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Protel ripoff Clearwater Florida
I Dont have any idea who Protel is. I do remember talking to a company claiming to give me a 5,000.00 tax refund from the government. In order to do this they needed to have my bank account number and a credit card number just in case the bank account number didnt work. They said they would have the 5000 cash in my bank account within 3 hrs. The guys name was Joseph and he had a foriegn accent(like from India), so I really couldnt understand everything he was saying. I continually asked the man if he was going to take any amount of money out of my account. He said NO. Then we had to "confirm" the transaction by saying YES or NO on a recording. Joseph told me not to say anything but yes to the questions or we would have to start all over again, If I had any questions he would answer them at the end of the recording. I heard on the recording that I would be charged a processing fee of 299.95 and some other fee of 89.95. I said yes to it. But at the end of the recording when I could ask questions they hung up. I sat and thought about it for a while (like ten minutes) and realized I just made a big mistake. I tried to call the "customer service" number which kept me on hold for 30 minutes. Then Joseph called back. I asked him why they were going to debit money out of my account and he said that after they put the 5000 in my account that they would take out the fees. I told him I didnot want anything to be taken out of my account and started to get very upset with him. He said Melissa, you are very sweet. I didnt know what to say to him his statement surprised me. Finally I said " thats great,but I still dont want anything taken out of my account." He said, " so you dont want the money?" I said No I dont and i dont want anything taken out of my account!" He said, Melissa I love you. And then he hung up. Yes this was very wierd. I tried calling back no answer. Joseph called again the next day And I told him yet again that I wanted my money back. He gave me another customer service number. I called and they said they didnt have my information on file. I told them if they didnt give me my money back I would file fraud charges on them with my bank. They told me to go ahead.
I went to my bank and spoke with a representative and she called these people off the phone number on the bank statment. The played the recording andshowed where I initaially aggreed to the debits. They bank said there was nothing they could do.
This company eventually gave me back the 299.95. But not the 89.95.
Then strange charges started coming on my bank statement. 69.90 from Protel. 69.90 from EZ LOng Distance. 250.86 from ABC Payments of Noida, India. Griffin Digital Services 89.95.
What am I supposed to do about this? Anything can help. Im out 570.56!!!
Melissa
New Richmond, Ohio
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Randel
Largo,Florida,
U.S.A.
Known Scammers
#2Consumer Suggestion
Wed, February 15, 2006
It commen to see your account to start to get debited by more and more compaines. As these compaines sole business it to purchase other account with your info. Its easy as 1-2-3. 1st. call the florida attorney general and file a report asap. 2nd file a report with the secret service/ FBI. This will help them. 3rd. contact the local paper in there county. 4th call your bank and tell them you were ripped off over the phone with the famous government grants. 5th. Close your account asap. If you don't these scammers will sell and trade your account several times.