The following email is being sent from Stephan Berman at expayday@live.com. The subject line reads “LAWSUIT ## DEBT.”

I am reasonably certain that this is just another fraud payday loan collection tactic by our Indian scam artist friends.

You can read more about this scam HERE or get a list of phone numbers they use HERE.

Here is the full text of the email:

DON’T IGNORE THIS MESSAGE

KINDLY FORGIVE US IF YOU RECEIVE THIS EMAIL IN JUNK/SPAM FOLDER

PLEASE DO NOT FORCE US TO DRAG YOU TO COURT HOUSE AND RESPOND US IMMEDIATELY

My name is Stephen and I am a legal adviser with “EZ PAYDAY law firm.” This is about the law suit against your name.

I want you to note down the case number first. Your case no is A0078R89

Affidavit:

EZ PAYDAY is pressing charges against your name regarding three serious criminal allegations:
count (1) Violation of federal banking regulations.
count (2) Collateral cheque fraud.
count (3) Theft by deception.

Now, this means three thing for you.If you are under any state probation or payroll I need you to inform your superior or manager what you have done in the past and what would be the consequences once the case has been downloaded and executed in your name.

This is to inform you that the creditors do have all the rights and authorities to inform your employer what you have done in the past and what will be the consequences once the case will be downloaded and executed against your name.

AS PER CHAPTER 7 AND 11 WE HAVE ALL THE RIGHTS RESERVED TO INFORM TO FBI, FTCP, YOUR EMPLOYER AND BANK ABOUT FRAUD.

The entire cost for this law suit is $5468.89 which is excluding loan amount, attorney’s fees, and the interest charges. you have the right to hire an attorney. If you don’t have one or if you can’t afford then one will be appointed for you, but please make sure you have someone to take you out of jail when the judge hears the case.

I have a last question for you. Did you default this loan intentionally or is it because of the circumstances you were unable to pay the loan?

Regards,

Manager Stephen || EZ PAYDAY.

Copyright © 2011 EZ PaydayLoans | Privacy | Terms of use

Payday loan company Quik Cash has agreed to pay $170,000 to settle a collections fraud lawsuit filed by the Attorney General of Arizona. The lawsuit was originally filed in 2009 by former Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard. Goddard lost a bid for the Governor’s office last year and is well known for his battles with payday lenders in Arizona. Payday Loans are now illegal in Arizona, largely due to Goddard’s efforts to eradicate the industry.

The lawsuit alleged that Quik Cash’s collections practices “raised an onerous burden” for the customers that they sued. Quik Cash claims it did not do anything illegal, but the Attorney General disagreed. Basically, Quik Cash sued Arizona customers over payday loan debts of $500 or less. However, they sued all of their Arizona customers and even some Nevada residents in Pima and Maricopa counties.

The catch? Many of these clients received loans at locations hundreds of miles away. This made it extremely difficult for the cash-strapped payday loan or cash advance customers to attend the hearings. Therefore, default judgments and subsequent garnishments were easy for the company to obtain.

According to a press release from the Arizona AG:

Read the rest of this entry »

I received a comment to one of my posts about the Indian Payday Loan Scam this week. Although we get a lot of comments, this one stood out for all the information it provided. So, I thought I’d post it here to make sure everyone was able to see it and get this information out there to protect yourselves.

I’m not sure how fake the information might be, given that these are scammers, but there is a name of the owner and a U.S. address through which they are processing credit card transactions.

I hope this information and helpful and we can stop this collection fraud soon!

My girlfriend and I have been victims also, they used the same tactics. The names and phone numbers they have used are:

• Officer Jack Taylor – 904-410-1879
• Officer Allan Smith- 863-216-8038
• Sam Wilson (American legal Services) 562-314-4850

American Legal Services website addresses this scam.

We paid $50.00 before i realized what was going on. The company that is debiting the money for them is Keshav Services located at 5711 Kenwood Missouri City Tx 77459, phone number 713-300-2065 owner Digvijaysinh J Chudasama. He claims that he has multiple collection agencies as clients and he cannot give me any information on them. I told him my name; he told me “I will have the company call you in 10min about this issue”. He then hung up.

I didn’t tell him which client of his called me, nor was the account in my name (girlfriends name). 20 minutes later Jack Taylor calls me asks if there was an issue. Right then I knew it was a scam.

Thanks so much to Bill for all of this information. Remember, that if you’re going to get payday loans online, you should always look for a reputable payday lender.

Just wanted to update everyone today on the Payday Loan Collection Fraud that is still going strong, unfortunately. This fraud company continues to prey on former customers who got online payday loans.

The newest development is that they are usually calling themselves “Law Office” instead of “American Credit Services” and claim to be in New York, Texas or California. We have found that the best way to identify them and fluster them is to ask them what state they are in and then subsequently ask them who the governor of that state is or what their state bar number is.

Also, they are consistently using very “American” sounding names such as Mark Green, Ethan Cross and John Smith. We have also noticed that they are starting to use female fraudulent collectors, which we had not seen/heard previously.

Here are some recent comments from our readers describing their very typical experience with this payday loan fraud:

Read the rest of this entry »

We have posted some new and updated Debt Collection Letters to help you with different collection agency situations that may arise.

Debt Validation Letter
This letter will help you validate a debt if you aren’t sure you owe the debt, aren’t sure the amount is correct or think the statute of limitations may have expired on your debt.

Cease and Desist Collections Letter
This letter will help when you want a 3rd party collection agency to stop calling you and/or your references and family members.

Wage Assignment
Payday Lenders use wage assignment often, and I am pretty sure they are the only ones still using it. The reason is that the FTC has declared this practice virtually illegal and only shady online payday loan companies are still using this tactic to collect on debt.

Wage Garnishment
A court ordered Wage Garnishment cannot be stopped. This letter will do nothing for that situation unfortunately and you should contact a lawyer.

Payday Lenders claim to garnish wages often, but they are most often just referring to a wage assignment (see above). So, we refer you again to the wage assignment letter.

I hope you enjoy and use these letters to stop harassing debt collectors and as always, if you have any questions please Ask Brent.

The FTC has settled a case against a payday lender that illegally garnished consumers wage, among other illegal debt collection tactics. According to the FTC’s complaint, Ecash and GeteCash, offered loans to be paid back using borrowers’ future paychecks. Online loan applicants were required to check a check box indicating their agreement with the terms of the loan, including a hard to find “wage assignment” clause that said that their wages would be garnished to cover delinquent loan payments. Then, using the name LoanPointe, the defendants attempted to collect on delinquent payday loans by sending garnishment notices directly to consumers’ payroll departments.

Federal law allows federal agencies to require employers to garnish employees’ wages without a court order when the employees owe the government money, for tax debts for example. In letters to employers that sought garnishment of their employees’ wages, GeteCash and LoanPointe tried to pass themselves off as having the same collection rights as the government. The FTC’s complaint also alleges that GeteCash and LoanPointe falsely stated that consumers knew their pay would be garnished and had an opportunity to dispute the debt. In addition, GeteCash and LoanPointe allegedly violated the law when they told employers and co-workers about consumers’ debts without their consent. (See the complaint HERE)

Read the rest of this entry »

There are many debt collection videos on YouTube, so I thought I’d take the time today to share my Top 5 of these videos. Some have strong language so be careful watching these at work. Please share your thoughts and favorites in the comments section.

5. Premier Credit of North America – Calling on Federal Student Loans
In this recorded call, I debt collector yells into a voice mail machine. What makes this noteworthy is not the message itself, but the fact that they are (supposedly) collecting on behalf of the U.S. Government. It should be noted that the IRS ended private debt collection over a year ago, but private collection on Federal Student Loans continues.

Read the rest of this entry »

Maryland has suspended the license of Smith Haynes and Watson LLC, a debt collection company that was collecting on payday loans from a payday lender that was served with a cease and desist order from the state earlier this year.

The Maryland Collection Agency Licensing Board, a division of the Office of the Commissioner of Financial Regulation, decided last week to suspend the collections license of the Kansas-based collection agency that specializes in payday loan collections. The agency also issued a cease and desist order covering all collection activity by the company. As a part of the order, the company must turn over all information regarding its payday loan debt collection activities to the state of Maryland.

Read the rest of this entry »

As promised in my update on this scam last week, I am posting today a list of all known fraud phone numbers this company is using. Obviously, this list may not be exhaustive, but it is very likely you are dealing with this scam if you get a call from any of the following phone numbers.

The list is rather long (there are over 70 phone numbers), so a useful trick is to select the entire list with your mouse and press Control-F. Using the “Find” function, you can see if the number you are getting called from is on the list.

Also, keep in mind that this scam company uses MANY phone numbers to harass people, so it could easily be that you are getting calls from them if the number is not on the list.

I also ask that you use the comments section to add any phone numbers that these guys may have called you from.

Here is the list:

Read the rest of this entry »

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has charged an Oklahoma based payday loan company with impersonating a state official. Patrick D. “Dylan” White, whose businesses operate in Texas as CASHMAX, Fed Cash, TOPCASH and Cash Service Center, is owner of Federal Cash Advance of Oklahoma, LLC, and maintains offices in Dallas County.

According to State investigators, the defendant sent deceptive collection letters to Texans with outstanding payday loan debts. The letters were delivered in envelopes that contained the Dallas County Clerk’s forged signature and improperly bore the official seals of both the State of Texas and Dallas County. Inside the envelopes, the defendant inserted notices of debt collection that instructed recipients to call a telephone number, which belonged to Federal Cash Advance’s CASHMAX offices.

Read the rest of this entry »