An interesting note is that the U.S. collection agency, with whom I SETTLED in 2005 by paying some ridiculous amount, never sent me a letter showing this. I had put a stop payment against Dishnet and it was the same amount as my payday loan and it crossed and voila the payday company wanted nothing to do with me. That I can understand and I settled w/collection agency. Cost me about $800 to borrow $200. Interestingly enough when I call original collection agency, person answering phone says "account is closed" but her manager handles the account. So I leave messages but no one returns call. These crooks will SELL these debts I think, and even though they act as if you are settling them (Western Union, etc.) they don't close it. Mind you I settled for like $380 on a $200 loan. I pay off my debts.
So THEY ARE CROOKS. It makes me cringe the whole thing.
Left message. Spoke with Indian accent and said he was with United Legal Processing. Said it involves serious allegations against my Social Security number. Said "Social Security" like he'd never heard the term before and was reading it off a card. Said it was very, very serious. Please call him back. Then said, have a nice day.
Theses people are unreal, just called and left a message that if I didnt call them back by Monday at noon, "Only God can save me" this is ridiculous, they are calling my phone at least 10 times a day and leaving the same messages, are they telling anyone else their name, and of course they havent heard the term "Social Security" before they are probably illegals trying to scam the American people out of money.....
It's a scam. There's no such thing as a Federal Investigation Bureau or United Legal Processing.
This is a very active group of overseas scammers who attempt to extort money from Americans with a myriad of false and illegal threats. They alternately pose as debt collectors, federal and state law enforcement officers, lawyers and bankers. They use any number of phony names such as US National Bank, Federal Investigation Bureau, US Legal Investigation Bureau, Hopkins Law Office, United Legal Processing, Morgan Associates, White Collar Crime Unit and many more. These crooks often use caller-id spoofing software and/or VoIP to disguise their real location and to make it appear that they are calling from American area codes.
(By the way, there are some reports on 800Notes that have suggested that the crooks behind this offshore scam are also the crooks behind the notorious Bass/Ellis Crosby & Assoc./States Predisposition scams in Florida and Georgia. The interesting thing is that the number of complaints on here about the US National Bank/US Legal Investigation/Federal Investigation scam skyrocketed *after* Florida obtained a $1.3 million judgment against Ted Ellis Crosby, shutdown his operations and barred him from ever conducting debt collections in Florida. (Read http://myfloridalegal.com/newsrel.nsf/newsrel ... 5257424005858A6 )
The main thing to remember is that anytime someone calls you demanding money to prevent your arrest, it is ALWAYS a scam. No debt collector (let alone criminals posing as debt collectors) have the authority to have anyone arrested for anything. (And it's illegal to them to threaten such a thing.) And since these foreign dirtbags routinely impersonate law enforcement, it's also important to remember that American law enforcement officers aren't in the business of debt collection. (Debt is a civil, not a criminal, matter.)
The bottom line is, these are criminals trying to steal your money. I suggest you do all the following (most of which you can do online):
1) The U.S. Secret Service is responsible for protecting the country's financial infrastructure and payment systems from international and domestic threats. Call or write your local Secret Service field office to alert them to the details of this attempted extortion. The addresses and phone numbers for the local Secret Service field offices are listed at http://www.secretservice.gov/field_offices.shtml or in your phone book.
2) Alert the FBI at https://tips.fbi.gov Be sure to tell the FBI that you are being targeted by extortionists over the phone who are posing as federal law enforcement. Be sure to give as many details as you can.
3) File a complaint with your local police. Most police departments will take a report over the phone. Be sure to tell them that you're being targeted by an extortionist and give them all the details.
4) File a complaint your state's attorney general, the contact information for whom is at www.naag.org
5) File a complaint online with The Federal Trade Commission at https://rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01
If these crooks call back, promise them nothing, pay them nothing and tell them nothing other than that you know they're a scam and that you've reported them to law enforcement. (And be sure to report them to all the agencies above each time they call you.)
By the way, here's just a small sample of numbers used by this particular group of scammers. Read the reports and you'll see the same pattern time and again -- phony organization names, thick foreign accents, and oddly worded threats that are so melodramatic and ridiculous that it's laughable:
Sean Miller left messages at my work and at home saying it was very urgent matter and he was trying to help hoping he could speak to me personally. "He really wants to help" but this is a legal matter and I must call him back. He stated this was very urgent and needed my attention. I have received previous calls from this same group. Every few months they call from different numbers, then they move on. Very annoying, hopefully someone will be able to put an end to their harrassing behavior.