Bass Victims Florida Ag Investigation

Very informative thread here. TYVM Cajun for your hard work. The longer I am here and poke around....the more I am absolutely astounded at how easy it apparently is to simply rob poeple blind! Thnx to all others who also added helpful and truthful info. concerning this company!

I agree with cajun. Seeing that these are interstate activities, I'm sure they could find some violations which might even fall under the RICCO Act.

They could be charged with extortion, but the person who is the victim of their illegal practices has to file a police report against them. A citizen in Arizona filed a police report against a collector who repeatedly threatened him with arrest if he didn't pay his bill, the citizen filed charges, the prosector was able to get the collector to be found guilty of extortion, he received a prison term, over $250,000 in fines to payback the consumers he illegally threatened, and when he is released from prison he will be on 5 years probation, and a felony on his record.

Thanks STEELERS1. That's the sort of actions consumers should take when wronged.

I used to have the link to the article from the local newspaper in Arizona where this collector lived. It had all the information on this particular case. But my computer went haywire, had to get it fixed and lost alot of files I had saved. I'm still looking for it so I can repost it. The link is in one of my post somewhere on this forum. :roll:

Amen to this--but you know what's sad? Not enough people will step up and do it, meaning that pond scum like Bass and Associates will get away with it!

Hello everyone, fellow consumers, just like me. Have you all heard the news. Despite what Mr. Lemmons and Cajunbulldog say, Bass and Associates takes a strong stance against collection agencies ignoring the laws. Bass and Associates hold themselves up to the highest standard when dealing with consumers, in fact, they are appalled that anyone could say such mean and untruthful things about them. Liars!!!

Guest you are too funny and everything I posted is public record so it is very hard to call me a liar.

Well I have dealt with Bass and I know that they dont follow the laws so good post there buddy! I am assuming you work for Bass. The only liars are Bass and Associattes...with their illegal scare tactics..and I have the voicemails saves to prove it!

Hello again, Bass employee. Are you running out of options? Are you now reduced to coming here and spouting outright lies. There is not one person who has had a call from you guys that were legal call. You threaten consumers with arrest, and accuse them of crimes that you pull out of your Basshole. You make up stupid words, such as "You will be downloaded." What the hell does that even mean? If you are going off of some script written for you to read, then fire that dumbass writer of yours, he or she is not any smarter than a box of rocks.

All I can say is nice try, guest--or should I say, Bass employee. We have exposed your scummy agency for what it really is.

Great info Cajun! Thanks for sharing

i posted this same message today at the DW Griffey thread>>>

I never even got a formal name from any of them, only that they were DW Griffey (this immediately raised red flags because what legitimate company would name themselves as a take off on a racist film director), their phone number, and that they were going to have me thrown in jail for check kiting. She threatened to tell my boss, supervisor, and human resouces that I was using the company computer to commit felonies. She then said that I better get a lawyer. When I stated that I had a lawyer, she said that then I must be guilty. I tried several times to try and give her the number to the legal office that is negotiating my debt, but she would not let me get two words in edgewise. When I was finally able to speak and said once again that I had legal representation negotiating my debts and that she needed to call them, she stated she was not going to call anyone but the FBI. (I believe this is when i started laughing.)
She then said that she was going to get her supervisor to talk to me because I was in big trouble. A man then came on the phone, and started giving me the same basic speech about check kiting, interstate bank fraud, and they were processing the warrants as they were speaking.
I only gave my patent response of "you need to talk to my lawyer". He stated,"you don't have a lawyer; what's his name?" When I began to state the name and number he cut me off and said "i thought not, you need to get real because you are in very big trouble and I am going to tell your supervisor..what is his number". This went on about 15 minutes until he finally figured I wasn't going to rise to the emotional level he was searching. He called back a second time and asked what was my address at work. I gave him the same response of you need to speak to my legal representation. (I guess he was still trying to scare me with the threat of immediate arrest). He cut me off and said "don't worry about it, we have ways of finding out". Well he should since it was written on all my loan applications. I called the debt solutions office and talked to my caseworker who stated "it has to be Ellis Crosby up to their old tricks". I then searched the phone number and found this site. I too had various payday loans, but the debt solutions office convinced me to close my bank account and let them handle negotiations for a pay off to the myriad companies. I am soooo glad I did. I had been in the trap for over 3 years. I've written too much..DO NOT LET THEM SCARE YOU...Thank you for everyone who has written about their story with Ellis, Bass, DW or whatever they are calling themselves today...

I posted on the DW Griffey topic thread today of my story with this company from yesterday. That seems to be the name they are going by now (a misspelling on a racist film director...hint it's Griffith clueless.) From reading other threads, I know they lurk in these forums). I want them to also know that I contacted the Attorney General Office in Florida, and I am looking into seeking a personal civil suit. I will not be intimidated by lies, half truths, double talk, innuendo, and stupidity.
I want everyone to know that if you get a call from someone who's number is 877-281-2220, and they threaten you with a myriad of crimes, but will not give you any specifics, but act as if they will immediately have you arrested, this is Bass and Associates a new form of Ellis Crosby. Just laugh and ask them for the number to the Florida Attorney General's office. They know it intimately.
I am attempting to wake up from a 3 year nightmare with PayDay Loan Companies. I have closed my bank account and hired a debt solution law office to negotiate with them for settlement. Last payday was the first whole check I have seen in 3 years. I can now make payments instead of having them just take what they think I owe them. I just wish I had found this site earlier.

A rose by any other name . . . is still Frank Jackson (a convicted felon) and Evelyn Cain of Jacksonville Florida. They own the company.

Guest: Where did you get the information on the owners of Bass and Associates? That is something I have never heard. As far as I knew, they were still owned by Ellis. Please share where you got this, so that I can expand on it.

I do skip tracing for a living and decided to have some fun after Arrowhead sent my loan to these animals. Florida Secretary of State has the corporate records available online. Those show Jackson and Cain as the owners. From there it was doing a skip trace on the company to find out who actually worked there, since I figured they were just a front for someone else. (I was actually looking for the individual collector that was hassling me - thought I'd start calling her at home - but I think it was a fake name.) But Jackson and Cain both turned up along with Jackson's criminal record.

Interesting, do as much research as you can, and please share.

are bass and associate and united pay services are affiliated? 'coz i was a victim of this people from bass and then i have two more accounts one of them is i don't have any idea i owe them something, but anyways, it was arrowhead and 5nevis, and arrowhead gave me icollect number and a lady named missy from icollect gave me united pay services number which 305-396-6625 and she wants me to talked to jack smith. i talked a guy named frank somethin and he jack is not in, so i asked for a debt validation from him and he he'll send it to me but he said his computer is slow so he needs to go to another room and pull my account and that he will call me back in afew mins. but then i wait and wait and nobody called so i called him back and asked for frank and he frank is not in and i told him that he sounds like the guy that i talked to and he was like, oh, i thought you said jack... got him... i asked for the debt validation again and same he said he still need to pull my account... but nobody call so i tried all day yesterday to call them and nobody pick the phone... thank everybody, if it wasn't for this forum i will probably give them my money... bass and associate needs to stop harassing people... until now i can't sleep that phone call from julie flynn scared the hell out of me... it is crazy... but i still need some help about this people from united pay services... please help!!! :cry:

United Pay and Bass are collection agencies used by iCollect, which is the same thing as Bahamas Marketing Group. Bass is in Florida and United Pay is just a call center in India. If you want them off your back, file AG complaints against Bahamas, specifically against "Lindsay K" the manager that runs debt collection for Bahamas. She'll tell you a bunch of crap about them being debt buyers and not subject to the fdcpa but that's all it is - crap. Under the FDCPA a debt buyer is a debt collector unless it buys the debt BEFORE it goes into default. iCollect doesn't take over debt unless you close your account and the original lender can't get paid.

Anthony- Bahama Marketing Group is the same as Ellis Crosby/Bass and Associates?

We need to put all of this information together in one place. This is great and should be available as a reference for anyone here. How would we do that?

I did get a response to the complaint I made against them but they wont validate the account at all.....Of course I was told basically that I'm a liar and that they NEVER use arrest to get their money......I should post the whole response letter.....

You should!! One more time we show them to be the liars they are.

No Tweety, they aren't the same. Bahama Marketing buys defaulted loans from a bunch of different lenders (B&L, Premier Processing, Arrowhead, FSM and a dozen or so others) and then sends those loans along with the ones they make themselve to Bass and United Pay to collect for them.

Wow, I've read this thread the entire way through. Cajun, thanks for posting this information. I'm glad that it's been confirmed that Allen Lewis & Associates is a DBA of Bass. They are the ones who contacted me in December and harassed me at work. I have filed complaints with the Florida AG, my AG, the FTC, and the BBB. I'm wondering what else that I can do. I think contacting the FBI is a good idea since they threatened me with all kinds of crazy threats as well. This is something that I would like to pursue further because this company needs to be shut down. It's interesting that their "employees" are coming on here and defending this scum company. It's a wonder how we are all liars since they are such a wonderful company. Yes, a lot of sarcasm in my voice here. This would be a project that I would like to work on because I'm tired of their illegal tactics. Yet, they continue to do business as normal and that is just WRONG! :twisted:

If they've made all kinds of crazy threats, contact the sheriff's department. Record all calls, if legal in your area as evidence.

Well, I contacted my local sheriff's office but they said to contact the sheriff in Florida. I found a link and filed a semi-complaint online. I figured it couldn't hurt. I have good records of all phone calls with them so we'll see where this goes.

I just wish that anyone who has recordings of Bass and Ass making these illegal comments would upload them to this site, and let us spread them around. Come on, someone has to have a recording or two.

Does anyone have the name of the local newspaper in Jacksonville, Fla? I think they would be very interested in this information, don't ya think?

Mishele, sounds like you're doing the right things. Yes you are right, you'd probably have to file the criminal complaint in the county where the collector is. You probably wouldn't hear from the FBI. I read recently, that since 9-11, they are so short of special agents that they've put even ID theft on the back burner.

Looks like the local paper is the Florida Times-Union. If you're gonna contact them, you might as well give them plenty to look at . . .

Bass was incorporated on 6/14/06. Spiegel & Uterra, a Miami law firm is listed as the registered agent but the company lists an address at 314 W 44TH ST, JACKSONVILLE FL 32208-5101, which appears to be a mail drop. The registered owners. are Frank Clifford Jackson III and Evelyn Cain, both of Jacksonville. A skip trace shows "Jackson Phillips" as his place of employment (along with Bass) so that should end any questions about that. The local number listed for Bass (which I haven't tested) is (904)359-5188.

Good luck

Sweet!!!!!!!
Thanks, Guest!! And why don't you register with us?? Sounds like we would benefit from your information!!

BTW - Jackson has a long record. Mostly misdimeanor traffic stuff, but some arrests for assault and passing bad checks too. Doesn't look he did much time (about a month) and all of that at the county level.

Why hasn't the Florida Times-Union exposed these crooks? They are going to receive a nice news tip very soon!!

Probably pretty typical of your collector law firms. Looks like someone should report him to the Florida Bar as well (if he's an attorney). In California you have to take a Moral and Character test before sitting for the bar exam.

Ok Law Student,
Now I have to ask the obvious question, because as you know, I am also in California: Just what in the Sam Hill is on a "Moral and Character test"?? And you know that I have some suggestions for that one, LOL...

There are no attorneys at Bass. They just tell people that they are to scare them.

LOL kscornell, really that does seem like an oxymoron for some attorneys. But it's mainly a lot of questions asking if you've ever been convicted of anything, ever had any drinking problems,etc. I haven't applied for it yet, but I'll see how it goes.

Guest, that in itself is a pretty big breach of the law and should be enough to put them out of business. Thanks for your posts, they are very valuable.

so can anybody tell me again if bass and united pay services are one? sorry, just making sure... 'coz i'm waiting for them to call me, 'coz icollect sent my other accounts to them... i'm actually making a research about them, but all i got is their tel. no. 305-396-6625 and it's registered to homestead,fl. that's all i got no address or anything. i try to call them everyday but nobody pick up the phone, i will file a complaint to florida ag about bass. and i will make more research about these united pay... but if someone out there knows anything about this people especially jack smith 'coz that's the name from icollect gave me...she actually slipped 'coz she said it's in india... help please...

I don't think they are one and the same--but Bass has so many DBA's that I wouldn't be surprised if they were, to be honest. And whether Bass has contacts in India--now that is a scary thought! I'm sure they are ripping off their associates there if they do.

They are separate companies contracted by BMG/iCollect. BMG/iCollect buys a lot of payday loan accounts from other lenders. Some they send to Bass in Florida. Others go to United Pay, which is just an offshore call center in India. I'm not sure how they decide what goes where but it seems the loans they buy from Arrowhead Investments always go to Bass and they send most of the rest to India. What matters is that all of the accounts are controlled from Kansas by iCollect.

First off I will repeat what guest has said. There are no attornies registered working for these people and we know for a fact they are not the law or court personnel.We are left with the facts that they are collectors who do not follow the law.I am inserting a link to add to everyone's collection. It is for the licensing agency for collectors in Florida.

http://www.flofr.com/licensing/licensing-h.htm
You can file a complaint with them too. I highly recommend everyone do so as they still have a valid collection agency license which I find really hard to stomach.
Guest you have very good info.Mine was collected from Florida public records.If you have any more sources I could look at to add to this post,please don't be shy.

Stop being harassed:
Sample Debt Validation/Cease and Desist letter. Do not pay a collection agency any money without first sending this letter. If you have any questions, please contact Anthony.

Quote:

Wow, it doesn't surprise me he has a record. Isn't it ironic though he got in trouble for passing bad checks? They claim so many of us have committed check fraud by defaulting on payday loans. What a bunch of morons.

I guess it takes one to know one!!

Why don't we begin a thread, and everyone who comments in it promises to send the Florida Times all of the personal dealings we each have had and the information that we all have compiled. The paper would soon see that there are thousands of consumers who faced these crooks. They would see a big story in it.

That's not a bad idea, Anthony.

It's one thing if they just get one email--but quite another if they get many. That way, they have to expose them for what they really are. Kind of like lifting up a rock and seeing what crawls out from under.

I'm that bug with hundreds of legs scrambling to hide.