Harrassing calls
Complaint
jane
Country: United States
CLR & Associates. called my mother in law and told her that they had a summons in hand, along with a federal warrent for my arrest for check fraud and if I didnt contact them within the hour about a debt for "Quik Cash" payday loan they were going to have me arrested. My mother-in-law (bless her heart) Freaked out and called me scared that I was in trouble. I knew rite away there was a mistake because I've never commited check fraud. Long story short, I called them at 1-855-359-2333, and talked to a guy who claimed he was a lawyer. I knew it was a collection agency. My entire family was shooken up by these people for a loan back in 2006. Can they do this?
Comments
A website shows up in connection with that name.
The contact information is very sparce, containing only the phone number you have, and an email link labeled "support", possibly just for maintaining the website. No address is given, which is suspicious, although there is a Mapquest insert showing some general area around Cheektowaga NY.
http://www.clrandassociates.com/Contact.html
Links go to very generic debt related topics on other legitimate sites.
There is no information that would actually allow you to mail anything to this "company", interfering with your ability to exercise your rights under FDCPA to dispute or request validation.
Some of the pages imply they have a "Legal Department", and Google finds some text tied to them mentioning an attorney by name, but the connected webpages do not expose this information. Maybe they later removed it to avoid getting in trouble with the state bar association.
Overall pattern suggests a fraudulent "bad check collection" racket, trying to hide their location, and based on the threats directed at you, basically an extortion racket.
If they had a "summons in hand", then their lawsuit would have normally already been filed at your local county courthouse. If they had a "federal warrant for your arrest", they wouldn't be calling trying to extort payment. The matter would already be in the hands of a U.S. Attorney, and paying them would not stop prosecution.
They are lying.
This is a scam, an extortion racket.
File complaints with FTC, your state AG, the NY AG, and at www.ic3.gov
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2012/02/acc.shtm
"...
For Release: 02/21/2012
Court Halts Alleged Fake Debt Collector Calls from India, Grants FTC Request to Stop Defendants Who Often Posed as Law Enforcement
At the request of the Federal Trade Commission, a U.S. district court has halted an operation that the FTC alleges collected phantom payday loan “debts” that consumers did not owe. Consumers received millions of collection calls from India, and that since January 2010 the operation took in more than $5 million from victims, according to the FTC.
..."
If you are being harassed by this type of scam, contact FTC.