First National Credit--deceptive, but legal *Consumer Suggestion
I, too, received the "$15,000 guaranteed approval" bit from FNC. However, while the mailing does use such knee-jerk phrases as "Gold Card" and "Reserved a card in your name," note that the _important_ words, "Visa" and "MasterCard" don't appear anywhere. They are betting on us interpolating "Gold" into "Visa Gold."
In short, it's not a true scam, which involves outright lying, but rather a successful attempt to make us see what isn't there. A ruse de guerre...or maybe ruse de franc is more appropriate.
Needless to say, their phone number always has the answering machine on, they never answer their email, and they don't have an email address--although when I sent email to the service, root, customer-service, support, and info@firstnationalcredit.com accounts, only customer-service bounced. I never got an answer, however.
FNC is one of the sneaky ones; at least if a con involves outright lying, you can sue. These guys are the worst breed of scammers--stay away!
2 Updates & Rebuttals
The bottom line is this: don't let anyone dissuade you from pursuing your rights.
#30
Thu, November 01, 2001
They filed the following rebuttal to the above Rip-Off Report:
Their email: TheFraudChick@aol.com
Their name: The Fraud Chick
Their relationship to the company: Consumer Suggestion
Rebuttal:
It's true that First National Credit does not blatantly lie. But fraud involves much more than just an out and out lie. First National is utilizing "deceptive practices" to lure in customers. Its methods are deceptive, misleading and fraudulent in nature.
There are laws and regulations on the books that protect consumers from scoundrels who use clever wording and the manipulation of font sizes to mislead the unsuspecting public.
For example, the US Postal Inspection Service has rules that protect consumers from bogus yellow pages advertising. The bills sent to small businesses has the walking fingers logo, may actually say "yellow pages" and outline what the advertising will cost--all in a, let's say type 12 font. So it looks like a bill to the small business and they may pay it. But, at the bottom of the invoice, written in type 6 font-- tiny miniscule
letters in comparison to the full text of the solicitation, it may say:
"This is not a bill, this is a solicitation for advertisement space in our business directory."
Now, that company didn't "lie." But it's still a scam because they accentuated the scheme and virtually diminished the truth. There are other ways to scam the consumer besides font size. Some fraudsters put the "Paul Harvey" (rest of the story) on a second sheet of paper or on the back of the solicitation.
The bottom line is this: don't let anyone dissuade you from pursuing your rights. Don't let them get away with it. Report anyone who you believe has scammed you to the proper authorities.
Good Luck
The Fraud Chick
#30
Wed, October 31, 2001