statements above, or something similar, it is likely that your payday lender is conducting business illegally and is unlicensed. This is usually the case if you received your payday loan from a company online. 90% of internet payday lenders are unlicensed, which means that they do not have the legal ability to take civil action against you. For this reason, they threaten customers into paying them because they know that if they are not successful on collecting the debt themselves, then there is no other way for them to get their money back
I received a call from Angela Horn on 2-21-13, she left the msg "It was in my best interest to return her call b/c I had fraud charges pending on me and if I didn't call her back she would send them to the state." When I returned the call from my office phone the msg I rcvd was my call would not go through b/c the caller id was blocked and they wanted me to call my carrier to have my id blocker removed. They were using Magic Jack to call me. I then called her using my cell phone the number I dialed (830-612-1022), this connected me to Nationwide Investigations but of course she was gone for the day. However, she called me at 7:56am on 2-22-13 and this time when she left the msg she said her name was Angela Ward. So, I called her back and the first thing she wanted me to do was to confirm the last 4 digits of my social security number. I immediately told her I would not be confirming anything until I get some basic information regarding this alleged fraud case. Then she transferred me to a senior investigator whom supposedly had all my information. The senior investigator's name was Robert Davis with Nationwide Investigators.
He had my SS# and an old address and even knew my neice's name and number but didn't know how that person was related to me. He told me I supposedly used her as a reference on this loan. Fraud charges totalling over $1800. $540 of that is supposed to be the loan I alledgely took out. This is where it got interesting. The name of the loan company is Cash Advance. They deposited funds into and international bank account with my name and SS#. I asked for the name of the bank and a phone number. This is what he gave me (Eternationl Bank). When I attempted to call the phone number while I had him on the phone, I found out the number was to a fax machine. So, I asked if he had another number for the bank b/c that was a fax machine, he then gave me my old cell phone number and stated that was the number he had for the bank.
And the plot thickens:
I told him well I did not have any prior knowledge of these pending charges and I have paid off any loans I have taken out; however, I am interested in clearing this matter up. Well, then he pretended that he washaving his secretary contact the state attorney right then and there to have the charges dropped and to see if they would settle for the actual alledged amount of the loan. Of course all I had to do is either give them a payment via a VISA card or money gram. I told him I would do a money gram and I would call him back later with the reference number but also in the meantime I would be doing my own investigation and researching him and his company. He told me to contact him by 11 with the reference number and gave me a direct number of 202-239-6947 ext. 207. This is totally a bogus rap and they are not getting a dime from me. I don't owe no Cash Advance no $540 or any other amount. I get these damn calls every January or February right around tax time. These folks need to get real jobs and stop trying to rip people off. Karma is a [***].
What I want to know can I file charges on these folks for harrassing me and attempting to defraud me?