Applied online for a $15, 000.00 personal loan. Found their website when searching for bad credit loans. Was contacted by Kelly Armstrong who said I was approved and explained to me that I would have to pay $1000.00 up-front for insurance. I researched the company on here and there was nothing under "Inhouse Financial Institute". Searched the BBB and there was a listing for "Inhouse Financial" and everything looked legit BUT it still bothered me that they wanted money up-front as I had seen websites talking about "Advance loan fee scams".
Kelly faxed over loan documents that looked real and on the top of the promissary note it says: "All agreements have been reviewed by the Law Company of Benson and Benson". I looked up the law firm-does not exist.(Contacted the Law Society of Upper Canada to see if the were real-NOT.rec'vd email later today 01/23/07)
Anyway, I asked Kelly to provide me with a license number for their company and she said she would see what she could do. (Now here is the weird part that makes me think that she may not know)
She called me later that evening and asked if anyone from the finance dept had called to give me the license number. I told her 'NO." She then said she was going to talk to the head of finance and ask them why they had not calld me. About 45 minutes later, the head of finance did call! She said she had talked to Kelly and that she could not give out that info because there are so many scams going on that someone could use their business license.
We talked for a few minutes and she seemed really nice and said that my check was actually sitting on her desk and she really wanted to get me my funds. I asked her for the number to Benson and Benson and she gave me a number. I told her I would fax everything next morning if it checked out.(Today 01/23/07) I was told to send the money Western Union to DEVIKA SHARMA-Toronto, Ontario.
(I tried all today to call the number she gave me and it was a cell and finally at 6-6:30 tonight, someone answered and I got the SHOCK of my life, it was KELLY'S personal number!! I think she got sold out because why would they do that unless it was to save their own skin)
I went to bed still thinking that something was wrong. The next morning, I looked on here again under the name and nothing, so on a whim I looked under all the loans category and went thru about 20 pages or so looking for Canada rip-offs. I was about sign off when one caught my eye and guess what!? There was a report with UNITED FINANCIAL GROUP and 2 of the names of the people who are now INHOUSE FINANCIAL INSTITUTE.
Ok so here are the names:
DIANE KANE (formerly United Financial Group)
DEVIKA SHARMA (formerly United Financial Group)
Names on the loan papers:
Kristine Croft-Senior VP
Robert Olsen-Senior Operating Manager
Kelly Armstrong-Financial Consultant
Also when calling their number, when you dial extention for customer service, it goes to a disabled cell that has a message dated Jan 2005 that the person has a new number. I called the number and talked to a nice gentleman who said he has been bombarded with calls to United Financial (I never said any name at all) from the USA. He says he has contacted the cell provider and they are investigating now. Also, almost all the calls I have gotten all say "Private Caller" and 1 that came from a disconnected Hotels.com number. Somehow, they can tap into these disgaurded numbers and use them.
If you get anything from these people, NEVER SEND MONEY UPFRONT!
It is illegal to pay money for a loan! Excuses will be insurance, advance for # of months in case you default, good faith, etc. If you get any of these people contacting you from Canada, please file a report with
"Phone Busters" @1-888-495-8501
Mostly all these companies have Canada addresses. Try to get and give them as much info as possible so they can stop these pieces of scum from hurting others!
I did not send money but almost did as they were convincing, sympathetic, tell you everything you want to hear. Please, once again, even if you do not fall for it, if you are contacted by these scammers, please contact 'Phonebusters" also so we can help put a stop to jerks who pray on us bad/poor credit-need a loan desperately-just need a fresh start individuals!
Susan
POWELLS POINT, North Carolina
U.S.A.
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