First, thank you to all the other rip off reporters that posted here. A couple friends of mine got the for the card. They called and asked me about it, and I told them there's a catch. I have a pretty good idea of their credit standing, and know that they are no more likely to get an unsolicited 2500$ limit card than I am. They went ahead and called.
About a week and a half later (earlier tonight, SUNDAY night at 7pm) they got a call from "Capital First". I happened to be there, and after giving their account info again, they got off the phone, and I asked what was up. They told me that the company had to "verify" the original information, but it was ok, because they just gave the same check number. I told them this, and they started to get worried, and pulled out the packet they got.
I looked through it and saw "stored-value" on it. I told them I didn't know what it meant, but I bet that's the catch. I got home and looked it up on the internet. Found out that basically means it's a debit card on an account you open with them... Your limit is what you send them in advance. So I went to Capital First's page to confirm that... Nothing about credit cards. Did a search on capital first credit cards, and ended up here. Thanks to the posters here, I had them call their bank, which was able to put a hold on the next payment request from Capital First (but not ALL future requests). Tomorrow they will close that checking account and open a new one. They got lucky and caught it in time (I hope).
After a little more digging, I found this article:
http://www.dailyregister.com/news/scam050902.html
I highly recommend reading it, calling your state's attorney general, and your local police department. These people are committing a Federal crime, and just like any other crime, it needs to be reported to the authorities. Skip contacting the BBB, for two reasons: first, after reading that article you'll see it isn't in fact their company, it's someone using their name; second, the BBB is a worthless organization... Good in theory, horrible in implementation. They don't do anything because they can't, and their paychecks in essence come from the very businesses we consumers complain about.
Below are some tips to avoid scams. I'm pretty darn good at finding the scam behind the offer (which is why they called me in the first place, they just didn't listen to my advice). An excellent read to help you detect the kind of tricks companies (both legitimate and otherwise) might pull, is called
"The Misfortune 500" by Bruce Nash and Allan Zullo.
TIP: Unusual terminology on too-good-to-be-true offers are usually the fine-print... Look it up if you don't know what a term or phrase means. Don't reason to yourself what it "probably" means. The internet exists for a reason greater than online gaming and downloading music.
TIP: A legitimate creditor will not call you at 7pm on Sunday unless you owe them money, and most won't even do so then.
TIP: Check Numbers are for the account-holder's reference only, a bank doesn't care if the same check number comes through multiple times (I personally use check #9999 for all phone-authorized checks I use, so I know what they are).
TIP: Any unsolicited offers, you should search for the company on the internet. Usually a simple Google search on "company name" "scam" will pin down what you are looking for.
TIP: When your money is involved, there is NO SUCH THING as too skeptical, too paranoid, or too careful.
If you have an offer, and want someone else to look at it before you do anything, please feel free to email me at [email protected]... I'm happy to help out if I can, and always interested in knowing what new scams to which I and my friends might fall prey.
Josh
Nashville, Tennessee
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