I got a call this morning from 240-235-4133 stating that i needed to contact private investigator Scott Cullins (not sure if that is the last name spelling, but that's how it sounded) at 240-483-4601 regarding a suit that had been filed against me in my county in Georgia. That I was being charged with theft by taking, fraud, and malicious yada yada yada...
here's a little background:
last year I started getting collection calls and letters about a credit card account I never had. it had my name but not my s.s.# or my d.o.b. So I thought someone had stolen my identity. When I contacted the first collection co. they ran the social number and it came back as my brother. I had been listed as a reference. Somehow during the whole collection process, my name got listed as the card holder, but the account had his social number and d.o.b.. huge mess! my brother paid off the account in November and I'm still dealing with bs from it all. He has all paperwork showing that the account is paid.
Now back to the deal with this P.I. Scott Cullins and his phone call to me. He said I owed a credit card co. so much amount ($7,000.00) and never paid and that they tried to settle with me for a less amount and I was stupid for not taking this opportunity. I was going to try and explain the whole situation to him but he went on trying to talk over me and me trying to talk over him...it got to be a shouting match and he yelled "see you in court" and hung up on me. so I called back and asked him to please not hang up on me and to just listen, and he said no, you listen...and we went on and on again. then he told me to shut my mouth and I had a few choice words for him and he went on to say that he was going to put a lein on my bank account and they'll see me in court and i was nothing and trash and that my life was going to change so much in the next 72 hrs. that it would make my head spin...etc. It got very ugly. My husband called and asked the man for the company's name and address that he worked for and the guy said f*** you. and said that my husband ain't sh** and neither is his wife. LOL it's all kind of funny now, but I was sooooo mad at the moment. Anyway, my husband went to our bank and had it flagged and also went to our police and filed a complaint against them. They are going to contact the man and will record any future phone calls that are made to us from either number.
I will be reporting this matter further....
Received a call from "Special Investigator Tyla James" for someone named Henry H? although I couldn't really make out the name. "This message is in regards to a civil complaint being filed against you and being formalized for your county, Persuant to case affidavit number RIB1948 where you have been named as respondent and must appear. You or your attorney can contact my office directly at 240-656-1704(?)"
I tried to call back, but got the "this number is disconnected or no longer in service" message - looked at the caller ID, found that it was the 240-235-4133 number, tried calling that - "The number you have dialed is not in service" message came up.
Wondering WTH was going on, started looking around on the interweb, found this and decided it was worth reporting here to substantiate what others were saying.
If you told an attorney about that phone message, he'd probably need a few minutes to stop laughing. It's all meaningless gobblygook meant to scare someone into giving money to the caller. The people who called you are grifters looking to swindle victims out of money.
If you read the messages in this thread and google these phone numbers, you'll see that each time, the call is the same. The crook refers to himself as "special investigator" and then proceeds to make laughably false threats of arrest or lawsuits. Obviously, that's illegal. No debt collector -- let alone a crook posing as a debt collector -- has the authority to have anyone arrested for anything, nor do they have the authority to issue warrants. In fact, it's illegal for any debt collector to make any false threats to a consumer.
My suggestion is that you ignore these calls as you would ignore a scam email from the notorious Nigerian email spammers. And if they continue to harass you, file complaints with the following:
1) Your local police
2) The FBI at http://tips.fbi.gov or call your local FBI field office
3) The Maryland Attorney General at 410-528-8662 or http://www.oag.state.md.us/Consumer/complaint.htm
4) Your state's attorney general. The contact info for each state's AG is at www.naag.org
5) The Federal Trade Commission at https://rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01
And check out these websites for more information on protecting yourself against outlaw debt collectors:
Consumer Credit Advocate Bud Hibbs - http://www.budhibbs.com/First.htm
National Association of Consumer Advocates - http://www.naca.net/debt-collection-abuse/
Fair Debt Collection - http://fair-debt-collection.com/
Warren & Vullings, LLP - http://www.fairdebtlawyers.com/
My Fair Debt - http://www.myfairdebt.com/
Consumer Counsel Group - http://www.consumercounselgroup.com
Just got a call from 240-235-4133 "Special Investigator" so and so....
Asking for my husband..Told him "whatever" and hung up.. Well.. he called back.. I answered again. and told him straight up.. Don't call again. I know your a scam as I checked this number out on the internet.. Do you know, that this fool called back 4 times after I said that. That is what you call stupid!! and when he calls back again. I'll say the same thing. then I'll tell him that my husband works in law enforcement. maybe then he'll get the hint.. that he is the fool not my husband....