The FTC Shuts Down Phony Payday Loan Debt Collection Scam
On September 10, 2013, the FTC shut down a Florida scam that bilked millions out of consumers in a phony payday loan collection scam. According to the FTC
. . . .defendants Fisher, Andre Keith Sanders, Pro Credit Group, LLC, and Sanders Legal Group, P.A. set up U.S.-based financial accounts for a call center operation based in India to unfairly collect payday loan debts from consumers who either did not owe them, or owed them to somebody else. The operation’s callers used threats, lies, and abusive tactics to collect debts from consumers who had previously applied for or received loans from online payday loan companies and had supplied sensitive personal financial information that later found its way into the hands of those involved with the scam.
I’ve recently had clients getting debt collection calls/threats from an outfit allegedly out of Seattle Washington calling itself Mandatory Arbitration Services. From what I’ve been told, it appears that this debt collector is running a very similar scam on Kentucky residents.
Mandatory Arbitration Services does not appear to have registered to do business in Kentucky, Washington, or Delaware. I’ve not yet looked in any other states. If you are contacted by Mandatory Arbitration Services by very wary. And please give me a call ((502) 473-6525) and let me know.
I have been contacted by Mandatory Arbitration Services. They actually have gotten money from me. Today I was contacted by yet another company pulling the same thing about payday loans 9 years ago. I cannot even remember if I had anything 9 years ago. I started doing some research and have found out that it was a scam as well as mandatory arbitration services. I also have received a notice that someone tried opening a “bill me later” account in my name and was refused because the information was not accurate. I filed a complaint with the FTC and contacted my state attorney generals office. I also filed a police report and have put a fraud alert on my credit file. I am extremely shaken up from all this.
I am living in Idaho. If that makes any difference.
they just called my mother in law last night and scared her out of her wits stating they were trying to collect for a credit card debt that was over 10 years old and that if she didn’t give her debit card info right away they would serve papers on her. Be aware!
I don’t know if it’s the same company, but I am in Maine and just received a strange call from a private number. When I called back the voicemail says arbitration services.
There’s a brand new scam debt collector called “Global United Arbitration” owned by a Mr. Phil Bifulco in Alden New York. He called me and threatened to have my daughter arrested for felony bank fraud and theft by check. He asked me if I ‘would like to help her out and pay this.’ It is supposedly for a payday loan she stopped making payments on. He called 12 times in less than 5 hours, several of the calls are one minute apart. I have digital recordings of all the calls, including the threatening message left on my answering machine, which did not state that the call was from a debt collector. I took photos of the screen of my caller ID t to prove the number of calls and times placed. My granddaughter overheard the calls and has been traumatized with fear that her mother would be arrested.
I was just contacted this morning for the upteenth time from these people. At first they tried to saying that I owed a PayDay Loan from 2007, and threatened me with taking me to court. I immediately called them back. Talked to a very rude gentleman, who refused to send me any paperwork to follow up on this debt they said I owed. When I requested copies of documentation, he said it had already been sent to me numerous times. But in-fact, I have not received anything ever. It scared me so much, that I confided in a very close friend…because I wanted to make sure my debts were paid…but didn’t want to send money without documentation of the debt being legit. However, he refused to send me anything. I provided him a fax number and email address that he could forward these docs to me. My friend contact the local police department and we filed a complaint on them, and also rose the awarenesss that this was being done in our area in Texas. The officer stated that this and other scams are being investigated. His advise was to ignore the calls. THIS IS A HUGE SCAM! DO NOT SEND MONEY TO ANYONE THAT WILL NOT BACK UP THEIR CLAIMS WITH PROOF! There is too much information out there available to scammers. They can make it sound so real…they can obtain your phone number, address, bank name, even the last 4 digits of your social…but this doesn’t make it a legit debt!!!
I received phone calls from a so call arbitration company by the name of Atlantic Corporation (although they have at least 3 other names). The phone numbers they use are 501-204-8143 & 866-649-1670 saying I owe a payday loan from at least 9 years ago. Their accents are Indian but one Angelicized his name to David Castennew! Scammers! They have no morals nor do they give you any information you need! Nothing is sent to you in writing either! How can we demand that they be stopped!