Jennifer McKinnly stated that she was an Officer from the FBI and she was calling because she had and warrant to arrest me because I supposedly have an unpaid Payday Loan with a company by the name of Plain Green Cash.com. She would not tell when the loan was placed, she would not give the phone so that I contact these people. She told me that I needed to go to Wal-Mart and get a Green Dot card and load it for $500.00 by 6:00 this evening and if I refused to do so I would be locked up and charges would be brought against me. She also said that if I needed an extension it would be to 12:00 the next day and the cost would go up to $620.00 and that Wal-Mart is helping her in this case and they would go over the limit and put all the money on one card. She gave me a case number that does exist.
Jennifer McKinnly stated that she was an Officer from the FBI and she was calling because she had and warrant to arrest me because I supposedly have an unpaid Payday Loan with a company by the name of Plain Green Cash.com. She would not tell when the loan was placed, she would not give the phone so that I contact these people. She told me that I needed to go to Wal-Mart and get a Green Dot card and load it for $500.00 by 6:00 this evening and if I refused to do so I would be locked up and charges would be brought against me. She also said that if I needed an extension it would be to 12:00 the next day and the cost would go up to $620.00 and that Wal-Mart is helping her in this case and they would go over the limit and put all the money on one card. She gave me a case number that does exist.
This is a criminal extortion scam operating out of India. They are making the calls utilizing VOIP and the names of legitimate firms to make it appear the calls are originating from within the US. There is NO "company" or "debt" and you will NOT be arrested. They are harvesting and/or buying consumers' personal identifying information and you need to do whatever you can to protect yourself. This includes: Notifying the FTC: https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/, placing fraud alerts with all three credit bureaus, notifying your bank and employer and letting these criminals know you are aware they are attempting to extort money for a non-existent debt and have alerted the authorities.
Read this investigative report ABC News did on this scam:
Hundreds of thousands of cash-strapped Americans have been targeted by abusive debt collectors operating out of overseas call centers suspected of links to organized crime in India, law enforcement officials told ABC News.
The calls are part of a massive scam, one that appears to target struggling Americans -- especially those who have gone online to apply for payday loans. Armed with personal information from those pilfered applications, the threatening callers, who claim to be debt collectors poised to initiate legal action, have managed to pry loose millions of dollars from their victims -- even when the victims never owed money in the first place.
"This is what we call a phantom debt collection scam," said Jon Leibowitz, the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. "It's a very pernicious and innovative new fraud."
Working through call centers in India, the commission estimates that the criminals have dialed at least 2.5 million calls, persuading already cash-strapped victims to send them more than $5 million. Some have reported receiving dozens of calls per hour. They are victims like Cindy Gervais, of New Orleans, who went online for a quick loan when her husband's car was hit by a driver who didn't have insurance.
Even though she paid the loan off, the so-called "phantom" debt collectors with Indian accents began calling to say she still owed money.
"He more or less told me that if I didn't pay, they were going to have someone on my doorstep to arrest me," she told ABC News. "And that they were going to contact my place of business, and tell them what kind of person I am."
At first, she said she resisted. Then the calls became more frequent, and started to ring on her cell phone, and at the grocery distribution company where she had worked for 27 years.
"I was more or less in panic mode because he told me there would be someone before noon at my place of business to arrest me and take me to jail," she said tearfully. "So I agreed to pay him."
After receiving scores of complaints, investigators with the FTC said they began tracking the calls, and following the payments. They alleged the payments led them to a California company run by an Indian-American named Kirit Patel, and that such scams would not be possible without American front men.
"I would say that all roads of this scam, or many of the roads of this scam, lead back to Mr. Patel," said the FTC's Leibowitz.
ABC News tracked Patel for weeks, from the suburbs of San Francisco to Austin, Texas.
Patel refused to talk. But his lawyer, Mark Ellis, said he believes it is far too early to pass judgment on his client. Ellis, a Sacramento-based attorney, told ABC News that Patel was hired for a nominal fee to set up an American shell company, and had no idea what the call centers in India were doing.
"I can tell you, he was as snookered by the people in India as anybody," Ellis said. "He's a 69-year-old man who is nearing his retirement who thought all he had to do was set up some corporations and everything was on the up and up. He's completely dismayed that he has become the lightning rod of this entire problem."
A close friend of Patel's also defended him in a brief interview at his home, saying Patel was not trying to defraud anyone -- he was just an unwitting, bit player in a larger scheme.
got a phone call from a deputy Walson to call officer Regina with 3 hrs or a warrant for my arrest will be file a their investigating officers will come and pick me up if I did not get in touch with this person. They was trying to get me to pay for a claim against me that I know nothing about nor do I know the company they said I owe. all this happen from me going on a web site to get extra money which I never attain from any company. they stole my information.