Complaint Review: The Lending Associates - Novi Michigan

Lending Associates in Novi, MI was a victim of identity theft in January 2009. A fradulent service created a phony 800 number, and website named www.thelendingassociates.net and operated under our name. At that time, our website, www.thelendingassociates.com was under construction. They used our company name, address, Michgian mortgage broker's license, and ownership contact info. They used a fake fax number that rang to a homeowner's address in Southfield, MI. These fradulent individuals primarily had an office in Canada, as well as local setups in various cities throughout Michigan, California, and Arizona. They set up a phone number and website in which they requested money from people UP FRONT, which they said was to be used for some type of government insurance BEFORE they could get approved for a loan. These identity thieves targeted homeowners and non-homeowners - basically, anyone who was in the need of financial help with a promise that all their financial hardship would go away once they sent payment by Western Union. (Our company, Lending Associates, requires clients to hold an appraisal deposit on a credit card before we lock in an interest rate.) We would never ask a client to send us cash by Western Union. Over the past 30 days, our company's legal team has been in contact numerous times with the FBI, as well as the local authorities in various cities across the country and abroad. We have recently been assigned the phony website, www.thelendingassociates.net (which we have shut down), and the 800 number (which has been shut down as well.) We have notified Go Daddy of the fradulent domain, and it was released to us after authorities determined that this was indeed a scam. We are planning on prosecuting these identity thieves to the full extent of the law for taking advantage of people, as well as stealing our identity and ruining our good name on the Rip Off Report. These people, Carla Morgan and Nancy Summers, do not, and never have been, employed by Lending Associates in Novi, MI. This entire ordeal has been extremely disheartening to us - to learn that innocent people were taking advantage of and scammed out of their money. We feel USED and we are victim in this entire episode as well. We have reached out to clients that have called our office and explained to them what has happened. WE DO NOT SCAM PEOPLE AND STEAL THEIR MONEY UP FRONT. Lending Associates is a reputable, hardworking, MICHIGAN-BASED company with good people, excellent leadership, and hundreds of satisfied clients over the past 12 months. The President of Lending Associates is Kenny Bell, a Michigan resident for his entire life. Kenny Bell has over 15 years of mortgage lending experience, and has worked with THOUSANDS of satisfied clients for new home purchases, and refinance transactions. For more information about our compnay, please visit our blog site at www.kennybell.com., as well as the REAL company website at www.lendingassociates.com for accurate and up to date customer feedback and references. OUR CUSTOMERS ARE 100% SATISFIED WITH WHAT WE DO. WE have provided dozens of client referrals that can stand by what we do, and are satisifed with the level of service they have received from us as a Lending Associates client. Thank you.