Complaint Review: The Cardinal Firm - Temecula CA

Called on 7/30/18 from unknown number. Left voicemail stating the following:

This message is from "? media", attention of [omitted name], file number: DA [omitted].

I am contacting you in reference to a complaint that may have been filed against you. To discuss it's pending actions, Contact Deferment Control at 877-287-6792.

Failure to respond will result in the department proceeding without your consent. Please be advised that this call has been logged and submitted as legal proof that you have been notified of this matter

Sounded fishy from the start but to make sure this family member wasn't getting scammed, I called the number provided. Someone offering to transfer me answered the call. I stated I was contacted and told to contact this number about a legal matter. They asked for information & I asked for identity. They identified themselves as 'an answering service for 3 companies' and asked for the case/file number. I provided the number from the VM and was transferred to a guy identifying as 'Litigation Service'. He started asking for PII (Name, last 4, DoB, etc) and I stated I needed to know who I was talking to before providing anything. I was placed on hold for about 5 minutes before being transferred to "Mindy". I asked for the name of the company calling and why they were trying to get ahold of my family. I was told they are "Cardinal Firm in Temecula, CA" (verbatim) and she asked for last 4 of SSN to verify I was allowed to talk. I provided a fake number and she said it's not correct, she cannot talk to me, & I will no longer be called then hung up on me. This started to make it sound legitimate.

I called the number back and when the supposedly unaffiliated 'answering service' looked me up by phone number (pretended I didn't have the file number) they notified me that I had just talked to Cardnial & cannot be transferred or call back (very fishy for an 'important legal matter')

I reported this to my legal service & confirmed that the voicemail alone violated a few statutes/laws on the surface (in my state), including called from a masked number if they are actually a debt collect. They also agreed that the behavior is very suspicious but we should verify if it is valid. I was advised to call & have them verify any debts that they hold for us. When I called the number listed on the website, I did end up transferred to the 'Mindy' person I spoke with before and was again refused any details (despite offering verification this time).

I did some investigation into this company, their website, etc, and this has pop-up scam written all over it:

Company itself:

• Address is a mailbox at PostalAnnex+ in a strip mall in Temecula, CA
• Company claims to have been started in 2014 but the BBB first recorded them 6/28/2018 (shortly after website was created)
  • https://www.bbb.org/central-california-inland-empire/business-reviews/legal-services/the-cardinal-firm-in-temecula-ca-850034779 
• In all of my searching on address, name, domain, etc, I have found no evidence supporting any claims to being in business or existing earlier than May 2018
  • The California Secritary of State has no record of any kind of corporation under the name "The Cardinal Firm", "Cardinal Firm", or other variation/combination of those terms.
    • https://businesssearch.sos.ca.gov/ 
  • The CA Department of Consumer Affairs has no record of any business license (DBA or otherwise) for this company
    • https://search.dca.ca.gov/ 

Website: https://www.thecardinalfirm.com/

• 'Out of the box' website created by Web.com a couple months ago
• Domain first registered 81 days ago on 5/10/18
• Private registration through PERFECT PRIVACY, LLC which on it's own has many markers of fake/illegitimate company
  • https://www.bbb.org/atlanta/business-reviews/internet-web-hosting/perfect-privacy-in-atlanta-ga-27215290
• Claims "The Cardinal Firm was founded in 2014 by three former members of the U.S. military. " yet has no reference, photos, or other information to support any of that (contrary to common practice with this kind of statement).
Claims they work with "Cornerstone Law" but provides no direct link to website, no contact info, nor any full name of the firm (that name brings up quite a few results accross country)
• I checked all of the top results for law firms by that name and none of them have any mention of Cardinal Firm or even their supposed services
• There is no indentifying information of any founders, owners, members, clients, etc that leads you to believe this place has been in business as long as they have

In the end, this is a HIGHLY suspicious organization/website/group (whatever they are) and at a minimum they are operating an illigitimate/illegal business (at least accourding to California records) and are outright lying on their website, and leaving law breaking voicemails. I will continue to try to get every piece of information out of these people so they can be properly shut down for good.

If they do call you & you happen to talk to them, it would not be wise to verify any debts/legal matters/etc before providing any sensitive or financial information but that is just my personal opinion based on advice I was given. If these are legitimate organization, they deserve some serious negative legal attention for their threatenting & law-skating practices and if they are scammers, let's hope they get a nice free ride to incarceration.

NOTE: I do have each conversation with them legally recorded as well as the recorded voicemail if these are needed for future legal action.