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Wednesday, May 20, 2015

My Afternoon in Scammer-Land

This afternoon I was in the shower and missed a phone call. When I later looked at my phone I saw that I had a voice-mail, so I called my voice-mail  and hear this very hard to understand man with a Middle Eastern accent who barely spoke English, leaving a message for my husband saying that his name was "Paul" and that my husband, "Better return the call today. If refusal to return my call is your answer, then all I can do is wish you good luck for what is about to happen to you."
OK...my first thought was annoyance, because this guy was so hard to understand.  Then I was confused as this is my cell phone not my husband's. Why would someone trying to reach him, not call his cell?  Then I was angry about the threatening tone of this guy’s message.  That is not legit at all....the Fair Debt Collection Act prevents harassment, threats, and does not allow legitimate companies to claim to be attorneys or to claim that a crime has been committed.
  So, I called the number.  The same hard to understand voice, "Paul" answered the phone..... (A *HUGE* red flag on a scam.... even the tiniest of law offices in any small town, USA have a secretary/receptionist).  So, I ask why this guy is calling my phone.  He starts rambling and I cannot understand anything he is saying, so I start to get really annoyed and stop him and tell him I am clueless as to anything he just rattled off...he then slowly and deliberately clearly says he demands to speak to my husband who is a "coward for hiding behind a woman..."  LOL!!!  No joke, dude said just that!!!
  So, I tell him, "well, if this was something legitimate you would have my husband's information and would have called HIS cell phone instead of mine, but since I am in a decent mood today, I will be nice and take my phone and give to him."  (My husband works 3rd shift and was getting ready to lay down and take his before work afternoon nap).  So, I go into the bedroom and loudly tell him, "George, this rude little man wants to speak to you since you are a coward and are hiding behind me", LOL   so, George takes the phone and this guy proceeds to rattle off to him without even verifying that the person he was speaking to, was actually my husband.  Another *HUGE* scam red flag.  Privacy laws prohibit legitimate companies from discussing personal business matters without identity verification first.    (Always remember that!!).
    So, my husband stops him from his rambling that my husband is totally unable to understand at all.  He tells the guy, "Look, you need to speak clearly so I can understand you...the guy gets rude again and says that he is trying to work with my husband to prevent hardship from happening in our lives due to a substantial amount we owe his client.
 My husband laughs and says, "Oh really? Who the hell is your client and were is proof of this, because you're a damn liar."  See, We have no debts outside of some medical bills we are making payments one per an agreement that WE called and set into place and those payments are current and up to date....our house, his truck, my car are all paid for in full and the only other bills we have are utilities and since cell/electric/water/satellite/Internet are all up to date and service is on and in good standing....there is no one that should be calling us for money.
  This guy refused to give my husband the name of his client but wanted to discuss a "settlement" he was authorized and willing to offer.  LOL!!!  My husband to him to send us a certified letter with information on this debt and the company we owe it to.  The guy kept going on and on about time being limited for this settlement to be valid.
My husband started getting annoyed and told him we were going to notify the authorities about this matter....and little idiot then says, "Well, I am calling the authorities myself because your wife threatened me."   (So who is the coward here??  LOL).  My husband told him to do whatever the guy felt he needed to do and hung up.  He then told me that I supposedly threatened the guy, LOL...so I hit redial on my phone, because frankly and honestly....I was just really ticked off and wanted to play with this guy a little bit... and the same voice answered and I said, "I am just curious....when and how did I threaten you? "  He said, "You did threaten me" and I said. "How? Tell me what I said...” he just kept repeating “Yes you did."  So I got bored with him rather quickly and told him that when I was done on this call, I would be calling Law Enforcement to file a scam report and then I would be calling my state's attorneys general office and sending a full report to the Federal Trade Commission as well.   He said that he had already filled papers with "The Warrenville Police Department” as well as the State Court in Warrenville......both complete lies as yes, our phone service comes up as "Warrenville, SC” but that is just the tiny little town we live in....the law enforcement here is the Sheriff's Office from the county we live in (which is NOT Warrenville) and we have no court houses in Warrenville at all either.   So, not only is this guy a scam artist he is a lousy one at that...if you are trying to scam someone, you should at least have correct facts.
   So, I called the Sheriff's Department and they had a Detective call me back to take some information.
After I explained to him why I called the Sheriff's Office the Detective told me that this is indeed a scam...
This same number has been reported by other residents in my county...including an elderly woman who recently lost her husband....they called asking to speak to the deceased husband and when she explained to them he had just passed away a couple of weeks ago, this horrible man told her that she needed to take care of the debt her husband left behind or she would lose her home and any valuable property.  This poor woman gave the guy her credit card info.
Thankfully right after she got off the phone she felt uneasy about what had just occurred and called a relative who told her to get off the phone and call her credit care company immediately...she did and they instantly cancelled the card before anything had gone hit their system.  So, not only are these jerks scammers, they are cruel as well.
  Not even an hour later my phone rings again with the same number...I have added the number to my "decline" list so when they call now, it will go off once then right to voice-mail.  When my phone singled the voice-mail was there, I called it and there is a different male Middle Eastern voice saying "This is James Walker, I am calling to warn George that he needs to return this call at once. If I do not hear from him today I will be forced to execute action at him. If he refuses to speak to me today, I can only wish him luck as action will be executed".....so I am so angry and fed-up by this point. I once again call the number and when the voice that left the last Voice-mail answered, I said, "Hello, James Walker?"  He says, " Who James...James is not here."  I said, "Look, you left a message on my phone not even five minutes ago saying you were James Walker....no matter what you think about American women, we are not stupid.
So, stop your lying"  ...by now I am beyond irritated, so I also said, "Anyway, why do you idiots always use American names? You are no more 'James Walker' than I am Al Zahra, so just shut up and stop playing games. I told you people when I spoke to your little friend "Paul" less than an hour ago, that we owe no one any money....you will not get a single penny from us, and to stop calling MY cell phone."   In the background I could hear "Paul's" voice making another call....I heard him ask for Steven  before "James" said, "Look...we will keep calling you over and over every day until we speak to George and get this handled"  .....I said, "Oh now little man, you so will not be calling my phone over and over harassing me.  I will send report after report until your number is shut down by the authorities."  He then interrupted me and said, "Close your mouth and give the phone to George".....I YELLED into the phone, "You idiots already spoke to him today, he is now sleeping, he's a real man and does real work...he has nothing more to say to you either, Do not call this phone again." , and I hung up.
   I then Googled "American Law Corp" and this is what I found....
American Law Corp.   0 Stars. International Law Firms with offices in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and USA. We specialize in representing international business and manufacturing companies to open and manage their offices with legal and financial services along with providing representative offices with address, phone, fax and full administration, legal, financial services.
127 Saddle Trail, Westlake Village, California 91361
USA    805-497-1769
  If you Google that address it comes up as a single family, 6 bdrm, 2 Million Dollar house belonging to a man named Edward Francis Medders....
Mr. Medders is also listed as the owner of a Financial Consulting Company called:  ALCorp N.A.  Listed with the same above address and phone number and the e-mail:  americanlaw@usa.com
It is listed on the page:  Iraq Export-Import Trade and Business Directory under "Consultants" .
I tried to call Mr. Medders to find out if he is associated with the NYC number....and all you get when you call the 805-497-1769 number is a recording that says, "Please leave a voice message for mailbox number 18054971769"
  Considering that the scam callers are obviously middle eastern and Edward Medders’ is the owner of a company that "consults" in Iraq and comes up under the name AL Corp that is listed in a very expensive residential area in California.. I am assuming that these idiots are actually over there and Medders must give them American phones to use to scam people....when you reverse search the 646-205-6658 number it only says 'New York City, NY"  no names, company  info, no address, etc.....  so this is just very Shady anyway you look at it.

So, after all of this I start reading all of the complaints about this number and the other they apparently use...646-205-6657....

I come across on from a guy named Jonah who said when he demanded their business address, he was given this one:
271 Cadmin Plaza East, Brooklyn, NY
So, I google this address and it is for the Historic Post Office and Federal Building in Brooklyn...
These guys are total idiots....if you are going to give out a fake address, don't use one that is easily Googled and famous....

Finally....if you happen to get a call from this number or any other numbers that you know, could not actually have a debt you owe that is past due and out for collection, here is some information on how to handle it. 
  *DO NOT GIVE THEM ANY MONEY....ANY PERSONAL INFO....ETC....DO NOT LET THEM BULLY OR INTIMIDATE YOU!*Do a bit of investigation....how I came across the information that I have gathered so far, is just by entering the area code and phone number in the Google's search bar...from there I started reading and writing everything down so that I am able to get it all straight for legal complaints.
Once you start digging, you will start finding information that will lead you to names, address and phone numbers of possible owners of the harassing phones and you just keep going ....you will start seeing the puzzle pieces fall into place and everything will start adding up and making sense.  
*Every time they call, report it to your local police....as mine said others in my area have made reports and that poor elderly woman almost caused financial problems for herself because they bullied her....so, the Police are going to issue a warning statement in the local news....  so report to your law enforcement as well.
*Legit debt collection companies and actual law offices will send a formal letter when trying to collect at debt.  After you receive the written request for payment/bill statement, THEN they may call to try and get payment, but they will not threaten you...it is illegal for them to use "strong arm collection practices"., and a legit company knows that if you request they not contact you any further at your place of employment, they must stop.
*I saw a couple of online scam reports that people have written about this particular number....and some of them said when they asked for these scammers to verify that they were calling the correct person, the scam artist used information given to a payday loan company in the past....check your state laws,  In some states even a legitimate debt collection companies cannot collect for payday loans....they are not technically legal companies in some states to begin with and if it was an Online payday loan. Most of those "businesses"  are located in other countries and so they cannot try to collect without coming to your local court to press charges, etc....as for criminal charges.....you cannot have criminal charges filed against you for forfeiting on this type of loan...read up on your state laws!!
I am armed and so prepared for them to call again....I have names, addresses and phone numbers, complaint and report numbers...a whole plethora of information that will get them flustered and they will not be able to explain or justify.  I am in a sick and demented way, almost looking forward to the next call. 

~Shea Clarke

May 20, 2015

2 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for sharing all of this with everyone. So sorry you and your husband had to be put through this mess. Not only do we have to worry about people breaking in harming us or stealing our things, now we have to worry about thieves calling on the phone. Wish there was something we all could do to have people like that stopped. Love your determination on finding out all you can on them. Agree with person above.....Get em Girl! God Bless

    ReplyDelete

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~Shea