I did a google search for small business loans for people with bad credit and found this company - filled out a small questionaire and was contacted via phone the next day saying that I was approved.
They were willing to loan me $20,000 for 8.5% interest on a 10 year loan. Had the man "Bruno Minyoni ext. 319" fax me a "Loan agreement" that was 5 pages long and looked legitimate to my Lawyer friend... All except the part that said 5 months payments were due in advance.
Then it got suspicious when I questioned Bruno and he told me that I would have to money gram the "1st 5 payments" money to another state that he could not disclose to me until 1 hour before I was ready to send the money.
He sounded very believable, they even have an answering service tranferring the calls to "his extension, etc". Then I asked how long they had been in business and he told me 15 years. I tried to look up the phone number on whitepages and it was not listed, the fax either. I googled the fake address and it is a beauty salon with residence upstairs where he claimed his office was? He told me that I could come by anytime and see his business license but he was unable to fax it to me knowing that I was in GA not VT.
I called the Chamber of Commerece in that town and a very friendly lady helped me search the Sec. Of State VT website to see if it was a legal company (corporation). It DID NOT come up in any search. Then I called the Better Business Burea in VT but was told by a rep. That there were no claims filed against "the company". Then called the Attrny. General office and was told the same thing. No one seemed to have ever heard of this company that has been around for 15 years?
Called Bruno back and he told me that a prominent Lawyer in the town was the CEO and president. E-mailed the Lawyer and he had never heard of the place. That was the clincher! I DID NOT send the funds thank GOD!
Then I tried to call the BBB, Attrny. General Office, and banking centers in VT to file a complaint so that they could get the word out about these people. But NONE of the departments seemed to care? I really hope that no-one falls prey to this company. I hope this gets the word out so that they can be stopped! I also filed an internet IC3 claim about fraud since they have what looks like a legitimate website? But no phone number or address listed on the website. Who knows?
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