Complaint Review: American Finance - Pomona California

 On friday night 10/18/2013 while I was driving home from work I received a call from a man (with an Indian accent) he went over a few things with me and stated that I had been approved for a loan up to 10,000.00. Since I was driving he called my cell back and left a voice message with the approval number and the name and number of the man I needed to contact to finish the process. The name was Neal Matthews and the number 979-884-7020, he is in Texas. I called him and he said I had been approved for the 10,000.00 loan and I would have 24 payments of 495.00, wow my financial problems would soon be over or so I thought. Mr Matthews said I needed to go to CVS, Walgreens or 7-11 to get a Vanilla card for the amount of one payment to show good faith that I could afford to pay my loan every month. I was to have the cashier put 495.00 on it and once I got the card to call him back and give him the number off the back under the silver scratch off section. I told Mr Matthews that I did not have the money right then, he stated that he could hold the loan for me and when I got the vanilla card to give him a call.

On thursday Mr Matthews called me again to see if I was still interested in the loan, I said yes and asked him if this was legit, he assured me it was and gave me the web address of AmericanFinancial.com to check it out. Payday was on 10/24/13 and with good intensions I went after work and got the vanilla card at Walgreens and had the 495.00 put on the card. I called Mr Matthews and gave him the information, he said that my 10,495.00 would be in my bank within 45 min. He gave me the name and number to another man that I was to contact once my money was in my bank to let him know I received it. His name was Michael Maxwell and his number is 909-666-4425 and he is located in Pomona (area) CA.

When my money wasn't in the bank in an hour and a half I tried to call Mr Maxwell but got his voice mail. I waited till the next morning and called both numbers, finally Mr Maxwell called me back all up set because he said I did not tell Mr Matthews that I had a "red flag" on my social security number. I told him I didn't know anything about it. He said I lied to them, that is why my money did not go into my account. Mr Maxwell then said that the amount I owed on the "red flag" was 1600.00 and he knew I could not pay the full amount and that they would pay 800.00 if I would send him 800.00 to cover my part. Again I was told to get (2) vanilla cards each with 400.00 on it. Needing the 10,000.00 desperately I withdrew the 800.00 out of my account and bought 2 vanilla cards. Again I called Mr Maxwell and gave him the information off the back of the cards and he assured me that my money would be there in 35 min. Well I kept checking my account all weekend and nothing was ever deposited. I called and called all morning on Monday but Mr Maxwells voice mailbox was full and of course he did not answer. I even called and left messages on Mr Matthews. I called from a different number and Mr Maxwell called back and said that I owed 400.00 in attorney fees and that once that was paid I would get my money, I told him to take it out of the money he was going to deposit, he said he could not do that. I told him I have not seen or signed any paperwork, I asked to speak to his boss and he did not know what to say to that.

I told Mr Maxwell that he ripped me off for 1295.00 and that left me 8.00 in the bank for 2 weeks... I told him to just give me back the 1295.00 I sent them and forget about the loan, he said he could not do that ...he cussed at me and hung up.