04-0240-2356

He left this message:
Please call Liam urgently on 1300722974

He also left ref number.

The 1300 number is for state mercentile debt collectors

These calls r also made at night generally when I'm putting the kids to sleep. Call during the day when I answer my phone

Had a phone call from this number and he yelled then hang up

Just had a call from this number and as soon as I answered they hung up immediately

Just got a call from Kyle from this number and asked where he was from and he said Panthera Finance - a debt collector.....attempting to collect money for a debt that's not even mine and they can't provide proof to me that it is. They continually call usually around 730pm - 8pm when I am putting my children to bed. Very frustrating!!!

I received a text mesage on Anzac Day 2013 stating "Your Panthera Finance payment has been dishonoured, please reply yes to this message to process your payment"
Their website indicates they are some kind of collection agency. I also looked up their ABN and it appears on Anzac Day 2013 they registered 2 business names under the Panthera Finance ABN, oddly enough they are both Veterinary Clinics.
Now its exactly a month after Anzac Day 8:56am, and they just attempted to call me.
Scam for sure.

had a call just now. OP was looking for frank mulch. he explained that he was from state mercantile but left out the 'debt collection' part. he had a professional voice over the phone but was very insisting and aggressive somewhat.

i kept insisting that i was not frank mulch and he argued that this number has been provided to him 6 months prior to the phone call. as i have just signed up with my mobile company, this is all false. i tried to tell him this but the OP did not seem receptive to any of it. apparently it is illegal to ask for people's numbers or something like that. i brushed it off, already having a feeling that it is a scam. he also mentioned that telstra keeps their numbers for at least 6 months after a user disconnects with them. how the guy knew i was a telstra customer, i could never figure out.

as he went on and on about trying to convince me that i'm frank mulch, i just gave up. i then requested him not to be contacted by the company again. he again insisted that if i should send them details to prove that i am not frank mulch, otherwise they will keep contacting me as per procedure. i assume he wants my postal address and credit card information. i said no that will not be possible, then he continued on to say that he has no choice but to keep contacting me.

at that moment, i put down the phone on him and immediately did some research. i came up with the following below:

website: https://www.statemercantile.com.au
ABN: 75 108 116 445
no they call from: 04 0240 2356
company owner: Douglas Murrell (but this name is different to the person i was speaking to...)
linked-in account: http://au.linkedin.com/pub/douglas-murrell/32/b61/3b6
email: admin@statemercantile.com.au  
scam stories:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_the_Mercantile_F ... _running_a_scam
http://www.creditreportproblems.com/Mercantile_Adjustment_Bureau.htm
https://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/1300662061
http://phoneowner.info/Number.aspx/1300722974
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8JIWFd-5CA

as a web developer i tried to get into more detail.
if you search state mercantile, they have completely dominated the first page and half of the second page. to my understanding, this only happens when

1. the company wants a lot of exposure
2. the company has something to hide (aka bad reviews) as 90% of users don't even go past the first page when searching
3. the company has plenty of money and has been doing this for quite a while.

though to be fair, the search terms were fairly specific. although i believe this is the case, you can prove me wrong any time and i will welcome it.

as an added note, i believe that there can be 2 scenarios to this.
1 the company has no idea an external party is using their business name to scam people
2 the company itself is a malicious form of marketing, solely trying to scam people to get credit card info

please spread the word to warn everyone against this company. thanks.

Yes, these fraudulent [***] have resorted to sending out scam debt collection letters on behalf of Telstra. They were even stupid enough to put the wrong account number on the letter, but otherwise the letter looked quite official and potentially would fool many people if they didn't bother to check.
Maybe it would be appropriate for some computer hacker to jam their website (www.pantherafinance.com.au) or send the [***] a viral sandwich.

I havent received any calls but I have had letters been sent to me from "Panthra Finance today I just received my 2nd letter stating that I owe money to AGL for electricity but to there stupidness I dont pay power bills through AGL bloody idiots so I intend to take my two letters to the police tomorrow as these scammers may get a old couple to pay money for a debt that doesn't even exist to me it looks like a legitimate company but I did some research first before I paid anything thank god please do your research first with any company that says you owe money.

My partner had a similar call tonight. They tried to insist we owed almost $200 in unpaid AGL bills from 2008. Asked for credit card details over the phone! What a joke. After I insisted they send some form of correspondence to us they emailed a rather shoddy version of an invoice. Just to be sure, will call AGL tomorrow to see if this unpaid account exists. Prepared to bet anything on this being a scam. Please let me know how you got on with the police!!

I've been receiving call from Panthera finance over the last couple of months.

They say that I owe AGL $400 from 2008 / 2009. Funny thing is I moved out of the property
in 2007.

I don't think the police could do anything about this type of situation. It's more a matter
for Consumer and business affairs, or a similar government agency.

I am not prepared to do anything until I receive something in writing. I don't think
they have my residential address.

If anyone has had similar problems can you please reply.

I also have received letters  from Panthera Finance . they Claim I owe AGL $200 from 2008 . I don't recall owing them any money , and why have they waited this long to contact me? why have I not received any letter from AGL for an unpaid bill . I have changed electricity companies twice after AGL .
The last month or so I keep getting emails from them, I have just replied to them asking for proof of what I owe and from when ?
If I do owe it I am happy to pay . I am abit worried if it is a scam . and I will NOT give out my Credit card details to them.

On Tuesday this week I contacted the energy ombudsman of South Australia.
They sent a request to AGL Energy for them to phone me by the close of business
thursday. They never rang - again very unprofessional.

I rang the ombudsman friday and told them. They said that AGL will have to pay a fee
because they didn't ring me. They now have until Tuesday next week to ring me, if they
don't ring then I'll call the ombudsman office and I think AGL will have to pay another fee.  

AGL are very dodgy.

Kezz, I would recommend contacting the energy ombudsman ASAP in your state. Just do a quick
google search to find the details.

Also I think ringing AGL is a waste of time. Go straight to the ombudsman.

Panthera works an agent for AGL, so AGL will support the claim from Panthera
that there is a debt which needs to be paid.

When I rang the ombudsman they asked me if I had contacted AGL. I answered
no. There's no point in contacting them for the reason stated above.

I've just received letter from Panthera Finance as well for a debt with Agl but I've never been with that company. Do you suggest I go to the police or go higher up, these people need to be stopped.

They are not a fake company!!!  If you have gotten a letter with the wrong account number remember to consider it is probably an OLD account of yours thus why it is now a debt

contact the energy ombudsman

They are debt collector scum bags - they troll through old outstanding unpaid dead debts from banks and public utilities as a last ditch resort. Most banks kill off accounts after a few years. They keep calling me fir an old bank account I hardly ever used, closed the account off but CBA, good old Commonwealth Bank ! In this case wants their account fees paid five years later after the business was closed they want fees paid for a dead account. !! Morons. !!  - that's what this scum company does - harass you then ask you to put in your credit cars details - they can go F$&k themselves and do can CBA - don't let this company harass you - just ignore them as they'll scam your credit card then your really stuffed - they are bottom dwelling scum backed by even poorer scum banks and utilities - report them to the ombudsman or local fraud authorities

Wow! I have paid these guys $800 so far and just found this. Pretty pissed!

Ive been getting calls and spoke to these Panthera Finance today, they now have a new number  0403001634, and insisting I have a telstra debt. Insisting I send all my info to them. Debt collectors send a letter first then wait for you to call or they do after a short while but they have all the info and usually you would have some corrospondance from the company in question. Low lives.