Payday Loan Scam

[mheusler]

Gents,

Any of you who have gotten to know me over my first two hundred posts or so, know thar I'm usually either posting videos promoting the site, or food photos in NYC and then on occasion, weighing in on shave or fragrance threads. I've really come to love this place. And what happened to me is so upsetting that A) I had to get it off my chest and B) let all you guys know in case these thieves and extortionists target any of you great guys.

This is what I dealt with today: get a voicemail in the morning from some dude saying that unless either I, or my lawyer called the dude back, all he could wish me is good luck. I call back, they say that I've committed some crime (the of course wouldn't specify what that crime was) and if I didn't pay them $1100, they would go to my job, have me arrested and sent to jail for you one year. I called the Police. They had my correct social security number, address and work address. They called at work and threatened that my employer would also be libel unless the "fraud/and criminal" Maximilian Heusler was arrested. I contacted the chief compliance officer. I've gotten life lock, secured my bank account, switched my credit cards and my cell phon number. I do not think that the harassment is going to stop. This is the worst most obnoxious scam, that I've ever come across. I contacted the FTC and filed a complaint (they told me there were hundreds of complaints about this scam) and will be contacting the FBI tomorrow.........

Unreal, so bummed and shaken that not only do I have to deal with this for the next couple of weeks, but that my employers do to. I'm a marketing director at a major non-profit in New York, who worked his up from a $10 a hour telemarketer eight years ago. I'm sure they company will be supportive and have my back, but I still can't help but think that in the back of their mind, it's going to throw some questions as to what I'm doing on the internet, to put myself in such a position and that would suck. Forget an arrest, I've never had so much as a loitering, parking or jaywalking ticket and now this.....Ugh

Venting,

Max.

 

[mheusler]

BTW, I already know that this is a huge scam documented online, which makes it a little easier to swallow, but I'm still pissed, shaken and angry.

 

[Hunter]

Sorry to hear about that buddy! I have scammers call me at work all the time to try and get me to sign off on orders with stolen credit cards. That pales in comparison to them calling you though! I think a good destressing with a book and a vice or two may help!

 

[mheusler]

Sorry to hear about that buddy! I have scammers call me at work all the time to try and get me to sign off on orders with stolen credit cards. That pales in comparison to them calling you though! I think a good destressing with a book and a vice or two may help!

Lol, definitely bro. It's not the calls to my cell thst bothered me (I just had my number changed). It's the calls to my office. You work so hard to built a rep and come off a certain way. These pigs are ruining people's lives. Go read up on some of their tactics, threatning murder and rape, claiming they are connected to terrorists and will send mail bombs, showing up at people's apartments and places of work with false papers to serve.

 

[inspiringK]

Brutal.

Sounds like you have taken some good precautions to limit the damage. Hopefully they will slither off soon enough - or better yet, get caught and stopped.

 

[mheusler]

Brutal.

Sounds like you have taken some good precautions to limit the damage. Hopefully they will slither off soon enough - or better yet, get caught and stopped.

They're in Pakistan or India and have been doing this since 2008. Can't see them being stopped.

 

[redrako]

Max, this simply sucks that this happened to you.

You've taken some good steps, but clearly upset (as you should be)

If I may make a suggestion regarding your concern about your employer's "back of there mind thoughts". Simply this, get your head right about what's gone on. You're the victim of some kind of identity theft, as they have called you at work, it is a concern of your employer and you should approach it in that manner with them.

Sounds like you've made great accomplishments in your career that have been recognized by your employer. As you communicate with your employer conduct yourself in the professional manner that you always have. Remember you are in the right here, the bad guys are in the wrong. Keep your head up, provide documentation such as the info that you found online about this scam.

Best of Luck you you Sir! You'll get through this.

 

[mheusler]

Max, this simply sucks that this happened to you.

You've taken some good steps, but clearly upset (as you should be)

If I may make a suggestion regarding your concern about your employer's "back of there mind thoughts". Simply this, get your head right about what's gone on. You're the victim of some kind of identity theft, as they have called you at work, it is a concern of your employer and you should approach it in that manner with them.

Sounds like you've made great accomplishments in your career that have been recognized by your employer. As you communicate with your employer conduct yourself in the professional manner that you always have. Remember you are in the right here, the bad guys are in the wrong. Keep your head up, provide documentation such as the info that you found online about this scam.

Best of Luck you you Sir! You'll get through this.

Thanks a lot man, really appreciate it.

 

[dpm802]

Sorry to hear about this. While it may seem like a horrible mess right now, they will probably give up on you and move on to someone else in a week or so.

Can you provide some links to articles about this scam?

 

[mheusler]

Yes, here are some links

http://800notes.com/forum/ta-200159ab24c5a1d-23/payday-loan-scam

http://ftc.gov/opa/2012/02/acc.shtm

 

[NCJack]

It would be interesting to have someone who is not a deputy sheriff show up at my door with some sort of fraudulent summons, but I bet he'd just ask the same boring questions: "Is that real?"..."Is it loaded?"

 

[mheusler]

It would be interesting to have someone who is not a deputy sheriff show up at my door with some sort of fraudulent summons, but I bet he'd just ask the same boring questions: "Is that real?"..."Is it loaded?"

Ha ha. Love that response Jack. The New York gun laws are prohibitive to say the least. Otherwise, I'd always be packing.

Max.

 

[Legion]

It's good that you have reported it.

But next time they contact you, tell them to go pound sand. They have nothing on you. You know it is a scam. They rely on peoples guilty consciences to make money. A certain percentage of people will think "oh no! They must know about XYZ!" and pay. If you sound at all like you are rattled by this, they will smell blood, and never leave you alone.

Make sure they know, without any doubt, that you know it is a scam. Tell them you have recorded the call, and you have already reported their caller ID to the authorities. In short, do not let them get a hint that this BS has shaken you.

 

[mheusler]

It's good that you have reported it.

But next time they contact you, tell them to go pound sand. They have nothing on you. You know it is a scam. They rely on peoples guilty consciences to make money. A certain percentage of people will think "oh no! They must know about XYZ!" and pay. If you sound at all like you are rattled by this, they will smell blood, and never leave you alone.

Make sure they know, without any doubt, that you know it is a scam. Tell them you have recorded the call, and you have already reported their caller ID to the authorities. In short, do not let them get a hint that this BS has shaken you.

Yeah, I know. They haven't called me since. But they don't care if you know it's a scam. At that pint they just want to annoy you into paying money. I had the NYPD at my house and one of the cops called them back. The scammer was trying to get the cop to convince me to wire them money! I kid you not. This people have no tact or brains at all.

Max.

 

[Legion]

Get one of those air horns. Next time they call you, blast it into the phone. Do it every time they call. It's fun, and they will get annoyed with it long before you.

Make a family game of it. "Dad, I want to blast the scammer in the ear!" "No dad, she blasted the scammer last time! Not fair!!"

 

[mheusler]

Get one of those air horns. Next time they call you, blast it into the phone. Do it every time they call. It's fun, and they will get annoyed with it long before you.

Make a family game of it. "Dad, I want to blast the scammer in the ear!" "No dad, she basted the scammer last time! Not fair!!"

My buddy had some scammers call him, and they like mine left their phone number for calling them back. We were going to tell both lines to hold on, and patch them together on three way and record the results. Would have been hilarious, but at this post I just want them out of my life to be honest with you.

Max.

 

[oc_in_fw]

Sometimes knee capping is justified.

 

[ackvil]

Get one of those air horns. Next time they call you, blast it into the phone. Do it every time they call. It's fun, and they will get annoyed with it long before you.

Make a family game of it. "Dad, I want to blast the scammer in the ear!" "No dad, she blasted the scammer last time! Not fair!!"

A whistle works too. My wife was getting some calls last summer claiming she owed money. I would utter a few profanities and then take out a whistle and blow it loudly in the mouthpiece.

 

[redrako]

Sometimes knee capping is justified.

This thread reminded me of a related case about 7-8 years ago. This was a not a scam, but a case of unwanted phone calls.

To provide some context for the story, you need to know that my father has been in a nursing home since 2001 for a variety of medical issues, two of which are blindness and dementia. As you can imagine as one looses their capacity to handle their business affairs, they develop a nagging fear about their financial stability.

There was a bill collector in Georgia who somehow had picked up my father's phone number at the nursing home in Massachusetts. They were doing the standard, semi-scary dunning phone calls, which he couldn't understand. I learned of this during my visits when there would be multiple phone messages from this collector. When I would try to telephone them, I could not get through to anyone. This went on for several weeks.

As I had gone through a similar experience with confused identity phone calls a few years ago. (I had learned that these bill collectors buy bad debts for pennies on the dollar and try to collect on them. They searched online for actual names and then similar names and start calling.)

Unfortunately Max's problem lives outside of US borders. Max, my friend, it seems like you've got a good handle on this.

Best of Luck to you!

One Saturday morning, I was in my father's room when the bill collector called. After a brief, sharp conversation where they understood that they had made a mistake, that they were terrorizing a handicapped senior citizen who was not in debt to anyone and that his guardian would devote a lot of resources to punishing them if the calls didn't cease, the calls ceased.

 

[TnutsShave]

Tell them you've already notified your state Attorney General (use his name...not that they'll know it, but it sounds more official) and throw in that you've notified the FBI, and then hang up. Further, NOTIFY THE FBI! If for no other reason than to add your personal account to I'm sure already existing file.

My .02. Notifying your attorney general may be the best practice. If enough attention gets called to these guys, then ultimately some action may be taken.

Good luck, brother!