Minnesota AG Suing Jamaica-Based Company Over Payday Loan Scam

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Minnesota's attorney general is suing a Jamaica-based company.

Attorney General Lori Swanson says the company is hounding Minnesota residents with phony debt collection calls. Swanson says Global Gateway Solutions has bullied residents to pay off debts they didn't owe.

"These debts are called phantom debt," she said, "because they're made out of whole cloth. They're not real. But the company targeted people really aggressively, threatened to file lawsuits if they didn't agree to pay these payday loans that weren't theirs -- that they didn't owe -- because in many cases they had never even taken out a pay day loan."

Swanson says this is a big scam going on around the country right now, not just locally.

Minnesota law requires debt collectors to provide debt verification and allow people to dispute those debts.