Complaint / Review
Commercial Investigations - Forensic Case Management Services - Joseph Steven And Assoc
Suspicious debt collectors ripoff

I am the owner of a retail establishment in Arizona and I was contacted by Commercial Investigations Inc with an offer to have them collect on our outsnading bad debts. I provided them with details of one account to see if they would perform as promised (they offered a special rate of 18% of anything collected).

As soon as I had said yes, I started to think that this may not be as honest as it sounded. The guy I talked to was very authorative and seemed on the level but there was something about it (such as when he checked the address to send the money to when they had not even started) which made me think it may be a scam.

I checked their web site and was horrorfied to find that it is a complete sham - it has no pages (all links go to the same page) and it is very poorly built (no more than 30 minutes on Frontpage). On the site, they claim to be 'officially certified' by the Commercial Investigators Association of America. I Googled that and the company and found nothing (the CIAA is actually a football league!).

The next day, someone claiming to be an Investigator called me saying that they felt that the customer woudl not respond to 'normal' collection methods and that we should proceed immediately to litigation. They requested an Affidavit and a check for $1800 to commence action.

I told them I was not comfortable sending them money without checking them out and the only credibility they could offer was a copy of the California Business listing for a company called Forensic Case Management Services. Again, nothing shows up on Google.

All of their phopne numbers are 'toll free'.

The fax that they sent that on had a header from a company called Joseph Steven and Associates and the moment I searched Google for that, I saw several complaints of fraudulent collections (them collecting but never passing on the money to the Creditor, them getting money to proceed but not dong anything). Some reports exist here in usacomplaints.com.

I immediately advised them that I will not proceed and that they are not to contact me or my customer again. I have also written to the customer advising them to ignore Commercial Investigations.

I feel stupid having even to have got to the first stage of this scam -I am thankful that I listened to my instincts and checked the company out. I am completely convinced that I would have lost the money.