Harrassing phone calls
Complaint
Michiko Roberts
Country: United States
Received phone calls minutes apart at my work number over a debt. I told them I did not have the money to take care of this and had spoken to someone earlier this day and months ago about this. I had told the company before I realized it was a Indian scam company that I would have to pay when I got my tax return and the guy said so you are refusing to pay the bill. I replied no I am willing to pay but not until I get the money. I had to hang up because I was yelled at.
Comments
You don't owe them ANYTHING.
Even if they appeared to have information on some debt you recognize, you wouldn't owe it to them. There are reports indicating that they are obtaining U.S. consumer information from credit reports, skip-trace services, and phony on-line "payday loan" sites, which would allow them to fake claims that you "owe" them some "debt", using information from your own credit report.
File a fraud complaint with the FBI, although since they're in India, it's not likely anything will happen to them.
If they call back, just tell them you have reported their scam to the FBI, and you are recording their call for use as evidence. Once they realize you can't be conned, they will move on to some other sucker.
I finally answered the phone today after months of letting their calls go to voicemail. I spoke with one person, whose name I'm not even sure of because his accent was so thick (but i believe he claimed his name was Adam Sweet or Street). He started giving me his usual speech about 3 cases being filed against me. He then started giving me names of my supposed "parents" (one name was not the name of my mother, but of one of my best friends, though he got my dad's name correct and has been calling him as well) and stating that they would be called too if necessary to settle the matter. I didn't confirm any of the information but I asked him what it was about and he told me to hold while he got his supervisor. The "supervisor" had a much clearer accent and told me his name was James Carter, gave me some random employee number (1182) and repeated the company name APS. I asked again what it was about and he started rambling about information he had on me and then asked me to verify the last 4 digits of my social security number, which I declined to do. I cut him off and asked him again what this was about. He claimed that I owed money on a payday loan and that he was calling me to collect the debt. I told him that I didn't owe any money because I never took out any payday loan. He then got defensive and started telling me that legal action would be taken against me if I didn't pay and then began using the information he had about my "parents" to apparently try to scare me into giving up information. I informed him that I didn't know these people, which seemed to anger him further. He then stated that if I didn't cooperate, I would be arrested. He further claimed that someone would be at my address to arrest me tomorrow, that I would be spending Christmas in jail, and that he could not help me. Then he hung up.
I have already filed a police report about these calls with the local and state police and have registered a complaint with the FTC, as well as filed a fraud alert with all 3 credit bureaus.
I suggest that anyone else who receives these calls do the same. Also, hopefully if you tell them that you have their information and have reported them to the FBI and Homeland Security, they will stop calling.
I also suggest that, if they have correct names and numbers of relatives/friends, you call them and let them know about the scam and tell them not to call them back or if they answer the phone to not verify any information. Tell them to let these people know they have been reported to the FBI and Homeland Security and then hang up.
What boggles my mind is that there have apparently been numerous complaints filed all over the US and yet this is still occurring. Why hasn't the government been able to do anything about this blatant harassment? I would hate for anyone to fall victim to these criminals, especially around the holidays.
They are just tools used for intimidation in these extortion rackets, which are all built on threats and intimidation, since they really can't do anything else.
They might be used in lame attempts to submit fraudulent charges, but you would dispute such charges through your bank anyway.
You might try changing your number, with your new number unlisted, and with no forwarding information from your old number.