hey,
this davis brown is leaving me messages like you all are recieving. says he is from the harrison law firm. well he is no more david brown than i am lucille ball based on his in indian accent! I googled the harrison law firm and there is one in lousiana, so i gave them a call. Had a lovely conversation with one of the partners who is not too pleased that his law firms name is being used in this manner. He said he had a call last week asking about someone from the firm suing him and he had not heard of this person. I gave him the number old dave brown gave me to call back. I am sure a call from a real lawyer from the REAL Harrison law firm might cause David some distress. hopefully as much as you all have recieved from him. I am just ignoring the idiots. Let attorney Harrison deal with him.lol
hey,
this davis brown is leaving me messages like you all are recieving. says he is from the harrison law firm. well he is no more david brown than i am lucille ball based on his in indian accent! I googled the harrison law firm and there is one in lousiana, so i gave them a call. Had a lovely conversation with one of the partners who is not too pleased that his law firms name is being used in this manner. He said he had a call last week asking about someone from the firm suing him and he had not heard of this person. I gave him the number old dave brown gave me to call back. I am sure a call from a real lawyer from the REAL Harrison law firm might cause David some distress. hopefully as much as you all have recieved from him. I am just ignoring the idiots. Let attorney Harrison deal with him.lol
This is yet another number in a looooong list of scammer numbers that has been calling me off and on for over a year now! They always use "American" sounding names, but have heavy Indian or Pakistani accents. They claim I've borrowed $500 from Cash Advance USA. I've spoken to Cash Advance USA, they informed me it was a scam and she gave me the link to the FTC website. I've reported these numbers until I am blue in the face. They used to give the name of Crall, Ball and Smith, which is a large lawfirm in CA, but they always call from unlisted phone numbers. I work in the Judicial System and know of no law firms that would have unlisted numbers! One of the numbers from Florida, when ran through Google, gave me an address that showed a run down house in a Florida neighborhood. Not exactly uptown legal offices! They usually threaten me that they will have me arrested and hauled into court. I always save the number, google it and when they call me back (usually within an hour or two) I inform them that this call is being recorded, I will be turning over the recording to the _______Atty Generals Office (insert the state they call from). That if they do indeed have a legal case to file their petition in small claims court and I will be happy to answer said petition within the legal 30 days. They never know what a petition is. Once I told them I really wanted to pay back my debt and I would be happy to send them a cashiers check as I don't have credit cards or a bank account, I simply needed their mailing address. It took them 5 people and 20 min to give me a PO Box number. I asked each on the phone, how they found their job if they didn't know where the office was? How did you even apply there? None could answer. Once when I called I asked for the particular name left on my voice mail and was informed he was out on a pool break. I've been threatened with physical violence, I've been cursed, screamed at and called everything under the sun. Do NOT buckle! Do not give them any information! Report them to the Atty General in their state! Report them to the FTC!
I swear I just got a call from these people like 2weeks ago, and my dumb gave them my infor , the said I was going to jail and think cash going to suie me for $6000 if I doesn't pay them within a month ,so I got scared and agree to paid them and lol wow somthing tell me to google the number and nw im founding out this.......and the funny thing is I told to took the money out this friday, and guess what they already try my acct like 4time for 200,350,450, so I just call my bank and make them cancel my acct....but I had wrote a letter to them with me SS# plz tell me what to do should I go to the police or just leave it alone...please help...
Definitely go to your local law enforcement and put a fraud alert on all three credit bureaus.
For at least the last four years, possibly longer, a group has been calling former payday loan applicants advising them that they have defrauded a bank and are now being sued for non-payment of a loan. The callers will claim to be calling on behalf of an attorney's office (name varies), the Dept. of Law and Investigation, ACS, or other similar combinations below:
United Legal Processing Division
Midline Marketing
Crime Monitoring Services
Monetary Crime Division
U.S. National Bank
Attorney General’s Office (usually in California)
American Legal Services
Affidavit Consolidation Services (ACS)
You will be threatened with arrest, a costly trial and possibly worse. In no shape, way or form can you be arrested for non-payment on a consumer debt. Do not believe these threats, as they are without merit and cannot be carried out in the manner they allege.
Who are they?
In the past when pressed by law enforcement for an address, the callers have provided the following information:
David Morgan and Associates
Morgan & Associates
Morgan Associates
954-727-8481
1155 Northwest 85th Street
Wintergarden, Florida 33150
(Address is likely invalid)
The collector's MO matches a once legit collections agency called Ellis Crosby & Associates. Here are some links on them:
They have been previously fined over $1.3 million for various violations. They have been known to use phone banks in India to make their calls, which more or less coincides with the difficult to understand accent many of us detect when we are contacted.
The last time this group went by any "official" name was back in 2008:
Ellis Crosby & Associates / Douglas & Morgan Associates
4494 Southside Boulevard Suite #200
Jacksonville Florida 32216
Phone: 800-928-3536 / (904) 928-3536
(Address is likely invalid)
There are NUMEROUS consumer alerts out against this group of individuals:
West Virginia:
http://www.wvago.gov/internetloanscam.cfm
Missouri:
On July 15th, 2010 a Public Awareness Bulletin was sent out by Missouri Information Analysis Center.
"..received reports from individuals in Ohio and Illinois reference suspicious telephone calls they received. In both instances, the callers are reporting that a voicemail is received from a man, with a Middle Eastern accent, identifying himself as an officer working with the Financial Crimes Unit. The message indicates that the reason for the call concerns a loan made by the receiver or someone in the receiver's family. The voicemail requests that a return call be made and a telephone number is provided. When a return call is made, the caller is asked to provide personal identifying information such as their date of birth and social security number.
Reports indicate that the calls are frequent and persistent and that they even threaten arrest or legal action if information or money is not provided. It appears that the individuals making these calls may have access to some records connecting individuals and their relatives. Missouri does not have a Financial Crimes Unit and all indications are that this is a fictitious agency. If you receive a similar phone call, please be advised that it is a scam and please contact your local law enforcement agency or the Missouri Information Analysis Center at 866-362-6422."
Bottom line:
Do not supply the callers with any additional information. Inform them you have reported them to law enforcement and hang up. If you haven't already, go ahead and report the calls to local law enforcement, your state's Attorney General and beyond. Look up the local Secret Service branch's information in your area and get in contact with an agent there.
If you ever applied for a cash advance online, your information is out there.
Possible sources for the breach of your privacy are:
* The scammers obtained your information from Teletrack - a reporting agency used by many cash advance lenders to determine their risk lending to you. The service is able to tell cash advance lenders if you have existing loans with other companies, for example. Many state laws prohibit borrowers from having more than two cash advances out at the same time.
* The scammers created their own fake payday loan application site. People looking for a cash advance went to the site and applied, thus freely providing the scammers with their information for malicious use at a later time.
* The scammers were able to get into the database(s) of cash advance lenders - probable targets being Sonic Payday and Cashnet USA.
How to protect yourself:
* Inform your employer. You are likely getting calls at home and/or at work, so make sure your employer is aware the calls are part of a scam and to not take them seriously. Advise the callers that they are no longer allowed to call you at work. If they continue to call, document the date and time of the calls you received. Save voice mails left if at all possible.
* Change your number(s). For some this may not be an option, for others a one-time number change can be done free of charge.
Be advised - any references you listed on your payday loan application will be contacted. Let those people know that this is a scam, and they can disregard.
* Use Google Voice. Google Voice is a great replacement voice mail system for just about any phone number you use. Messages can be transcribed and voice mail recordings can be saved as mp3 files.
Pro Tip - call the scammers with a Google Voice number before turning off your old phone numbers. Make sure when you call you identify yourself so they can start up their script. At any point after they have your information pulled up just hang up. They will then start religiously calling your Google Voice number. At this point, you are free to change your regular phone number(s) and enjoy not having these people ever call you again. (And laugh at the fact these people are basically talking to a brick wall several times a day)
The scammers change their numbers frequently. Law enforcement used to think it was because the callers ran out of minutes on their prepaid wireless accounts or they were shuttered due to fraud, but now they understand it's simply to evade detection by savvy consumers online. With the proliferation of VoIP, it's even easier for the crooks to stay a couple of steps ahead of law enforcement. Below is just a sampling of the 30+ numbers that have been used in recent memory.
It's not a simple yes or no answer. Logic dictates that, if they really wanted to take you for a ride and drain your bank accounts, they already would have.
So, why haven't they?
Authorization.
Why do you think you are being called so much? Perhaps it is because they like the sound of your voice? No, they have to have your authorization to take any form of payment from you, period. The callers know their audience, and that audience is typically a bunch of people that have applied for payday loans in the past. Most of those people they call couldn't afford an attorney if they wanted one, and are so used to receiving collections calls that so long as they sound like a real collector, they will likely be perceived as one.
Furthermore, they don't even really want to talk to your attorney - that just sounds official and scary enough. A real attorney would take the callers to task and write them off as two-bit con artists. The callers need you, in writing, to authorize payment against the fictitious debt they claim you owe. Go ahead, ask them for proof you owe the debt - more commonly known as verification of debt. See what they say. A phone authorization carries very little weight, so if they have something signed by you on file, you are done for - and the callers know that. That authorization is the only thing these callers are doing by the book, and for good reason. If they just went all willy nilly and made an ACH debit from your checking account, without your written approval, you could in turn report the transaction as fraudulent to your financial institution. In about 7-10 business days, you would get the funds returned to your account. Then the scammers would be up against a bank and their team of lawyers and investigators.
Bottom line:
If you haven't paid the callers a dime, don't. If you planned on paying them to shut them up, just don't. Remember - you are not being contacted by a legally licensed, ethically owned and operated collector. Read up on the FDCPA - http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre27.pdf - and know your rights.