Consumer complaint received 2021-12-11
Company: Populus Financial Group, Inc. (F/K/A Ace Cash Express)
State: AZ
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Virtual currency
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
Threatening Email sent to me from someone I have no idea who they are, who the company is, what they are referring to, they never use my name, never gotten a formal legal letter or served papers, & I don't even live in the state of Kansas. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XX/XX/2021, XXXX ( 3 days ago ) XXXX XXXX, The nature of this email is to ascertain your attorneys information. 

Attention My name is XXXX XXXX. 

I AM FROM XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX FIRM and the reason for this email is to inform you that you are listed as the primary subject in a question regarding a case being downloaded. 



Case Id. XXXX Customer XXXX Debt amount - {$840.00} We regret to inform you that if we do not obtain the payment of {$840.00} in full before today ( deadline ), we will have no other alternatives but to undertake court actions against you in order to retrieve the debt amount for our client. 

We still trust court actions will not be necessary and look forward to receiving payment by return. 

Let me relay all the informations from the affidavit first, Our client is pressing charges against your name regarding three allegations : 1. Violation of Federal banking regulation 2. Collateral check fraud 3. Theft by deception =============================================== The affidavit states that your name was monitored online using an email address in order to solicit funds from a website owned and operated by XXXX XXXX XXXX  ( Ace Cash Express ). The funds were successfully transferred into your bank account utilizing an interstate EFT which stands for an Electronic Funds transfer. 

When they attempted to extract the funds back as repayments the EFT was returned constituting a worthless electronic check. As of now rather than chasing you for money they have simply decided to write this money as loss and declare it to be stolen as well as press charges against you in the state For you this means TWO things. 

1. If you are on any state supervised probation on payroll you will need to contact the officer and make them aware of what you have done. 

2. If you have any prior convictions including but not limited to worthless checks, grand theft or money laundering please be aware they will handle your case as that of an habitual offender as your state is a zero tolerance state. 

This is also to inform you that the creditor has all the rights and authorities to inform the employer about what you have done in the past and what will be the results once the case in downloaded The entire cost incurred to execute the legal charges against you is {$7400.00} which will be levied on you please beware this excluding your bail charges, attorney charges and the due amount. 

Finally you do have a right to an attorney. If you dont have one or you can not afford one then one will be appointed to you. Please make sure that you have someone to get out when the judge hears your case. 

IF YOU WANT TO RESOLVE CASE OUTSIDE OF COURT THEN CONTACT TO SETTLEMENT DEPARTMENT : XXXX Regards XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ) XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, KS XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation