I got a call from someone with a heavy Indian accent yesterday afternoon. Phone number on my caller id was 714-384-9647. The guy was too hard to understand so I said politely 'sir I cant understand you I dont want a payday loan good bye' He called me back with in seconds and said "no you OWE us on a payday loan you took out in september you owe 600 dollars and we're collecting on this debt before it goes to our legal department". I said but I've never even heard of Sonic Bank... He said "we work with over 300 other companies, a company you may have took out a loan for went thru US for further collections since you never paid them off". I said yea but I never even got a payday loan my slate is clear I checked my credit report the other day theres not a single claim on there, this sounds horribly scammy. He said "yes ma'am I understand but I can prove that you owe 600 dollars let me verify a few things, is your email... Is your address... Is the contact person on your account... Is the last 4 digits of your SS... And we have your bank as..." By now I was a little scared but I persisted to question (amazingly so, I was driving down the highway during this call) I said sir you're going to have to come up with some kind of account number or reference number or actual BUSINESS that i took the loan out for, as a matter of fact just MAIL it to me on paper and I'll take a look at it good bye! After that he called back 2 more times with in SECONDS of me hanging up. I didn't answer but I have his voice mail as evidence in case it ever needs proven in court this thievery! I googled Sonic Bank and THANKFULLY found reports on ROR and various other blogs responding to this SCAM!
I thought I had Sonic moved on but today I got a call from the same 714 number. This time I played the game with them he said today that I owe him 350 dollars not 600 so I said ooh ok well can I send you a check what address can I send you that check to I'm writing it out right now... He said "no maam we don't accept checks give us your credit card and we'll process the payment" LMAO! I said "ooh I bet you'd have a HAYDAY with my credit card wouldnt you!" he laughed with me (weird) and I said listen dude I know what youre about, I googled Sonic Bank your a scam your frauds and you're not fooling me so you can end it here with me the jig is up move on dont call me anymore he continued to pressure me for money even after I said it was a scam!!! Saying he'll report me to the legal department and take me to court yadda yadda I interrupted him during the schpeel and said yea yea I'm calling the Attorney General office and reporting you to authorities [expletive to him! ] and hung up. I got 6 more calls thru the day a total of 9 calls from Sonic Bank. I indeed did call my state Attorney General office. They advised me to call and get on the Do Not Call List that number is 1888-382-1222. They told me to call the Federal Trade Commission next (FTC) 1877-382-4357. Then gave me a local number for the state Banking Division Investigator (ask your Attorney Gen for that number). This is VERY Important for EVERYONE who's being called and HARASSED by Sonic Bank... The FTC operator told me that THE MORE people that call with complaints for Sonic Bank by name, the FASTER the Fed's will INVESTIGATE it and ACT on it catching these bad guys and putting an END to Sonic Bank! My State Banking Division guy advised me to either ignore the calls (which each time I ignore Sonic Banks call and it goes to v. Mail, they call immediately back 4 to 5 more times! HIGHLY annoying) or answer the call listen to the schpeel and play along say "oh you want to meet me in court? Ok great! I'll be there I'll be HAPPY to see you there with evidence that I owe you this supposed money" or "oh the cops are coming to my house? Super!
I hope they have evidence of this 600 dollars I owe you" or do what I did and say you'll MAIL them a check or you need paperwork before you even send any money to anyone you dont make payments over the phone no matter how dire it is. I'm thinking about just not answering my phone—hopefully they'll go away after so many non-answers... So far it's kind of fun to stick it to them letting them know I know theyre fakes or get them excited that I might pay and say nah, I dont feel like making a payment today just mail it to me instead ;)
So in conclusion—EVERYONE that gets a call from SONIC BANK, call the FTC 1877-382-4357 the more people that report these scammers the FASTER they'll stop calling us! Let's help each other out here! Call the FTC! I was on the phone with them less then 5 minutes... Do it and save someone else from being scammed!
Paige
Iowa City, Iowa
U.S.A.
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