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Imposter Lawson Associates Firm Debt Collection Scam

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Imposter Lawson Associates Firm Debt Collection Scam Reports & Reviews (1)

- Naples, FL, USA • Mar 12, 2025
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I was dealing with some unusual family stress and in a very emotional state which I believe had my judgement clouded due to a vulnerable state of mind. I received an 'unknown' call from Frank Davis with SDP whom was asking for me by my full legal name. I never answer unknown calls and yet...The man said that he was trying to serve me a court summons from a law firm representing a local hospital that was pursuing unpaid medical debt. The ONLY reason that I gave it any credence is because that is the one business that had sued me in the past for an identical situation. Frank said that he's on the way, but that I should verify the information first. That I could take down the information and call the firm in an attempt to authenticate or at the very least to postpone the summons until tomorrow. I reluctantly took the info and called Laston & Associates law firm. The rep Jeffrey Busma ext. 308 asked me a lot of personal information. He then said that this was regarding unpaid medical services from 2012. I started discussing with him that I was not there in 2012 to my recollection and would like time to verify. Being 4pm in the afternoon, this would be difficult. I called a friend/mortgage broker whom I trust and then started calling attorneys. Due to the fact that I'm in a low income bracket, I don't have an attorney that would handle such a case so I started with a web search. Without being able to reach any to at least ask an opinion, I called my Dad. Then brother. Then Mom. All of which were not sure. I called Jeffrey back and got John. John said that the settlement options will expire once I am served. If I had opened my mail, then I may have avoided such a circumstance, but at this point, it's beyond the point of no return once served. He said that if I wanted to avoid it, I would need to pay $15000 in one payment or $25000 by way of $100 paycheck garnishments that I agreed to. Should I get served, the amount would be adjusted to $100,000 to include attorney fees and court costs. In addition to the imminent summons, they were also submitting a 30% wage garnishment to which he named my employer and length of employment This was not something I confirmed nor denied. I was adamant that I was not agreeing to anything and he began to try and end the conversation. I'll see you in court. Listen John, I am asking for a little good faith here. I'd like to see something in writing about the allegations. He gave me the invoice# and said to contact the billing department to verify. I said that that's all well and good, but I'm unsure of any hospitalizations that year, plus, I had health insurance at that time. So the amounts he's throwing at me were unimaginable to me. He agreed with me that my inability to contact the billing department after 5pm, he would give me until 3pm tomorrow to confirm the circumstances. Beyond that, they would see me in court. I looked up the website to which it looked very official. As an IT professional, I have had several law firms as clients and I thought it odd that they would shorten their name for the domain name/website. larsonassocfirm.com was a terrible name to which he said I know. We get that all the time. I should have checked how old the site was right then and there. I got suckered into 5 hours of increasingly concerning phone calls trying to officially validate the data. The next morning, with 4 calls to the hospital, 4 different collection agencies (7 calls to them), and 2 calls BACK to Larson & Associates, I was given enough information to stay on the hook. Ultimately, the hospital tells me the first 3 times, that they didn't have anything for 2012, but that I was sent to legal for other dates. The invoice did not match any of their data nor the collection agencies. UNTIL, the latter calls. I couldn't locate anything with my name, social, address, or d.o.b. so each call to the collection agencies, they would ask for additional identifying data promoting additional return calls to the hospital. The 4th call I reached a woman whom had worked there so long, she had access to the archive system. She pulled up additional records from other years but not 2012. Wait, well...I show a date of service on (whatever day and month) but when she opens it, the data is missing. As an IT pro, what I suspect happened is that they hacked the archive and erased the data. She told me that every visit gets a new account #, but there is a (blank) number that is consistent throughout. I called agencies one by one. Finally I found one that had all of my data. It was forwarded to get another agency and I was given a number. Before we disconnected, my wife hands me the discharge paperwork for the date in question and the invoice # given matched a number on my records. So in frustration and disbelief, the rep, God Bless her, asked for more information. She kept trying to calm me down and she was trying to give me all of the procedures they do, step by step She finally suggested, 'please don't hold me liable because I'm not 100% positive, but I would be willing to bet that if you called them back again, you're going to give them further information or at the very least, confirm the findings they sent you looking for. She disclosed many similar scams. She was telling me that the statue of limitations has run out. Well, that was the very first search I ran and apparently in my state if there is a signed agreement between two parties that the S.o.l. is 5 years, HOWEVER, if there is no agreement, that there is no limit. I verified this on multiple sites including the official state site. This was recently modified in legislation, however, it will not go into effect until next year. In a final attempt to give me some peace, she said that the hospital did in fact send certain visits but that they were written off as uncollectable. Yet again, just enough to continue but I feel a little better. I thanked her and the next call I got was an attorney I had a call from earlier in the day. This person went as far as to check my name against any pending legal actions in my county and state which came back as nothing active. In the event that I get served, that I could call them back. She asked if I asked them for a copy of the complaint in writing, which I had. One of them had said that they would NOT be able to at this stage. Another flag for the attorney. Feeling much better, but now irritated, I remembered that Frank from the first call had left a message immediately after because I didn't have a pen. I decided to look him up. Neither his company name, PDS, nor his name where anywhere that I could find. The law firm had no complaints against it. As a matter of fact there are so many Larson & Associates that I started to think that this was a well thought out planned phishing scam. I teach my clients how to spot these almost daily. How to protect themselves. I feel so embarrassed to the entire mess, that I am in disbelief. The ONE step I always suggest is to perform a WHOIS with icann.com. They are the internet/domain name authorities (sort of like the clerk of courts but for the internet). The website was created a month ago. Which explains why there are zero reports. At this point, I was finally comfortable that I am good. If I can sum up any suggestions to anyone that may get sucked in like I was. Try and stay calm & focused. Go into the situation as every one of these is in fact a scam and don't acknowledge anything. Ever. Your name. D.o.b. even dates or that you were at a hospital because with that, they will now confirm whatever hacker stole the information in the first place and you become even more vulnerable. I believe I am against the clock to stop an impending attempt at them stealing my identity. Fortunately, I have a lock on my social. This group had everything on me as it was already. He had the 2 credit cards I had. He knew how late I was. When they were opened. my social. d.o.b. address. and now I confirmed that I was in fact the person they called about AND that I had been to the hospital before. This too was very disheartening because of just how much info that they already had, in addition to representing the only business I've ever been to court with. Very scary. Although I don't have anything to steal. The amount of work that was taken from me in addition to future work I will need to put in to try and clear up whatever else has been done. Not a good day for someone that teaches how to spot the scammers in the first place!

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