I received a threatening phone call at my employment and a message left at my home on my machine, from a person named Vimm stating that he was calling on behalf of US National pay day which is a federal government payday and he was from an attorney office for senior atty Paul Mcmallen and that he needed the name of my attorney and i then hung up because i thought it was some kind of telemarketing ploy. He then called back and said why did you hang up on me?
I said I thought it was an illegal call. He stated this is A "legal" call and that they were downloading a judgement that was filed against me for fraud, check writing fraud, and numerous counts against me for a online payday that i didnt pay and that it was returned nsf. I asked what company and he said US National Pay day. I told him I dont know what he was talking about. He told me if I didnt pay they were going to contact my employers and he also had phone numbers and names that were used as references one being my mom and the other a friend.
He also stated not to interrupt him until he went over their disclosure and said I owed this creditor over $5000.00 for nsf charges, fees, and legal fees. I started to cry and said I dont have that kind of money? He then gave me to his supervising attorney who reduced the fees to 1195.99, which they could take over the phone and split in 2 payments. He said they tried to email me 17 times but no response.
I told him I never received any emails. He stated that I should have responded. He told me if I dont pay I would go to jail, lose my job, and he also asked if I had any criminal record or am I on probation? I told him no he stated that if I was on probation I needed to contact my probation officer I said I don't. He said he needed to put me on hold and check with the criminal database to make sure I dont have any criminal history or judgements. He said it looke ok.
We then went over a 2 payment plan to pay the 1195.99 which would be split with 595.99 on 05/28/09 and another 500.00 on 06/05/09 which I told him I dont have the money and needed to wait til I get paid on next day so he said no problem and then transferred me to a woman who took my debit card over the phone. He then requested a notarized letter authorizing "creditor"; to take both payments.
He then asked for another letter notarized apologizing to "creditor"; for not paying the full amount but am able to pay reduced amount of 1195.99. He states the letter needs to sent tomorrow 05/28 and needs to be sent by 10am. I asked if he was on Eastern standard time or Central. He states they are on Pacific standard time. So he reiterated that it had to be faxed to 213-405-5039 attn to Paul Mcmallen senior attorney. I asked if I could have a phone number to call back just in case I had any questions.
When I got home from work I saw several complaints just like mine on usacomplaints.com website. I tried calling the phone number given 201-234-4701 and it was disconnected and so I called my bank and cancelled my card and filed a police report. I also filed a report with the internet crimes devision with government at ic3.com. I will also be closing my checking account first thing am 05/28/09. I also checked white pages and the number he gave me is a landline in New Jersey.
I will also forward this to the state attorney general in hopes they can be stopped. These guys are good. They have so much of your information that you begin to believe you must owe some creditor money. They also do a good job making you feel scared into just paying so there wont be any legal ramifications. I felt completely stupid when I soon realized this was a scam.
I quickly learned that first of all if they are some kind of collection agency it is illegal for them to threaten jail time. Secondly no legitimate collection agency or legal agency is going to use emails to notify you of a collection or past due debt. Third it is illegal for them to not tell you the company they are calling for. They also when asked have to give you ALL info re; this so called collection of debt. For example when the date it was due, dates they tried to contact you by phone, the original amount that was first needing to be colleced and so on. Those all should be red flags that I should have never give any card information over the phone but like a dummy I fell for it.: (
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