Complaint Review: EquiMark Investment Group-John Cogliano CEO Colin Baxter Loan Officer Andrew Bennett Loan Rep

I applied for a personal loan with EquiMark Investment Group in the amount of $10,000. I was contacted by Andrew Bennett, Loan Representative on 9/16/06 that my loan request was approved. I was informed that I needed to send $1,200 to secure the loan (an upfront payment that would cover the first 5 months of my loan and be applied as repayment of the principal sum of the loan). I sent the $1,200 dollars through MoneyGram on 9/19/06 as instructed to Dave Stroncheck in Kapehart, Alberta, Canada. MoneyGram Reference# 74270228. I was told that the $10,000 would be electonically deposited into my checking account.

On 9/20/06 Colin Baxter, Loan Officer (said he was Andrew Bennett's boss) from EquiMark Investment Group called me to inform me that my loan was not approved and I would have to send another $1,200 dollars. At that time I felt that a scam or some type of fraud was taking place against me. I told Colin Baxter that I would not send anymore money and that I no longer was intersted in doing business with his company and to send me a refund of my $1,200 dollars. Mr. Baxter told me that he would send me a refund for $1,200 dollars plus $70.00 (my out of pocket expense for sending the MoneyGram). The total refund due to me is $1,270 dollars. I waited a week and did not receive my refund. I called Mr. Baxter back and asked him where was my refund check. He informed me that my refund check would be mailed to me on October 20th and I would have it on October 21st. I was still very sceptical that I was going to receive my refund. I called Mr. Baxter on October 18th to see when my check was coming. He once again said the check would be mailed on October 20th and I would recieve it on October 21st. Today is October 24th and I have yet to receive my refund check.

I also filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau covering the San Francisco area on October 24th. Please see complaint listed below:

Thank you for contacting the Better Business Bureau (BBB) regarding your complaint.

The complaint was received by the BBB on October 24, 2006 and has been assigned case# 57085645 in our files. Please make a note of this number.

Your complaint has been applied to the following business:
Equimark Investments
505 Montgomery
San Francisco, CA 94112

The case has been reviewed by one of our Dispute Resolution Specialists and has now been forwarded to the business for their response. Should you hear directly from the company and the complaint is resolved, please notify us immediately.

I have since tried to contact EquiMark several times and the phone number they have listed is no longer working. You get a recording that says your Universal Office account has temporarily put on hold, please contact customer service. Then your call is dropped.

I hope they find these crooks and prosecute them to the fullest. It is unfortunate that predators like EquiMark pray on hard working people. I would love to see these guys behind bars and to also recover my money. At this point I don't believe I will ever recover my money, so I would be very satisfied if they all went to jail for a long time.

Wendy
Upperville, Virginia
U.S.A.