Description

The scam starts off with a voicemail: This is from US Document Services call for a complaint received in our office for {First Name} {Last Name} with a reference case number ######. Documents regarding your file are being prepared to be sent out. You need to be available to sign for the delivery. The issuing agent will dispatch confirmation if they are unable to reach you at home - they will attempt to reach you at your verified place of employment. In order to stop action from being taken you will need to contact the issuing agent at an 888 number. This call is being logged and recorded as proof of efforts being made to notify you. Once you call the number, a man or woman from ADR Mediation will answer your call and ask for your name and case number, they also have your caller id so can see your number. They will do a fake forward to someone who sounds like the same person and they will claim to be a lawyer from Steinberg & Stanley law firm. They claim that both these businesses are located in San Francisco at 4 Embarcadero Plaza. They will read back personal information like your address, date of birth and social security number as well as past addresses and other personal information. They will claim that you owe a debt from years ago with a legitimate bank. I immediately know this was off because I have a perfect credit score 800+ and millions of dollars of net worth. They claimed that I had a debt with HSBC where I have maintained several accounts. Despite their threats I ended the call. I called up HSBC and they informed me that I have always had zero debt and a perfect standing with them and they have never made any collection efforts against me. They forwarded me to their fraud department who said they never worked with this ADR Mediation or Steinberg & Stanley and indicated that they are known scammers. They also indicated that my financial information might have been exposed in a data breach and these scammers had purchased a list. Upon further investigation, I called the California Bar Association and Steinberg & Stanley is NOT a legitimate law firm. Coincidentally a friend of mine is the General Property manager of the entire Embarcadero Plaza in San Francisco and he said that there are no tenants named US Document Services, ADR Remediation, or Steinberg & Stanley in any of their 4 buildings. I called the 888 number back several times and the same guy and girl would answer the line with different names, either saying ADR Mediation or Steinberg & Stanley. Based on the background noise these two are not in an office setting and seem to be operating a scam off VoIP calls to their cell phones. They told me that the process server would be serving me papers at my home or place of business within 48 hours. Neither has happened. This is clearly a scam.