About a year ago I called my local Citi Financial branch to apply for a personal loan. I was at my son's track meet, and during warm-up I decided to call and apply. I spoke to a lady named Betty, and she and I completed the application over the phone. She placed me on hold while pulling up my credit report, and when she came back she said that the application was denied. After a few probing questions about the reason, we hung up the phone.
Here is where it gets interesting. Two weeks later Betty called me and asked if I was still interested in getting the loan. I replied yes, and she said she would call me back to give me the terms and amount. I asked her, "I thought you denied my application?" Betty replied, "I got you done." So I said great, call me with the payment and the time to come sign the paperwork. Betty called me about 15 minutes later and stated that I would receive a loan of 15k and told me the payment amount.
When I went to sign the loan at the Mesa, AZ Power Rd branch, I had, as always, a second person with me (Ivan) to witness the transaction. After reviewing the loan I decided to take it out, so Betty requested two forms of identification. I asked Ivan to go to my car, where I had left my wallet, and bring it to me. I provided Betty with my Social Security card and my AZ driver's license, and she made copies.
Fast forward four months. I was contemplating filing Chapter 7 and I notified all of the companies that were to be included, of which Citi was one. OK, here we go. One week after calling Citi and Betty, a Mesa detective (Det. Perez) came to my job and stated that Citi had filed fraud charges against me for using someone else's Social Security number that was used to apply on the internet. In disbelief, I gave Det. Perez the statement you just read. He said that he would go speak to Betty at Citi and review the "IDs" I gave her to copy. Det. Perez called me a week later and told me that she did NOT have a copy of my SS card and stated that she didn't even request it! I responded, "What?" I asked Det. Perez to call Ivan to verify that not only did she request it, but she stated that without it there would be no loan, even though I have my current car loan with Citi.
To make a very long story as short as possible, I am now being prosecuted for fraud and am going to trial on July 22nd, 2008. Has anyone out there had this happen to you, even if you are on the other side of this? Please respond ASAP.
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