Mike Bundy
kenosha,#2Author of original report
Thu, December 22, 2011
Yes you are correct. As I look back at how it all went down, I feel like an idiot X10. I should have listened to the little voice in my head telling me "what the heck are you thinking?" I understand that the money is gone, my biggest hope is that people will see this and do their homework when they do research on getting an online loan. If I can keep one person from using that site or keep them from making the same mistakes I did then I feel accomplished.. Again thanks for your post and your insight!
Flynrider
Phoenix,#3Consumer Comment
Wed, December 21, 2011
This is called the Advance Fee Loan Scam and is one of the more common ones on the Internet today. The FTC has a webpage devoted to this scam :
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/telemarketing/tel16.shtm
" This seemed ok to me at the time because I know that I am credit challenged and that people in my position often have to put deposits down to get financing. "
There's where you made your mistake. A legitimate lender can not legally charge you a "deposit" as a condition for an unsecured loan. Sometimes the scammers also call it "insurance" or "processing fees", which would also be illegal for an unsecured personal loan.
"now I am at square one again looking for a loan, this time lacking trust in any online loan service. "
You absolutely should lack trust in online loan services. You gave this company all of your personal info without knowing who they were. A very dangerous thing to do on the Internet. Many of the scams and identity thefts reported on this site begin with someone giving up their personal details to some unknown Internet entity pretending to offer loans.
One more thing for future reference, Internet scammers use untraceable money transfers like Western Union and Moneygram almost exclusively. It's the only way they can get your cash without leaving a paper trail. Legitimate businesses do not require that kind of payment. That is one thing that 90% of scams have in common. No matter how they con their victims, they always need an untraceable way to get their cash. That's why the W.U. website and offices have warnings all over, cautioning you not to send money to people you don't know personally.
Bottom line is, you sent untraceable cash to unknown persons. You will not likely see it again. On the bright side, your post on this site might prevent someone else from getting scammed. Once the word gets out, the scammers will have to change all the names and numbers they're using now and start all over with a new fake identity, but for the time being, this fake identity will show up when someone Googles the name.