I am a receptionist at a small company. Yesterday someone called asking for an employee. I transferred the caller to that employee's extension. When the employee did not answer, the caller dialed "0" and came back to me. Then the caller asked for the employee's supervisor. I transferred the caller to that person's ext. Again the caller came back to me. I asked if I could take a message for the employee - the caller said to call "James Marshall" at 704 251 9518. When I called this number a man answered "investigations", so I hung up. Yesterday (11/29/10) and this morning (11/30/10) I received call after call asking for this employee. (there must have been several persons calling our phone number). When I refused to transfer them to the employee or I used a another extension (to an empty desk or fax #), they would call back and harass me and curse me out. So hanging up was not a great option., When the caller called again today, he used the name "Patrick Villa" with the same phone number. I asked what this was regarding and he said something about the employee's social security number. So pretending to take the message for the employee was better than tying up the company's phone lines.
I have gotten the same phone calls from "James Marshall". I pretended to be someone else to see what he would tell me. When he proceeded to tell me why he was calling, I told him that he should not be giving me personal information for one of our employees. I told him that all of our calls were recorded. He kinda shut up. When I asked him what law firm he was calling from, he just said " Criminal Investiagtions" and that our company was used as a reference. I also asked him where he was calling from, and he said in North Carolina, but could not give me a city, or an address. I have been getting this phones calls for months. And they are always people with a very heavy middle eastern accent. Saying that I am going to jail. That I am under investigation. I know that this is a scam. I have done alot of research on this. I wish that there was a way to have them stop calling. They call me all the time on my cell phone, and when I don't answer, they call my work. Does anyone know how to stop these phone calls????
Wow! I'm so glad I went with my gut and researched these phone calls!!! I am very, VERY distressed that they are calling my work phone though and that it may be possible for them to also harrass anyone I put down as a reference. I have already warned the two people I believe I put down as references, which I would advise others to do. At any rate - Same M.O. as the rest of you. My calls were from "Steven Johnson" who had a very heavy Indian sounding accent. I have not actually spoken to anyone yet. I just happened to be away from my desk when he called. I probably would have picked it up if I had been here as I receive phone calls from all over the country every day I wouldn't have had any reason to be suspicious. He stated the last 4 digits of my SSN and said there was some sort of legal action being filed against me, it was all very vague which was another red flag to me. I called my home phone voicemail and there were THREE messages from him on it!!!! BUT, this is where they screwed up royally - he must have hit redial by accident or something because the second message he left he referenced a completely different persons name but said all of the same exact information but said the last for digits of that persons SSN. This is what immediately alerted me something was not right. From what I've read on other message boards, this scamming is rather common, most of it stemming from looking into or applying for pay day loans. How they get this info, I don't know. It seems that asking them for specifics or telling them you will be calling the authorities or telling them the call is being recorded has worked for people in terms of getting them to stop calling but I wish I knew how to actually pursue legal action. **I am posting this same info on several sites to ensure I get the word out, just FYI.
I received a call at work from this # today, and the caller stated his name was Daniel Smith with "a legal department". Considering the call center sounds behind him and the vagueness of the reason for the call, I was pretty confident this was a scam. I played along with the caller pretending to be interested in what he was trying to communicate to me, but with his thick accent I let him know I did not understand what he was saying. "Daniel" became very angry threatening me and my co-workers and my company with "Criminal Investigation" if I did not stop laughing at him. After a while I became bored and just hung up on him.