Sharon Jackson also called my home, but now she's using 404-991-6864. She told me she didn't have to do me the favor of letting me know there was a warrant for my arrest, but that they had already picked up 24 others that day and I would be the 25th. She said I had "someone" deposit money in my Chase account with no intent on ever paying the money back. She wasn't very persistent, but she didn't get anywhere and finally said she would fill out an affidavit stating I was not the person they were looking for.
I got a call from a "Sharon Jackson, Investigator" on Friday. I called back this morning (after I checked the company out) and she was so abrassive that I still am shaking. Mine was a check to one of those payday advances places in 2008. She said I had a court date on Friday at 12:45 pm. Then today she said she would release the paperwork to the county attorney for prosecution. I am disabled and my husband is elderly and frail. My blood sugar shot through the roof and my bp is off the charts.
I do background checks for a living so she or this company WILL NOT
get by with this.
Debt collectors could be breaking the law
Threatening criminal charges to collect loans considered illegal
By Jennifer Horbelt
MARSHALL COUNTY, KY- Local authorities say an out of state collection agency is taking things too far.
Local 6 first got a phone call from a woman claiming her husband had been threatened with an arrest if he didn't pay off a debt he owes to a company called Cash Connections. We did some investigating and found out the agency, Smith, Dean and Associates in Florida, not only has the attention of people in debt, but also law enforcement who say their threats are illegal.
"He told me your butt better pay up." That quote is straight from a man calling himself an 'investigator' with Smith, Dean and Associates, a collection agency in Florida. The conversation was recorded by a man who owes money to a local loan agency in Marshall County.
More importantly, Byars says those threats are outside of what collection agencies can legally say to collect a debt.
The recorded conversation in question indirectly began at a Cash Advance in Benton, Kentucky. The company who runs the business, Cash Connection, is now using Florida based Smith, Dean and Associates as a collection agency. Sheriff Byars says it's a legitimate company that calls people who owe Cash Advance money, but the recorded conversation is something Sheriff Byars says is far from legitimate.
"I'm the one who signs papers to give them to the state of Kentucky, to have the state of Kentucky pick up charges against people," the collector says in the recording. "At that point, the state of Kentucky issues warrants."
The problem is that issues like debt collection are civil, not criminal.
"You can't be criminally prosecuted," Sheriff Byars said.
Sheriff Byars goes on to say the threats that the agency is making can result in charges. Criminal coercion is a misdemeanor in Kentucky, and so far five people in the past two weeks have contacted Sheriff Byars and County Attorney Jeff Edwards claiming they've been threatened with arrest and criminal charges.
Edwards called the collection agency. He says he was met with "adversity".
Edwards said of the conversation with Smith, Dean and Associates, "When I told him I did understand the law after having dealt with it over 20 years, he cursed at me and hung up on me."
Local 6 tried the same approach. When we called Smith, Dean and Associates, we got a different reaction.
The man we talked to said, "We do not operate like that. We don't believe in doing business like that.
"They (people in debt to Cash Connection) just don't have the money, so of course they're going to kick and scream and look for ways out and cause a raucous to try and get out of it."
Edwards noted that action against the collection agency has already been taken in Illinois. Smith, Dean, and Associates is currently barred from collecting in that state. For every phone call they make to people in debt, a $50,000 fine follows. Based on the recent actions of the past two weeks, a case is now being built against the company in Kentucky as well.
"Using this company that is using these strong arm tactics, that's just not a practice that I want to see here in Marshall County, or in the state of Kentucky," Sheriff Byars says.
Sheriff Byars and County Attorney Edwards believe these threats extend beyond Marshall County. They're planning on contacting the Kentucky Attorney General's Office to possibly have Smith, Dean, and Associates barred from collecting in Kentucky, as they are in Illinois.
They say if you've been threatened with arrest or criminal charges by this group, you need to call your local sheriff's department.
"That's not something that we need here," Marshall County Sheriff Kevin Byars said of the threat.
Got the same exact deal check cashing payday advance have you been arrested yet? I am so behind on all my appointments today cause she scared the heck out of me so now that I am regrouped and have stopped the panic attack from setting in I have to go to my kids school and discuss fun stuff with a counselor and I am like an hour past the time I said I could come in GREAT lol thanx for info it saved me a lot of grief
The caller, Shannon Black, called my cousin and said she needed me to call her within 15 mins or she was going to be in court against me on felony check charges. The only way to stop that was to call her by 230. She said that if I called her before that I could take care of this and it wouldn't be filed. When I tried to call the number back, I was told the number she left, 904-721-3708 x204, was not valid. I was freaking out trying to figure out what this might be until I decided to look it up online. Thank goodness for this site!