Harassment
Complaint
Debra M. Persiano
Country: United States
I got a call today at home from a man stating he was a process server for Collin County DA's Office and he is with the Sheriff's office and needed to come serve a warrant on me. I was shocked and asked why? He stated do you live ....are you still at this address are you now at this address and I stated who are you? He again, stated he was from the county going to serve court papers on me today. He gave me a toll free number for what he stated was the county's office which is 1 866.872.6116 gave me a case no. which he called a Cause No. 008307-TX. I called the number was transferred to a Mr. Fisher's office who stated that law suite in the amount of $6,214.24 was filed in Collin Co., Tx and that warrant was out for me. He then after back and forth said let me get more information from my secretary and state this was for an outstanding debt in from Capital One a credit card that I obtained several years back and had disputes over interest charges etc. He stated that if I did not want to go to court or jail that I could pay $1,951.00 in full by end of business today and this matter could be cleared up. I explained that I recently lost my job etc. Anyway, he stated that I needed to call him back by EOB today or they will serve the papers. Ok, so that was a heads up for me. I called the DA's office nothing is filed on me as of today, after searching PMG it is clear that they do not practice best practices for collections and have been in trouble for this before back in 2004. I need someone to give me advise. I want to pay off my debt, I don't want this type of collections to continue this upset me, made my blood pressure raise, this type of collections are not the right thing to do. Had they called and ask to make arrangements or give me an opportunity to clear the matter, rather then threaten me by taken legal action, or harassment stating they are sending a sheriff over today. This is wrong, bad business, and should not continue this company is bad news.
Comments
"debt was $111 and he collected $1,700"
There was never any debt owed to them.
Even if they gave the name of some creditor, it doesn't mean they have any right to collect on that debt. In this case, they stole $1700, plain and simple, by conning your relative into disclosing bank account information, probably through use of threats against her or against her family member.
They are often reported to call relatives, sometimes even first, as part of panicking the whole family. It is probably an effective tactic if they intend to extort several thousand dollars, since a lot of people don't have that, but might be able to scrape it together from family members.
They extorted the payment, and at $1700 that is a felony. They did it from a terminally ill person, in poor health and with impared mental capacity. There are enhanced criminal penalties for that in many states, including California.
Immediately contact your relative's bank to dispute the fraudulent charges. Assist your relative in filing a fraud dispute and notarized fraud affidavit with her bank.
In addition, contact your local police and District Attorney to report the theft and fraud. They should contact the Riverside County District Attorney in Riverside, California.
http://www.rivcoda.org/bureau/locations.html
You should also contact FTC to file a report with them, since they maintain a database accessible to law enforcement across the country. Do so initially by phone, with written follow up.
They appear to be using various other names as well, and there appears to be a cluster of cooperating "businesses" running the same scam, all operating out of Corona, CA.
pacific management
Pacific Management Recovery
"Brook Dawson"
"Gaven Dupree"
866-767-8814
866-668-0012
https://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-866-767-8814
"Mike Davis"
"mike davis called me said he was from austin tx"
Union Management
949-698-9713
https://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/8667678814
"PISSED
1 Jul 2010I got a call too, and ignored it and a processor (i think) came to my work from the sherrifs dep and served me with a summons, and I just got suspended from my job........... I am pissed off, WHO THE HELL ARE THESE SCUM BAGS???????????????? If they wld have gave me more info, I wld have called, but now I have a court date. I feel like they tricked me OUT of calling to avoid the summons. GREATCaller: 8667678814
Call Type: Debt Collector"
Your best chance of recovering stolen funds is a prompt fraud dispute through your relative's bank. Disputed charges can be reversed by your bank but only if you dispute promptly, so do so immediately. You must also close the account due to fraud, or you will be at risk of additional fraudulent charges as long as the account number is valid.
You also want to put your dispute IN WRITING, to document the date of dispute with your bank, and the reasons for the dispute (threats and fraud). You are disputing under FRB Reg. E (for checking accounts), or FCBA (for credit cards). Both require that disputes be sent within 60 days of the statement date of the statement showing the disputed charges.
If you have any problems getting your bank to accept the dispute, send it certified return receipt requested to the dispute address from the bank statement, so you can document timely disputing. You can file bank complaints with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, at www.occ.gov, should you have any problems getting your bank to reverse fraudulent charges.
http://los-angeles.bbb.org/Business-Report/PMG-100090372
Yet if you review complaints against this company, they appear to entirely ignore the law, or even violate it at every opportunity.
They routinely contact a relative first, disclosing that supposedly they are suing, using the excuse that the caller is a "process server".
They are reported to harass, threaten, abuse, shout, etc.
You are reporting they threatened to "get you fired", which is clearly an illegal threat.
You can find complaints that they have claimed to be sheriff's deputies, or DA employees, or weirdly, "with the county assessors office [sic]".
They basically take every prohibition in the law, and break it.
Complaints posted on some of the phone number complaint sites, such as 800notes, fit two categories:
1) Complaints similar to yours, reporting threats, abuse, and harassment, alleged debts consumers have no knowledge of, use of credit report information to try to convince people the debt is real, harassment of relatives or employers, claims to have filed a lawsuit with nothing showing at the county courthouse, various impersonations, etc.
2) Postings claiming to be from debtors that appear to be intended to convince people looking them up that they better settle and pay them the several thousand dollars they claim is owed, or it might cost them lots more in court costs, attorney fees, etc. In some cases, these apparent "shill" postings appear as the first posts against some new number they appear to have just started to use.
The above pattern of shill postings also shows up in a number of other cases of "debt collectors" reported to be using similar tactics to coerce payments on suspect "debts", from various parts of the country, including a debt collector in Illinois, and several in the Buffalo NY area, which is well known for thug phony debt collection. It appears to be a tactic used by scam debt collectors to counter reporting of suspicious collection calls by consumers.
Strange thing is that not only are these complaints showing up under the names "PMG" or "HGG", but several other companies, all apparently based in Corona, CA. Some of these may be aliases, but there appear to be several distinct companies, with separate business licenses, running this same con, all operating out of the city of Corona. Although PMG/HGG appears to be under a year old, Bud Hibbs' site traces connections with one of the older Corona companies and others in Southern California with a long history of similar tactics.
Deception is marked by what is there that shouldn't be, or what isn't that should. This shows lots of both, practically turning the law and normal debt collection practice on its head.
It appears that the focus of their tactics is to panic people, through the initial calls to relatives, "lawsuit" threats, etc, so that they "settle" and pay several thousand dollars without checking out the legitimacy of the alleged debt and their right to collect it. Even though it is clearly illegal, contacting relatives, with the "process server" cover story, may make it easier to extort the several thousand dollars they are trying for, as many people could only scrape that up quickly with help from relatives.
There are also a number of reports that they were found to have pulled credit reports a day or so before they first called, and used old account information in their abusive calls. Since many consumers are reporting they don't owe the alleged debt, when combined with the overall pattern of deception, this suggests they may be using information from consumers' own credit reports to try to fake a phony debt claim.
The real thing to watch out about is whether you even owe them anything at all, as they appear to be going to a lot of trouble (threats, abuse, third party disclosure, and other violations of law) to convince people to pay "debts" they never heard of. They may be pulling credit reports and collecting fake "debts" using old account information they find there.
I moved from Southern California to Texas in November. If the do start calling me, I read that I can call the FBI on them? I really dont want to have to do any of this, but the last thing I need is something like this on my credit report.
Help!!!!
You know what their game is, and you know where they are. These are clearly NOT rocket scientists. They are counting on creating panic, to get a chance at conning money out of people, usually several thousand dollars. Basically they are like "hit and run" muggers, except by phone.
You know from other complaints that they are frequently reported to pull credit reports just before starting their harassment. You also know that it appears they are faking their "debts" or their right to collect on them, probably using the information they just got from pulling your credit report.
Pulling a credit report without permissible purpose is a violation of FCRA, subject to prosecution, or you could file a private lawsuit. Faking a phony debt is NOT "permissible purpose". The credit reporting agencies are required to keep records of all credit pulls, so the evidence will just sit there for the next two years, which is the SOL for lawsuits under FCRA.
Disclosing a debt to third parties, making fake threats of lawsuits with no intention or ability to carry them out, abusive or harassing collection, etc, are all violations of FDCPA. You can file suit under FDCPA, in Texas, in either Texas federal or state court, even against an out of state "debt collector".
Both FCRA and FDCPA allow the consumer to recover both damages, AND their attorney fees, so you can find attorneys who take such cases on contingency. You might try www.naca.net for attorneys with experience in FDCPA and FCRA litigation in Texas.
Since you know what they are up to, you know what to expect. You know they are likely to illegally contact and threaten your relatives or harass your employer, and you know they have many complaints of such threats over bogus "debts". You can then respond accordingly to obtain documentation through affidavits from those others they contact, and you can record them if they call you.
You might then contact the Texas Attorney General, since this appears to involve not only an out of state debt collector (who may not be licensed and bonded to collect in Texas), as well as one involved in violations of both federal and Texas debt collection law, and engaged in fraud.
Using illegally obtained account or other identity information, through illegal credit pulls, for the purpose of using it in a scheme to defraud, may also be aggravated identity theft. If the amounts involved are above certain thresholds defined by law, this may be prosecutable as a felony. This might be prosecutable by either the Texas AG, or your local U.S. Attorney.
They are getting rather cocky to word it that way.
Why don't you contact the Riverside County District Attorney?
http://www.rivcoda.org/bureau/locations.html
That would be consistent with obtaining your old account information from one of your own credit reports.
Others have reported they attempted to demand payment on old paid accounts, and also that a credit inquiry was found on their credit reports shortly before the calls started.
A number of fraudulent "debt collectors" have been using access to credit reporting agencies to collect on fake "debts".
Some of these are overseas phony "debt collectors", often based in India or Pakistan and reported to have thick accents, but others are U.S. based.
Some of the most notorious have been in the Buffalo NY area, where the New York Attorney General has arrested and prosecuted a number of them for larceny, but there are also similar "debt collection" scams being run from other states.
They typically have profiles with several common characteristics:
1) A long trail of consumer complaints indicating attempts to collect on never owed, unowed, or already paid debts.
2) Complaints generally indicate abusive, harassing, threatening or deceptive collection.
3) Complaints often include reports of attempts to impersonate local "Sheriff deputies", DA, court, or other county employees, "detectives", "investigators", or "attorneys". Complaints often report threats of impending "lawsuits", "arrest", or "prosecution" for "theft" or "fraud".
4) Complaints often indicate callers pretend to be "process servers", implying that a lawsuit has already been filed, but instead of serving papers, they direct the consumer to call the "debt collector" to work out some payment arrangement. Often caller id indicates the "process server" is calling from the same number as the "debt collector", even when they are supposedly calling from the same county as the alleged debtor.
5) Alternatively, they may claim to be "detectives" or other law enforcement, supposedly about to "arrest" the consumer, but again directing the consumer to call a number that turns out to be the "debt collector".
6) Apparent attempts to use information obtained from credit reports in an attempt to convince consumers that an alleged "debt" is legitimate.
7) Inquiries on credit reports indicating they have accessed consumers' credit reports.
8) Complaints frequently include reports of illegal disclosure to employers or relatives. Frequently the first contact is a call to a relative rather than the consumer, although they have no problem in locating and calling the consumer shortly after. The goal appears to be to embarrass the alleged debtor, or to panic the consumer and relatives, either to evade attempts at requesting validation, or to extort the whole family into raising the several thousand dollars demanded.
9) Phony "shill" posts on consumer complaint sites attempting to create the perception that they always win alleged "lawsuits". The "shill" posts contain a pattern of characteristics that are easily recognized as different from normal consumer complaints, often occur early or even as the first posts against phone numbers, and often include a "morality play" of banter between "happy paying customers", "dejected garnished deadbeats", and authoritative "attorneys" or stern moralizing "debt collectors", often using similar writing styles.
As for what might happen to you if you attempt to collect phony "debts", you might learn from this recent FTC settlement with Allied Interstate, for collecting debts from people who did not owe them, and for failing to verify they had the right person.
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/10/alliedinterstate.shtm
"...
For Release: 10/21/2010
Debt Collector Will Pay $1.75 Million to Settle FTC Charges
Ignored Consumers’ Disputes Without Checking Its Information for Accuracy
...
“Debt collectors had better make sure their information is accurate, or they could end up paying a big penalty,” said David Vladeck, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “There is no excuse for trying to collect debt from someone if you can’t confirm that they actually owe it.”
..."