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.
I have been getting harassing calls from this and other numbers from the same group for at least a year now. From what I see online they are scammers who bully people and try to collect money for things that never happened. They just called me repeatedly for 15 minutes straight because i picked up and hung up. The last call, this guy said the last 4 digits of my social security number in a message and said that he has all my banking information in his file. I don't have a bank account so that was bogus! He has a foreign accent and you can hear others talking loudly in the background.
My folks received several calls from this number within five minutes. The caller left no messages. Curiosity prevailed so they finally answered the phone. The first caller was female, had a thick accent of indeterminate origin (Ghetto-speak.) and loudly demanded to speak with someone whose name they could not pronounce. My folks hung up.
The calls came again. They let it ring through to the answering service several times. Again, no messages were left. The calls continued so they picked up the phone and were treated to the unsettling stylings of a male identifying himself as John Woods (No doubt an alias!). He used intimidating language and reeled off some nonexistent case file numbers to demand payment for something my people know nothing about. We have been through this a few times with some other repeatedly offending numbers but have usually been able to find determine their identity. This time we are unable to get a pulse on their ID unless we use a service charging money to send a report.
They behave like very incompetent scammers. If you get a handle on who they are then let us all know. Good luck.
The first time this guy called my job repeatedly on Thursday afternoon asking for me he says his name is Alex Fischer with a very heavy Indian accent he said i took out out a loan and never paid it back for 300 dollars now he want 600 dollars for interest i owed on the original he will not send documentation of the loan. HE said it was from Cash Advance America. He is harrassing me again at my job calling repeatedly is anyone else getting calls from DFF financial fraud.
A man named John Wood(s) just called my cell phone from this #(484) 233-1779 stating they were calling because a friend gave my name/number as a reference and they are trying to get in touch with my friend. They stated since my friend used me as a reference they are investigating me. REALLY!
This John Wood(s) guy also stated I needed to get in contact with my friend and have my friend contact him or I needed to contact him "John Wood(s) so I could get my number removed from the list. I don't know if my friend got a loan or what and really don't care because it has nothing to do with me. I did not get the loan if this is the case.
The first time they called my cellphone and told me that I a complaint was filed against me and I was going to be arrested (obviously a scam as I work in the legal field). I told them that is fine, have me served and arrested. They called me again and I told them not to call me again. I am on the donotcalllist. Since, then they have began calling my job. I have informed my coworkers and boss. We have received over 100 calls in the last three hours. My boss has threatened them and we already filed a police report. They refuse to say the company name and just ask to speak to me "the fraud woman." It is ridiculous.
It is always the same caller.... Troi Woods with a thick indian accent.