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
I said, "well you basically googled me, through the CRA!" He said..."What's the CRA?" I was like DUH... and I told him that I see that his name is there on my credit report as a soft hit (not really...but just wanted to get his goat cuz he has mine!) and I kid you not... he said... And I quote (in a childs voice) "Nu-uh...LIAR....Nu-uh. Youre a liar. I don't have time for this!" and he hung up on me. LMAO
Anyways... It was for a Continental Mastercard. Whcih I don't recall ever having. And he gave me an amount of like 900 or 1000 he told me. Said the interest rate was like 6% at the time. Well... during this 'supposed' time that I had this card (still hav eto check report) it was 2 years after a bankruptcy. WHAT FREAKIN CC COmPANY is going to give a newly bankrupted person a credit line of 1000. Not to mention an interest THAT LOW!!
But still...I'm having a hard time find REAL information out on TAS.
So, now I will wait to see if I have papers coming my way. He said they can garnish my wages, attach liens to my cars, etc.
I'm in Texas...I don't think Texas Law allows that. But anyhow.... We will see if it's legit or not if someone shows up to serve me.
TAS - Collector
John Mason
888-280-7216
If anyone has any info it would be greatly appreicated.
Thanks!
"...
They have a new number 888-280-7216 as of 11/8/10.
Caller: HGG
Call Type: Debt Collector
..."
Reported to be TAS:
https://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-888-280-7216
And now the morality play begins.
Shill post as initial post, detailed shill post later, usual pattern:
"...
stacey figgs
8 Nov 2010
I'm tired of this country and company's like this where all they want is your money.My husband and I received a letter from this company almost 2 months ago stating that they were going to be sueing us and go after our our assets in reference to a old credit card bill. We responded to the letter and spoke to a jack weinstein i believe, who refused to work out any payments with us and finely we got frustrated and ended the call.Well sure enough after over a month went by, last Friday they showed up at my husbands place of business and served him papers and now they are trying to sue us for a ridiculous amount and go after our income.Has anyone dealt with this company before and knows the best way to approach this now if there's anything at all left to do instead of being sued!!??
Caller: TAS
...
john trueblood
12 Nov 2010
i received a 1033 letter from this company stating the intent to wage garnish my pay check for judgment,i immediately called them and advised them that i just started a new job and i couldn't afford them to levy my paycheck i then filled out a hardship application and was approved for a out of court settlement for almost half of what they sued me for unfortunately i had to pay it in one lump sum but i was able to get help from family.the first guy i spoke to was kind of rude but then i asked for a supervisor who was able to help me get through this.thank you mr brown.
Caller: filing agent/collection
..."
https://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/8882807216
So TAS is HGG, which is PMG. M.O. already matched; only the names were different.
"Violated
18 Sep 2010
This company call my house and told my daughter that they was going to issue a warrant for my arrest and i better call them back within 24 hrs then when i called the man on the phone said he worked for the Sheriff Dept and that they would be comming to my residence to take me to jail with a warrant, My daughter was scared and so was I they are taking money out of my bank account and are now under investigation because they were not authorized to do this
Caller: Pacific Management
Call Type: Debt Collector
..."
http://dockets.justia.com/search?query=pacific+management+recovery
http://www.rivcoda.org/bureau/locations.html
TAS
TAS F 1
Rating Explanation
Company Rating F
Our opinion of what this rating means:
We strongly question the company’s reliability for reasons such as that they have failed to respond to complaints, their advertising is grossly misleading, they are not in compliance with the law’s licensing or registration requirements, their complaints contain especially serious allegations, or the company’s industry is known for its fraudulent business practices.
Called my county's civil court division. The lady laughed and told me "We wouldn't call you first, a deputy would just show up". Also, they'd have a record of you having an outstanding summons. Additionally, there is no court case pending against my name of any kind when I checked my county's online court system.
"Dale" gave me a number 1-888-295-1624 to call back with a 3 hr window....if I did this they would "call off the uniformed officer". When I called, the gentleman I spoke to stated that there is litigation pending against me, and that the best they could do is offer me a settlement amount. They also called my home phone number, and tried the same song and dance.
My advice would be to ignore all future contacts with these idiots. It is no doubt some sort of scam.
The "debts" are generally fake, the "process servers", "lawsuits", and "debt collectors" equally fake, but they often have obtained access to credit reports or skip-trace information like legitimate debt collectors. If the debts are fake, that access, and obtaining that information for use in a fraudulent "debt collection" scheme, violates federal and state law.
Pull your credit reports, and see if there is an unexpected credit inquiry showing up on one of them, often only a couple days before you got their call. This type of scam often attempts to use information from the intended victim's own credit reports to concoct the fake "debt", sometimes claiming some old closed or paid off account has an old delinquent balance.
They also apparently have access to skip-tracing services, as their "process server" calls often start with calls to relatives or employers, with the apparent intent to panic people into "settling" without obtaining any proof there even is a "debt".
If you find a recent credit inquiry with a strange name, not from a legitimate creditor, nor from any company you actually applied for credit with (exclude "promotional" inquiries associated with "offers of credit" as well), then you are staring at the documented evidence of their illegal activities.
You should contact FTC, FBI, or your state Attorney General.
1) Consumer complaints similar to yours, in many cases reporting both illegal collection tactics as well as attempts to collect on bogus "debts", and
2) Shill "complaints" portraying being served at work, sued, wages garnished, etc, or that someone got some really great "settlement" deal. Shill complaints are usually visible based on the "talking points" included in the attempt to convince others what the shill wants them to believe, along with the near simultaneous appearance of similar styled postings across several complaint sites under different names.
It appears to be well known among scammers pulling this con that consumers look up suspicious callers, so they try to slant the complaints in their favor. They aren't very good shills, and they are usually quickly outed.
You can file complaints with FTC, the Texas Attorney General, and the California Attorney General.
In particular, Texas may require that even out of state debt collectors be licensed and bonded to collect from Texas residents. There have also been several other Texas residents posting complaints of illegal abusive collection of apparently fake "debts" using threats of an already filed "lawsuit" that turned out to not exist. (One complaint indicated they received calls claiming to be from the DA's office in their county.)
The letter you got may have been due to one of the advantages of Texas law, which requires a timely response to consumer disputes of alleged debt, unlike federal law.
Contact the Texas Attorney General.
Beyond that, you should seek the advice of a competent consumer protection attorney in your state, with experience in FDCPA and FCRA litigation.
Complaints against PMG, HGG, TAS (or whoever they call themselves this week) read like a list of the prohibited acts from both statutes.
FDCPA prohibits harassment, abusive collection, making threats to arrest or prosecute, making any threat they do not intend to, or cannot, take, including threats to sue if they don't or can't sue. This would include the often reported threats they make through their "process server" calls, which can only be interpreted to imply that a lawsuit has ALREADY been filed.
FDPCA prohibits misrepresenting the stateus of a debt, as well as the use of deception to collect debts. Both prohibitions would be violated by knowingly collecting on unowed, faked, or non-existent "debts".
FDCPA prohibits disclosure of the debt to third parties, violated according to the many complaints that report first contact is by their fake "process server" to some relative.
FCRA prohibits pulling credit reports without "permissible purpose". Although debt collection is a valid permissible purpose (if the debt originated in an offer of credit), running an extortion racket to collect fake "debts" is NOT a permissible purpose.
You can sue on all of the above violations, for actual damages, and with FDCPA, additional statutory damages up to $1000, as well as your attorney fees. Congress intended that FDCPA and FCRA would be enforced by "private attorneys general" as well as state and federal regulators, so you can bring private suit, in your local federal or state court (even small claims court), even though they may be in California. The wording is "any court of competent jurisdiction", and since you are damaged where you live, your courts have jurisdiction. (SOL for filing FDCPA lawsuits is 1 year, so see an attorney now.)
Pulling credit reports for illegal purposes (a fake debt collection scam) may have additional monetary penalties, including possible incarceration, if you can get a state or federal prosecutor interested. (SOL on "aggrevated id theft" is 5 years. See Title 18.)
Your hard inquiry will stay on your credit reports (to document who pulled your report) for the next 2 years (2 years is also the SOL for civil suit for that violation). Get a paper copy of your report directly from the credit reporting agency.
Bluffs are asking to be called.
Now "Dale" is calling claiming to be from a "private process server division" from the county I live in (which he has correct). They keep saying that they are going to record me with the courts as a "failure to be served". The call comes from an unknown number, and they refer me to an 888 number for more information. When I call that number, they simply answer the phone as "Corporate offices", giving no name of the companies within these "offices".
There is no court case against me, and the civil office has no record of any summons or anything against me. I would think a process server would leave some pretty detailed info about how to get ahold of them easily to resolve the matter. The whole approach/situation is shady.
My advice - ignore the idiots or file a complaint.
There is no record of a hard inquiry on my credit report........so not sure how they accessed the information. The gentleman claimed to have a copy of my report. In any event, I just received my "third and final warning". When I called the number back....someone answered "Corporate offices?" I asked what offices were in the building, and the lady exclaimed "lots". I kept pressing for her to name me one company within the building, any one. Someone in the background then yelled at her to hang up. Also, if you listen closely to the "process server", it is apparant he/she is reading a script, because he stammered his way through the part where he advises he is from the "process server division" of the county I live.
There also appears to be a cluster of similar scam debt collectors operating out of Corona, one a well known similar scam reported on Bud Hibbs site. The similarities, including the "process server" bit, threats of lawsuits or arrest, phony "debts", and shill posts, suggest that all of these may be connected to either a small group of people running this scam under various names, or possibly they may have worked at similar scams in the area before starting their own.
Several other complaints have indicated that they found credit inquiries, although they did not report which credit report the inquiry appeared on. One report indicated an alert from a credit monitoring service, ahead of receiving any calls.
They are not necessarily under one of their names, and not necessarily a hard collection inquiry. If they could use a soft or promotional inquiry, it would help them hide their activities. One complaint reported finding an inquiry under "Mason". Mason was one of the aliases appearing in a number of complaints.
You will need to pull all 3 of your credit reports, probably by written request to each credit reporting agency, so that you get a complete printout as reply. Some of the "dumbed-down" reports don't clearly show complete information on inquiries, sometimes leaving off repeated soft inquiries, or only showing hard inquiries, or not clearly labeling the FCRA permissible purpose, for example. (myfico consumer reports do this, apparently assuming you don't need to "worry" about soft "account review" inquiries since they are "existing creditors" and are not affecting your scores.)
In checking your reports, account for all soft and hard inquiries, making sure they are all from either your legitimate creditors (which should be in the "soft" account review section), or those you have actually applied for credit with, which should be in the "hard" new applications for credit section. Complete reports include all dates on which inquiries were made, even those made repeatedly every month by your existing creditors. Also check "promotional" inquiries, which are "soft", to see if they appear to be legitimate credit card companies, although those would not give them access to full credit files.
Keep in mind, they are trying to hide their activities. You are looking at a heavily deceptive operation, so you are looking for what is different, what does not belong, even as they are trying to hide this from you. They could be using some unexpected name, maybe chosen to sound generic or similar to a known company, but might be under the wrong category. The date, however, should be shortly before their harassment started.
There are also indications from a number of complaints that they are probably using skip-trace services, maybe Accurint, Choicepoint, or others. This shows up in the many reports that the first call (by the "process server") is to a relative, often one living at a distance, even when the target is easily findable. That sort of information is not in credit files, so they must be getting it somewhere else, for the purpose of using it in their intimidation script.
So far most evidence still points to the city of Corona, CA, with occasional mention of a mail drop in Lake Elsinore. Their Corona business license was renewed on 12-31-10, having lapsed for about a month. It still shows the same physical address in a small industrial park as when they first obtained their business license, in Nov. 2009, although they also appear to be using, or have used, many mail drops.