A California man controlled a scheme where 2.7 million collection calls were made to American residents. Collection agents under his control illegally posed as law enforcement officers, threatening arrest and incarceration for those who did not pay.
Kirit Patel ran Broadway Global Master, Inc. and In-Arabia Solutions Inc. from his Tracy, California home. The collection agents that he hired were calling from India. An action by the Federal Trade Commission shut down the $5.2 million phony collection scam.
Callers impersonating “Officer Mike Johnson” or the “Federal Crime Unit of the Department of Justice” would threaten residents with a number of illicit actions if they failed to pay up. The debts themselves were largely bogus.
Collection agents would pressure these good families into wiring money, using a credit card to pay the debt or even to put it on a prepaid debit card. Often consumers would pay to make the problem go away, yet continue to receive more calls later on to collect on additional debt.
Debtors Unite previously reported on the Federal Crimes Investigation Unit scam in December 2010, where debt collectors illegally posed as law enforcement officers as a method of intimidation. Unfortunately, it took the Feds nearly a year and a half to shut down this operation. A similar scam operated by American Credit Crunchers was shut down in February, 2012.
Granted, it is entirely possible that you may receive an in-person visit from a process server or a sheriff if you have defaulted on a legitimate debt. In real cases, you receive a summons for court, which is a legal notice that a debt collector intends to sue you for nonpayment of a debt. However, you cannot be served by telephone, meaning that any telephone threats made by anyone posing as a law enforcement officer should be met with extreme suspicion. In these cases, you are best served reporting the criminal activity so that the perpetrators of the crime may be arrested.
While these operations relied on the phony collection call scam, there have been even more egregious violations committed by other brazen criminals. Pennsylvania shut down Unicredit America for using collection agency employees dressed in actual law enforcement uniforms to deliver notices to appear. To make matters worse, the agency created a fake courtroom in which defendants were to appear and face judgment by the courts.
All of these criminal enterprises have mastered the fake collection agency scam. The only way that you can protect yourself from these activities is to learn what collection laws (especially the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act) allow and to report any activity that appears to violate your rights. FDCPA violations are a serious matter, and even legitimate agencies that break the law may have to pay you for their violations.
Long is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.A. in Industrial Relations. He subsequently received his Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Duke University. His Certificate in Financial Planning was issued by Florida State University.
Long has achieved the Accredited Credit Counselor and Accredited Financial Counselor certifications through the Association for Financial Counseling, Planning and Education. Long originally achieved the Certified Credit Counselor designation through the National Institute for Financial Education.
In addition to years of nonprofit leadership, Long has been an innovator in the field of volunteer tax return preparation programs. He assists volunteer associations and nonprofit organizations who seek to integrate credit counseling and asset-building programs with free personal income tax preparation. His approach to using free credit reports as both an incentive and a screening tool for placement into asset-building programs has been shared with members of the National Community Tax Coalition, the EITC-Carolinas Initiative of MDC, Inc. and nonprofit groups across the Carolinas.
Long assists members of our armed forces in the Carolinas, Iowa, Rhode Island, Georgia and Germany with financial readiness. Please support our Soldiers, Marines, Airmen and Sailors!
Favorite quote:
"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."
Thomas Jefferson
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