Consumer complaint received 2017-01-26
Product: Debt collection — Payday loan
Issue: Taking/threatening an illegal action — Threatened arrest/jail if do not pay
Company: CHECK INTO CASH INC. (OK)

A person using the name XXXX XXXX called an ex family member and asked if they could get in touch with me. It was important because I was facing felony fraud charges. I called the number ( XXXX ) and it is answered XXXX ( not found in XXXX ) I asked who was filing fraud charges against me, I was told I do n't have that information ( she never told me a company name ), that 's when she said that someone used my social to take out a loan and verified an address that I had n't lived at in 6 years. I told her I actually no longer live in that state. So she talked super fast throwing all this legal stuff at me, even told me my bank from back then was being called as a witness. I informed her the only loans I had were XXXX payday loans from about that long ago that I never took care of. Less than XXXX each I do n't remember the exact amount. XXXX of those closed down after being flooded several times. She told me at XXXX that I had until XXXX to send XXXX ( in restitution ) through fast bill pay to a company called XXXX XXXX XXXX ( which XXXX found in XXXX ) XXXX also informed me that if I did n't pay and went to jail it would cost me XXXX to get out, 10 % of XXXX. I was terrified, I told her I was unemployed and had been sick for a few years. I then told her I would see if someone could help me with this ... I called her back and told her I found someone to help me pay this but I was n't sure it could happen by the deadline because that was a lot of money and we had to travel to get to a place to wire it. She ( XXXX ) told me to call her when we were in route. While I was waiting for the person helping me to come, a guy called ( it showed up on caller ID as a police dept. ) Said he was calling from the police dept to " verify '' that I was going to take care of this as I said I was ( and even mentioned XXXX by name ) " or do I need to go ahead and submit the warrant and extradition papers '' So I call my friend helping me and said someone just called me from the police dept. and told her what he said. And she said wait, hold on, call that police dept. right now. So I did and I was informed nobody called me. So I told them what was going on and I was informed that payday loans are civil matters, they can take you to court and possibly even garnish you. I also asked the officer how did they make it show up that the call came from their Dept. and I was told they can punch in any number they want to show up. ( and of course any police dept. number is listed all over the country ) I was like " oh '' So then I called both payday loan places. The one still there told me they still had my check and acct. Told me I could pay XXXX to settle it and would send me my old check or shred it ( which I intend to do asap ). I called the other and they told me my acct had been turned over to a private collection agency called XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX found in XXXX. ) I call them and you can only proceed if you have acct. number which I do n't have or put in your social, which I did n't do, so I hung up. By the way, when I spoke to XXXX about sending the money I asked her if the amount would cover both loans and she said yes. So that was a lie since one of them still had my acct and check. So I was told by the officer ... ..I ca n't tell you what to do but if it were me I would n't send the money and I would n't think any more of it. All I can say was the scare tactic worked. But they got no money. After the deadline, I got 2 calls, answered neither. XXXX left a voicemail saying she was " sending the paperwork for the warrant ( or something like that ) and good luck in court ''. I did save the voice mail. So I 'm sharing ... sounds like I was almost scammed. Hope so, sure do n't want felony charges! I have no idea who has the actual debt so I can take care of it.