Various rip offs using various names Capital One, Hartford Auto, First Union, Capital First they move every week Florida
To Whom it may concern:
My name is Samona. Yesterday after checking my bank account there 2 withdraws on it, 1 for the amount $199.90 and the other for $10. After tracing the money back I found out it came from American Leisure Card Corp. My Husband and my self have done a full research on the company. This is was we found out.
1. This company is calling people offering a credit card with 0% interest with different credit limit amounts. Saying that there is no annual fee only a $199 processing fee. That they are working with Equifax on a new program to help rebuild credit. The only requirement for this card is you have to have a checking or saving account. Once they verify there accounts the card will be send in 3 - 10 days by UPS. By the end you will find out that this is not a credit card, they will never send you a card.
2. This company is call using a different name:
Capital First
Harford Auto
First Capital
These are just a few and there are any more, they are using names that sound like a will to-do company. This is how they win the customers trust.
3. This is the scary part, they already have all of the customers information, the reasons for there calls is that by Law to process a ACH payment by phone they have to have a voice recording.
I tell you this because last week, I got a phone call offering me this card, I said no thanks and hung up, not ever thinking twice about it. Well, after tracing the withdraw from my account this is what I found out. They are using Global Com to process all of there payment. Global Com is a well know company that prides on customer satafaction.
After speaking to the Chief Executive, name ED he was very up set to hear what happened and is helping me get the money back and starting an investigation.
THIS IS THE VERY SCARY PART, HE PULLED UP MY TRANSACTION AND SAID YOU LIVE IN MARYLAND RIGHT, I SAID YES, WELL WHY IS YOU BANK IN GEORGIA
See I never gave my account information to this company, what I am finding out is that they are finding out what bank you USE and are just picking a routing number to withdraw.
The bank the Global Com uses is Provident Bank of OH. This is very important for there are many different Provident Banks in the USA and not one of them are affiliated to each other.
I call Provident bank to discuss what happened and I was passed around from one person to another. At the end of the call the person said "well I will let our ACH department know, will this make you happy" and hung up.
I know that many people have been a victim of this scam, I want to put a stop to it right now, I am still searching to find out were they are located, for I am going to sue them. And this is also a Federal offence so I will make sure they are charged.
I need for everyone that has been a victim of this scam to contact me on this report, For if we all get together Global Com will have to stop processing there payments and to sue as a class action and band together we all can bring is organization down,
I have obtained a lot of information against this company I will give names, phone numbers, ect. To any one that asks for them .
Samona
Joppa, Maryland
8 Updates & Rebuttals
Employee
Austin,Texas,
Not Union Capital Associates
#9UPDATE Employee
Tue, July 22, 2014
The company that's named in this complaint is not Union Capital Associates. We have nothing to do with this customer's complaint
I have Peter J .Porcelli Phone Number
#90
Sun, August 18, 2002
After receiving the above updates, I called Chris, he is going to call me back on Monday so I can give him more detailed information.
Thanks to Chris's report I have for Mr. Peter Porcelli. I looked up his phone number. I called the number I found, a lady answered the Phone I asked to speak to Peter, and it he owned the Tampa Smokers, she said yes he does and that he is out of the country, I asked when would be a good time to call and she stated she didn't know when he would be back. (IS HE ON THE RUN???) Please help me get this man , if anyone has proof that he owns the Bay Area Business or American Leisure please pass it along. Thanks, Sam
Federal agents shut down telemarketer Records are seized and assets frozen at Bay Area Business Council after hundreds of consumer complaints nationwide
#90
Sun, August 18, 2002
By CHRIS TISCH, Times Staff Writer
St. Petersburg Times, published August 17, 2002
Records are seized and assets frozen at Bay Area Business Council after hundreds of consumer complaints nationwide.
LARGO -- Federal authorities have shut down a Largo telemarketing business that has been accused of using deceptive tactics to sell charge cards to people with poor credit histories.
Armed with a court order, officials with the Federal Trade Commission, the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service entered the office of Bay Area Business Council on Thursday morning and ordered employees out.
Federal authorities then took control of the company's office, which is in the First Union building at 801 West Bay Blvd. Officials changed the locks on the door, secured information on the company's computers and began to freeze the company's assets, said Stephen T. Bobo, a Chicago attorney who is the court-appointed receiver of the company.
The Bay Area Business Council has been the subject of many consumer complaints. The Better Business Bureau of West Florida lists the company as having an unsatisfactory record because "they have a pattern of complaints concerning misrepresentation in their selling practices, billing disputes and requests for refunds."
In North Carolina, a Superior Court judge ordered the company to stop doing business in that state after more than two dozen people complained that company representatives lied or tricked them before taking their money.
"Bay Area Business Council used a slick telemarketing pitch to take consumers' money," North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said. "They promised consumers a real credit card, but what consumers got was a useless piece of plastic."
In February 2001, FBI agents and postal inspectors executed a search warrant at the business and took crates of documents. No criminal charges have been filed against the company, but consumer advocates say the company is one of the most notorious telemarketers in the country.
"We've gotten hundreds of complaints," said Ed Magedson, editor of ripoffreport.com, which allows consumers to post complaints on its Web site. "I must have thousands of e-mail complaints on them. They are in the top of the credit card scams."
The company is owned by Peter J. Porcelli, 50, who gained some attention in the late 1990s when he owned a fast-pitch softball team, the Tampa Bay Smokers, which won several national championships.
"I think my friends at the FTC have some bad information, and all of that will be resolved," Porcelli said Friday, calling from a softball championship in Ontario.
A hearing on the court order is scheduled for Wednesday in Chicago.
"We fully intend to deal with that next Wednesday at the hearing, and I think everything will be resolved," Porcelli said.
FTC officials said they could not comment on the court order that shut down Bay Area Business Council. The order was sealed by the court so authorities have time to seize and freeze the company's assets and operations, officials said.
A related company in Sunshine also was shut down this week.
Officials said other companies called customers for Bay Area Business Council. One of those customers called was Charles Dymond, 49, of Tucson, Ariz. Dymond is quadriplegic, has post-polio syndrome and has been using a wheelchair for 20 years.
He said someone from the company called him in May, offering a credit card with a $2,000 limit and no interest. All he had to do was pay a $209 fee up-front and a $10-per-month membership fee. The caller asked for his checking account number.
Dymond gave the number and was told he would receive the card in two weeks.
"It was the first time I ever did anything like that," Dymond said Friday. "I was in a lot of pain and on medication and I wasn't thinking straight that day. It was the dumbest thing I ever did."
The money was taken from his checking account. After two weeks, Dymond hadn't received his card. He called the company and was told it would be four weeks. The card didn't come. He called again and was told it would be six weeks. It didn't come.
Then he noticed another $50 had been taken from his account for phone service. When he called the company to find out why, he learned he wasn't even going to get a credit card, but a pay-as-you-go card, which requires customers to deposit money before they can spend.
"I said, "That's not what you guys told me,' " Dymond said.
He tried to call the company again to cancel, but kept getting $10 monthly fees taken from his account.
"And then I couldn't get hold of them. They wouldn't answer," he said. "They kept saying, "My computer is down and there's nothing we can do.' And I said, "Can I talk to your supervisor?' and they would say "The supervisor is unavailable.' "
Dymond said he went to his bank and told them what had happened. Bank officials told him they had received other complaints about the same company. They closed his account.
When the card finally came after 10 weeks, Dymond sent it back.
Iowa resident Steve Rank received a similar call from a Bay Area Business Council telemarketer. Rank, who is an office manager for a telemarketing company, took notes during the call. He said the caller was using tricks to get him to take the card and pay $199.90.
"When he was reading the script, he would pull the phone away a little bit when he was using the words pay as you go and stored value," Rank said. "I knew exactly what he was doing."
When Rank asked specifically about the limit on his credit card, the man said $2,000.
"He should have corrected me," Rank said. "I've been in this business six years and I've never done anything like that. The people who do that (stuff) give the rest of us a bad name and it makes it a lot harder."
They also offered him a Florida vacation. North Carolina customers also were promised a Florida vacation, which none of them received, said Noelle Taylor, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office.
Rank said he told the company not to call him again, to put him on their do-not-call list. They called three more times, he said.
"Some consumers also said they had their accounts debited without authorizing it," Taylor said.
- Chris Tisch can be reached at 445-4156 or tisch@sptimes.com.
Donna
N Richland Hills,Texas,
American Leisure
#9Consumer Comment
Sun, August 18, 2002
Samona, I personally have never been scammed by this company. However, you might like to know tht Bay Area Business Council (BABC) just got busted for the second time, There should be a post with the news article regarding them on this board soon. You shoiuld contact the the person that wrote this article, or EDitor at RIPOFFREPORT, and THEY can tell you more info. American Leisure is PART of BABC, supposedley located in Sunrise, FLorida
Donna
N Richland Hills,Texas,
American Leisure
#9Consumer Comment
Sun, August 18, 2002
Samona, I personally have never been scammed by this company. However, you might like to know tht Bay Area Business Council (BABC) just got busted for the second time, There should be a post with the news article regarding them on this board soon. You shoiuld contact the the person that wrote this article, or EDitor at RIPOFFREPORT, and THEY can tell you more info. American Leisure is PART of BABC, supposedley located in Sunrise, FLorida
Donna
N Richland Hills,Texas,
American Leisure
#9Consumer Comment
Sun, August 18, 2002
Samona, I personally have never been scammed by this company. However, you might like to know tht Bay Area Business Council (BABC) just got busted for the second time, There should be a post with the news article regarding them on this board soon. You shoiuld contact the the person that wrote this article, or EDitor at RIPOFFREPORT, and THEY can tell you more info. American Leisure is PART of BABC, supposedley located in Sunrise, FLorida
Donna
N Richland Hills,Texas,
American Leisure
#9Consumer Comment
Sun, August 18, 2002
Samona, I personally have never been scammed by this company. However, you might like to know tht Bay Area Business Council (BABC) just got busted for the second time, There should be a post with the news article regarding them on this board soon. You shoiuld contact the the person that wrote this article, or EDitor at RIPOFFREPORT, and THEY can tell you more info. American Leisure is PART of BABC, supposedley located in Sunrise, FLorida
#90
Sun, August 18, 2002