I was contacted last night by someone who said they were calling from the Centric Group. I had been researching credit restoration online, so when they called I thought it sounded credible and authentic.
They gave me the whole spiel about no interest for 3 years, no monthly/yearly service charge ever, but a one time fee of $369.00 to be automatically debited from my checking account on a certain date. Well, stupid me, who is trying to restore her credit after a bankruptcy, fell for it hook, line and sinker, and gave them my routing number and account number. They also talked about a free vacation, which I wasn't going to take anyway. The operator then transferred me to a "senior officer" who then confirmed everything I had told the operator. They even gave me a customer service phone number.
However, after really thinking about everything and watching a movie, whose main point stuck in my head as "trust your gut instinct", I redialed the original number they had called from and was told it was for outgoing calls only. I then tried the customer service number and could not get through - figured I would try again in the morning when I got to work.
Shortly after I arrived at work this morn I tried the customer service number again - got through to an answering service and was told to leave a message - that they would "try" to get back to me.
A few hours passed, I heard nothing. I tried the number again and again and kept getting a busy signal. Then, following my gut instinct, I did an online search for Centric Group. Lo and behold, they show up on the consumer complaints website. I immediately called my bank (which is in my office building) let them know I had potentially screwed myself out of $369.00 and how, printed out the one report I had found so far, took it down to them and had my account closed. Centric Group will NOT be getting my money. Yes, it was a little time consuming, but I had another account with them also so it won't be as difficult to straighten out everything that I had outstanding from the account number I had stupidly given the Centric Group.
It's okay for me to beat myself up over this for a few minutes because I usually do know better than to give that kind of info over the phone to a company that I DID NOT CALL. But it's also been a great lesson learned.
PLEASE, CONSUMERS, do not give out any information over the phone UNLESS YOU SOLICITED THAT COMPANY. Do not give social security number, bank account numbers, or even your driver's license number to any company on the phone UNLESS you check them out FIRST. I cannot stress this enough. I was very lucky this time, as I was about to lose $369.00 of hard earned money to a company that had just picked up their phone and gotten lucky. Well, they only think they got lucky. When they try to collect their "one time fee of $369.00" they will collect $0 from me. Please beware of scams and ripoff artists. The lazy people who pull this crap do not deserve our hard earned dollars, they deserve a prison sentence for fraudulent business practices.
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