I received a call from "James", this morning, stating a friend used me as a reference for a payday loan & she had not paid it back, therefore we were both responsible. References are not co-signers, I would not be responsible IF she had taken out the loan. I know, with no question, this is a scam because they stated she applied for the loan in April 2010 (they couldn't give the exact date) and used my name and phone number as a reference. I just got this phone number, so there is no way she used it on any application 9 months ago. They are very rude, and argumentative. He stated my friend & I would have to appear in court next Friday, but wouldn't/couldn't tell me the address of the court where we would have to appear. As someone else mentioned, when I mentioned contacting the police, James ended the call very abruptly. Something needs to be done, to bring these scammers to justice.
I just had someone call me three times today by the name of Mark Jones. He clearly was not American, I could not even undestand a word her was saying on my answring machine. They call me every six months stating I too have a Pay Day Loan. When I ask them for the payment information they start yelling at me, saying they can not give me that information and then I tell them to come get me...well this has been going on for over three years and I'm still here...
same people called me but with a different number and name now they have forwarded a false affidavit for arrest on tuesday, i really feel the government should do something about this.
When I received a call from this guy, he said he was with the Police Department. Rude and nasty. I too told him I received nothing from him and he said he also e-mailed twice. I asked him for debt validation and he said he did not have to provide it.
I place him on the reject list each time on my phone when he calls.
From ec's post: http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-718-831-7157
It's a scam. There's no such thing as a Federal Investigation Bureau or United Legal Processing.
This is a very active group of overseas scammers who attempt to extort money from Americans with a myriad of false and illegal threats. They alternately pose as debt collectors, federal and state law enforcement officers, lawyers and bankers. They use any number of phony names such as US National Bank, Federal Investigation Bureau, US Legal Investigation Bureau, Hopkins Law Office, United Legal Processing, Morgan Associates, White Collar Crime Unit and many more. These crooks often use caller-id spoofing software and/or VoIP to disguise their real location and to make it appear that they are calling from American area codes.
(By the way, there are some reports on 800Notes that have suggested 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* Florida obtained a $1.3 million judgment against Ted Ellis Crosby, shutdown his operations and barred him from ever conducting debt collections in Florida. (Read http://myfloridalegal.com/newsrel.nsf/newsrel ... 5257424005858A6 )
The main thing to remember is that anytime someone calls you demanding money to prevent your arrest, it is ALWAYS a scam. No debt collector (let alone criminals posing as debt collectors) have the authority to have anyone arrested for anything. (And it's illegal to them to threaten such a thing.) And since these foreign dirtbags routinely impersonate law enforcement, it's also important to remember that American law enforcement officers aren't in the business of debt collection. (Debt is a civil, not a criminal, matter.)
The bottom line is, these are criminals trying to steal your money. I suggest you do all the following (most of which you can do online):
1) The U.S. Secret Service is responsible for protecting the country's financial infrastructure and payment systems from international and domestic threats. Call or write your local Secret Service field office to alert them to the details of this attempted extortion. The addresses and phone numbers for the local Secret Service field offices are listed at http://www.secretservice.gov/field_offices.shtml or in your phone book.
2) Alert the FBI at https://tips.fbi.gov Be sure to tell the FBI that you are being targeted by extortionists over the phone who are posing as federal law enforcement. Be sure to give as many details as you can.
3) File a complaint with your local police. Most police departments will take a report over the phone. Be sure to tell them that you're being targeted by an extortionist and give them all the details.
4) File a complaint your state's attorney general, the contact information for whom is at www.naag.org
5) File a complaint online with The Federal Trade Commission at https://rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/wsolcq$.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: