Public Service Announcement

[Game Plan]

This post is meant to serve as a warning to anyone who has been contacted by a debt collector representing themselves as “Pristine Financial Group” out of California. As you will see in the details below, this is NOT a legitimate operation.

My initial contact with them was two voice mails left on my home and work phones from someone impersonating a process server. He said that he had a summons for me to appear in court but would delay serving me for 24 hours to give me a chance to solve the matter out of court. He said to call 888-753-3849. This instantly raised red flags since I know that processer servers don’t give courtesy calls. If you have been sued they will serve you.

I called the number and the person that I spoke with said his name was Robert Lee. He had information on an old credit card account that has passed the 4 year SOL in Texas. He was trying to collect $1500 on a $400 debt with expired SOL and was fishing for personal information.

I contacted an attorney who practices in FDCPA law. He was preparing to file a lawsuit for multiple FDCPA volitions and discovered that this “company” is not registered with the California Sectary of State and hence has no registered agent to serve with legal paperwork. When he called them and said that he was legal counsel they immediately hung up on him.

He concluded that this is not simply a debt collection company who is violating the law but a criminal operation. Filling suit against them is really not an option because they are not a real company and we don’t know who their identities.
I will be filing complaints with the following authorities:

Texas Attorney General
California Attorney General
California Secretary of State
FTC

If you have been contacted by these criminals, I strongly urge you to collect as much information as possible and file complaints with all appropriate government agencies. These people are criminals and need to be held to account for their actions.

[DigitalDiva]

Wow!! Thanks for the "heads-up"...