Consumer complaint received 2016-01-05
Product: Debt collection — Payday loan
Issue: False statements or representation — Indicated committed crime not paying
Company: Financial Credit Service, Inc. (HI)

An unnamed woman called me from an unknown number and left the following voice message on my cellphone : " Hello, this is an attempt to get a " XXXX '' County Court notification to a defendant by the name of ( my name ) in regards to an open investigation attaching several charges to be filed within the County. At this time, Sir, this message only constitutes a ( garbled ) notification that your case is currently within a non-compliant status. At this time the plaintiff reserves all legal rights to fully execute on all charges to the maximum penalty of the law within " XXXX '' County District Court. Should you wish to rectify this matter you would need to contact the plaintiff 's office immediately to avoid any legal proceedings taking forth as of XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX ( CST ) with your case. The plaintiff can be reached directly at XXXX. When contacting the office please state a reference to your docket number : # # #. This will be notated, XXXX ( my name ) as your official notification, Sir, good luck moving forward. '' I missed the phone call ( XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX XXXX HST ) ( the above is the transcript from the message she left me ), but the woman then called my wife, who answered, and was very confused and concerned, because this " woman from the County Court is calling and wants to tell you something ''. The woman told my wife that my wife 's phone number was listed as a " possible relative or point of contact. '' My wife handed me the phone, the woman tells me the same thing that she left in the message, I ask what charges, she says " XXXX charges '' I ask what about, she said " I have no more information than you, you have to call this number and contact XXXX XXXX ' ". 

Panicked, I called the number she gave me and a recording answered stating : " You have reached the offices of ARA ... '' and then given a list of options with the final one being " otherwise wait on the line for the next available representative. '' I gave my " docket '' number to them and a man by the name of " XXXX XXXX '' proceeded to tell me that I had XXXX charges against me because I had failed to pay a payday loan ( that I do n't remember ever taking out ) that I " took out online in XX/XX/XXXX ''. XXXX of these XXXX charges are supposedly felonies. He told me that they 've been trying to contact me for years but letters kept getting sent back with the wrong address. He then proceeded to give me a lot of my own personal information, like my place of employment in XX/XX/XXXX, a very old address, that last XXXX digits of my social security number, and my e-mail address. I told him I have n't lived at that address for years and that I had moved out of state. He said that moving out of State could be taken as me trying to " flee '' from the debt. He said that I had committed fraud and that the " plaintiff '' was going to charge me tomorrow if I did n't pay them today. When I asked him what company he was working for he just said " The Processing and Summons Department for XXXX County ''. When I asked about " ARA '' he said that within " ARA '' there are all of these departments and that his department dealt with processing and summons and that he was specifically in charge of my County and that he would be the only person dealing with me from now on. He did n't give me any more information about his company. He did n't tell me what " ARA '' stood for '' and he seemed agitated. I told him I do n't remember ever taking out a Payday loan and that this seems strange and wrong. He told me that I had committed fraud and that if I did n't pay a certain amount by today then the " plaintiff '' would take legal action. I told him I would talk to my wife and get back to him. My wife and I have since looked up " ARA '' and we keep seeing " Debt Scam '' pop up on google. We checked our credit, there is no such " ARA '' in collections against me. These people scared us out of our wits and we 're convinced that what they 're doing is a scam and illegal.