Complaint Review: CITI Financial - New York New York

 

Brief summary of what took place over the day of January 2, 2015

On January, 19th I received and unsolicited email from one Ryan Taylor informing me that I had been approved for a loan amount of $2000. 

I did not respond back to him for several days.

I later called him and thus began the transaction and he described how I was to preceed in order to obtain my loan.

Via a phone conversation he instructed me to go to the local Rite Aid, Walgreen’s, or Family Dollar store to get a MoneyPak pre-paid card (he first instructed me to get a Vanilla Network card). I first went to Rite Aid, the Walgreen’s and finally the Family Dollar store in search of the specific kind of card he insisted upon.He remained on the phone with me during this time. He insisted I must purchase the “scratch off” brand of card. I was unable to find one and returned home.

He called me back and instructed me to go the the Murphy Oil gas station where I would find this card. I did as he said, went to Murphy Oil and purchased a Moneypak card for $200 plus fee  and scratched off the coating to expose the card number. I gave the number to him as instructed. (Note: the card reads and instructs not to do this but as I am legally blind in one eye and can’t read small print I could not see this instruction.) I had also given him my bank account info so he could direct deposit the $2000. He took the number and said he would call me back with further instructions.

When he called back he had several reasons why he could not make the deposit such as technical trouble within the phone lines, heavy snow in New York and my low credit score. He said I would need to get another $185 on a Moneypak to cover processing expenses his company incurred due to my low score.  I first refused but he insured me I would not have to give him the card number until the transfer of moneys to my account is taking actually taking place. With this insurance from him I purchased the card.

I gave him this card number as he was telling me the transaction was taking place. He said give it 5 minutes and then he hung up. I waited 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes with no proof of deposit into my account. He called me off and on during these times to see if it had happened and/or I called him.

With no results and as instructed by him I called my bank to see if a transaction was pending. It was not. He, Mr. Taylor insured me he was a man of his word and that I would surely get my money tonight. Since the bank transaction was unsuccessful he suggested a money gram via the Western Union but further into his explanation of this offer I would have to get a Moneypak for $112 to cover their cost of the money gram. (The Money Gram authorization numbers he gave me were: 9186258239 and 9438952965 and would be coming from Bob Taylor at 1 Centre Street, 2nd Floor, New York, New York zip 10013). I refused and demanded my money back. Of course he said that was not possible as the moneys had already been claimed from Moneypak by them and that this money was no longer refundable.

We had other conversations along the way and throughout the day but this is the summary as it took place. At one point in time he did say I could get my money back by canceling the agreement but that would take several days. As I look back on it all I can see that a lot of his correspondence and various conversations with me was to stall and give them time to retrieve the money from Moneypak. With my last purchase of $185 he continually ask me what time it was and at what time did I purchase the Moneypak...what was the time shown on my reciept, he asked.  

Note: from time to time throughout the day I did talk with his associate, but the process and, now I know, the BS was basically the same.

So here I am...screwed out of my money.