Flynrider
Phoenix,#2Consumer Suggestion
Tue, March 23, 2010
"I really didn't think anything of it since most lenders want some sort of down payment. I didn't know that this was a red flag."
It's a big red flag. Legitimate lenders do not require large down payments for "insurance" or "collateral" on cash loans.
"They told me they could get me a $26,000.00 loan at 7.00% intrest regardless of my credit."
That's another red flag. In the real world, when you have bad credit, lenders mitigate the risk of lending to you by charging extremely high interest rates. An unsecured loan of $26K at 7% is unlikely for someone with excellent credit these days. You have to ask yourself if the deal falls into the "to good to be true" category. This one certainly does.
" If I sent a money gram through RIA I could have it within 24hrs."
There's another one. Scammers insist on using 3rd party money transfers like RIA and Western Union because the money is not traceable. If you'd chosen to do a bank wire transfer, they would have come up with some reason why they couldn't. In order to receive a bank wire, they would have had to give you legitimate indentifying informations. Scammers don't do that. Also, the story they gave you doesn't wash. Bank wires are usually completed within a few hours.
Before you go looking for loans on the Internet again, you should check out the FTC's web page about these types of scams :
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/telemarketing/tel16.shtm