This is a criminal extortion ring operating out of India. ABC News released an investigative report on it in June. The FTC has indicted one of its ringleaders for criminal fraud:
In the meantime, you are going to have to do whatever you can to protect yourself. That includes letting them know you are aware they are running a scam and are reporting them to the authorities.
I recieved a call from this number as well, he was using the name Richard Williams and he advised me that I had applied for a payday loan and that in their terms and conditions there was a $95 processing fee for each loan applied for through their company. I never applied for a loan by the way. He advised me that he was an attorney and legal proceedings were waiting to be filed and would I like to take care of this today. I advised him I had not applied for any loans and no I wouldnt. The next day I called him back and played nice asking where I needed to send the money order to, he wouldn't give me an address he instead told me to go to Walmart and get a money pack refill card. I told him I would and as soon as I got the number I would call him back. I then asked him his name again and he advised me that he was an attorney, so I asked him for his bar number, he refused to give it to me and advised me I could have it when we were in federal court. He then hung up on me. He has several numbers from different states he's using.
i got a call from this number .it sounded like he was indian or something saying that he was a lawyer and that i was gonna go to jail and i was being charged with check fraud and some other things for some payday loan i never took out . i told him this he said it didnt matter they were taking me to court . i told him to screw himself he had the wrong person.and then next thing i knew he was calling me at my job . so i asked him what i needed to do for them to leave me alone he said i would have to pay him 700 dollars. i asked him where to send it he said go to walmart and buy a prepaid debit card and call him back he said to ask for steven johnson . i dont know how to get them to stop calling or if i should be worried
i got the same call and what i did was call them back but they could never tell me anything but when the money was deposited. it just so happened that the same day i had my bank statement in my hand and it didnt show any deposit from this unamed company which i later found out to be cash advance usa. i told him that he could press all the charges he wanted to.
I first received a call from an indian guy named Richard leaving a message to call back. then I returned the call, and he said his name was Scott Thomas. he claimed my social security number was flagged due to non payment, and that I needed to pay it today... I threw out a number, and he could not verify its accuracy, he said he was from the United States Attorney Generals office. I immediately smelled something funny with all this because he could not state details of the issue. He got violent when I told him I could not pay the 2000 amount I faked. I do believe that this is all revolves around the payday loan websites, in fact, I am sure of it. So please to all, be very careful of your information on these sites. I was not so lucky. Thank you