Harassing phone calls
Complaint
Jim Richmond
Country: United States
Recieved a call from a man named John Nelson, with very thick accent. He put his Supervisor, Anthony Johnson, on the phone, upon my repeated request, demanding $956 to be paid immediately to a business called Cash Advance America for an alleged loan he claimed my wife failed to pay over a year ago. Never had a loan from them, never heard of them. He said if she didn't pay today that another company called American Law Division had a "senior" attorney ready to file suit against her tomorrow in "Oklahoma Court" for over $4000 after attorney's fee's. He had the last four digits of her social security number. He never could furnish our address. He claimed her employer was also being "investigated." He also called my wife at her work place earlier in the day. He told her she had failed to take care of her business and that she would "end up behind the bars." She continued to ask for a Supervisor and was told by Anthony that he was the Supervisor. She asked for his Supervisor because, while he claimed to be American and had an American name, his accent was so thick she could not understand a word he was saying. He then started talking really quickly and shouting. She just kept shouting back for him to put someone who could speak English on the line and he hung up. He also told her his company had sent 18 emails that had gone ignored. ROFL! Of course, those types of emails always get deleted! Not a letter or correspondence one. Just the emails... which, upon sifting through my past email logs were not found. My wife was very upset and I told her it was a scam and I'd be able to find something on the internet to prove it. Of course, I have found that proof here. You'll also note, they never put a phone number on their web sites. I'll have to see if they keep calling before I try to take any legal action, which I doubt would do any good since they are foreigners. I suppose I'll play along and make them mad everytime they call... who know's it might be fun!
Comments
They do all have very heavy accents (sounds like Middle Eastern), but they all use American names. Jason, Joseph, Adam etc...
Makes me sick that people do this kind of crap. It's just so wrong.
When you point out that this is not the way legal proceedings are handled and that it is unreasonable to expect someone to confirm any confidential personal information over the phone as it could always be someone attempting to defraud you, they go off. Some respond with "All right, if you cannot verify the information this will go right to the authorities and I wish you good luck in jail and have a Blessed day."
The very best response I have found is to politely respond with, "I am sorry, can you hold for just a moment?" They usually say yes and then you respond with "Thank you, I just needed a moment to begin recording this phone call, you may proceed." At that they usually hang up - I have had a couple go into extremely foul language as I hang up.
The other is to speak very slowly and have them repeat everything they say to you - then you tell tham that you need to gather accurately all the details of the phone call for the report to the FTC and the State Attorney General's office complaint. That usually results in a very rapid disconnect.
It makes me ill that they are truly trying to steal from people that are working hard and just trying to meet their responsibilites in tough times.
408-459-3272
714-485-9593
512-646-2005