(855) 474-7596

“ My name is Clinton West with Priority legal carrying services and I have a summons in hand for you. I'm scheduled to go to your home and place of employment within the next 24 to 48 hours. Please make yourself available with 2 valid forms of id. If you are served your summons at work, a supervisor head of security will need to be available to sign off as a witness. Please be advised failure to sign for the summons may result in a missed court appearance. If you have any questions or concerns you can contact the party that is filing against you at 888-788-one-three-two-four or you can press one after the tone to be connected directly.”

Voicemail from 1 (844) 892-4193: "This is William Duke with Priority Legal [Care? Caring? Hearing? Catering? (Didn't quite catch this word, a Google search indicates that others are confused as well)] Services, and I have a summons in hand for you. I am scheduled to go out to your home and place of employment within the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours. Please make yourself available with two valid forms of ID. If you are served your summons at work, a supervisor or head of security will need to be available to sign off as a witness. Please be advised, failure to sign for the summons may result in a missed court appearance. If you have any questions or concerns, you can contact the party that is filing against you at (844) 892-4193 or you can press 1 after the tone to be connected directly."

This sounds like a scam on several levels.

PLEASE KEEP THE FOLLOWING IN MIND: Even though this particular scam does not mention debt in this message, it is likely that they would try to extract money from anyone who calls the number with a claim that there is an alleged debt. Legitimate debt collectors send letters detailing the alleged debt. Do NOT give money to anyone threatening you over the phone. It is their job to prove you owe an alleged debt, it is not your job to prove you don't owe it. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, they have to send you a letter through the U.S. Mail detailing the alleged debt, and you have 30 days from the date you received the letter to request more information to prove the debt. Even if they were to sue, you can then file a response requesting more information--remember, the burden is on them to prove you owe the alleged debt. Google searches can point you toward sample response letters and filings.

In my opinion, calling these folks is a BAD idea, for these reasons described above and below and because they can be very rude, threatening, and intimidating. But if you do call, here's an important question to ask: “In what courthouse is the legal proceeding filed and what is the case number?” If they give you any information, you can use it to check to see if the legal proceeding is genuine. Do NOT let them threaten or intimidate you, or insist that you're on some sort of "timeline" to give them money. Trying to rush you into forking money over to them strongly indicates that they are attempting to pull a scam.

In addition:

1) It is HIGHLY unlikely, and quite likely impossible, that the party initiating a court filing would have the same phone number as the process service firm. This is because is the vast majority of jurisdictions (if not all of them, and certainly all in the U.S.), the individual serving process CANNOT be a party to the legal proceedings.

2) Legitimate process servers don't warn you before serving legal filings, as that defeats the purpose. They'll come to your door unannounced and barely identify themselves. They MAY call if they can't find you at the addresses they have available, but generally speaking, that's not until they've made several attempts to serve you in person.

3) No form of identification is needed to receive legal papers. A name is sufficient for positive identification, and in many jurisdictions, another person at the address may receive the papers if the party to the proceedings is not available. If you call and they ask for your driver's license number, Social Security number, and/or credit or debit card number, it's a scam and they'll use that information to steal your money and/or your identity.

4) No "supervisor," "head of security," or any other witness is needed to receive legal papers, even at a recipient's place of employment. Likely, they're attempting to scare people into thinking that their supervisors or other coworkers will be made aware of their "embarrassing legal trouble."

5) No signing for the summons is needed; the recipient simply receives the papers.

6) A "missed court appearance" does NOT result from just refusing a summons. That could be a separate charge in some jurisdictions, but since many have "drop service" (the papers can be left at a place close to the recipient if they refuse to physically take the papers), this is unlikely. Besides, process servers usually must make several good faith attempts to serve the papers if necessary, and they have many ways to do so at their disposal, even if the party to the legal proceedings is unavailable or otherwise refuses the papers. A "missed court appearance" is just that--failure to physically appear in court once properly served with a summons.

7) This may be a scam where the process server requests payment for delivering documents. Don't fall for this--A PROCESS SERVER IS ALWAYS PAID BY THE PARTY INITIATING THE LEGAL PROCEEDINGS.

REMEMBER: Do NOT just send money to someone threatening you over the phone. By law, they have to send you a letter or properly serve a court filing, and this scam is NOT the way service is carried out.

**It is their job to prove you owe any alleged debt, it is not your job to prove that you don't owe it.**

Priority Legal Services (without the "Caring" or "Catering" or whatever) IS a process service firm, these scammers have just stolen their name. They're being scammed too!

It's a good idea to sign up for the Federal Trade Commission's scam alerts on their website, they send them by email.

Please also read BigA's post on the thread for (844) 782-2214, it is full of excellent information. Thank you, BigA!!

Source: I work in the legal field.

Stewart Stevenson called me also. I don't owe anybody, anything and I find it offensive that people resort to these tactics. Process servers don't call in advance. They show up because the element of surprise is what they need to effectively do their job.

Called my landline with ridiculous threat message. May have been born at night, but it wasn't last night. SCAM

Received a text voicemail (866)482-0768 yesterday called them back this morning. To be told yes I have a summons to sue you for the 12k you owed from a repo (years ago) will be served 24-48 hours, asking to ensure we have 2 forms of ID saying they would go to work and home to serve papers. I called this number curious what it was all about. Once I told them I have no money they got angry tone with me and said listen lady I don't care how you come up with the money you just do what ever you have to. WTH??? ((((( PLease stop them from calling me and harassing me !!!! )))))) This guy was Stewart Stevenson from Priority Legal caring Services.