Prime One Financial
220 W. 19th St Suite 2A
New York, NY
416-542-1611 (phone)
First Approval Benefits
177 Main St.
Fort Lee, NJ
(866) 753-5053 (most reported phone number)
(800) 274-0701 (from http://usacomplaints.com/view.Asp? Id=53357)
(416) 542-1611 (from http://usacomplaints.com/view.Asp? Id=57835)
(877) 875-9966 - fax
Apparently this company uses different names and addresses. If you read usacomplaints. Coms, the address and phone number are reported differently.
My daughter applied for a credit card over the Internet. She is young and without credit history. The offer sounded like it would give her the history she needed to a card from a reputable company.
I am writing this so that other parents or young adults do not have to go through what I am going through.
First and foremost, only give personal information (SS#, DOB, Driver's license, home address, home phone, bank name, bank account#, etc) to a known and trusted entity. Know more information about the company than they know about you before you conduct any business of a sensitive nature. Anyone can get a secured credit card from a real company like a bank.
If you do fall victim to a scam - close your bank account and open a new one. They can't get your money if it isn't there. This is troublesome because you'll need to inform legitimate firms of the change - it might save you hundreds of dollars. Better yet - open a second account and keep a minimal amount of money in it - use the 2nd account if you aren't sure about the company.
Ok - here's my story. Thursday my daughter received a phone call and I overheard her giving out personal info to the caller. I tried to intervene - but she said it was ok - she applied to them. I tried to tell her that you don't give out that kind of info unless you're sure of the organization receiving it. There are other horror stories about identity thieves - but that's a different story.
I searched the net for the company and found this website. There are a lot of entries for this company, apparently operating under different names. The names I listed on this report came from other reports and telephone calls where the caller identified the company. I showed my daughter the reports and told her to immediately call the company to cancel the transaction and to warn her bank of any electronic withdrawals by the named company. The company said - OK cancelled, the bank said we can take action if the account had activity related to the company (they couldn't put a stop company withdrawal type thing on the account). I told her to remove the money from the account the next day to prevent this company from getting the money in the first place.
Fast forward to today. I have received over 20 phone calls from this company in the past 5 days. They callers are very rude. They will not identify themselves and if pressed, hangup. They do not provide a means to contact them. All of this is after the company said they would cancel.
I called yesterday and spoke with an operator who informed me that there are no supervisors or managers, but repeatedly asked for my name and number so that a rep could call me back. I let her know that this is what I am calling them about - to get them to stop calling me! I told her tell the nonexistent supervisors/managers of my request. Figuring that probably wouldn't achieve the desired results, I asked if there is a president of the company. Yes, but he doesn't receive incoming calls. She provided a name and fax number
Peter Fleming - president
(877) 875-9966 - fax
The danger here is that if you send a fax to Mr. Fleming, they have yet another way to contact you - your fax number! I am sending a fax to Mr. Fleming with my "Stop bothering me" request. I set up an Internet fax number to prevent them from using it to bother me more. We shall see if they honor the request. If they do not, I am prepared to file a complaint with the Pennsylvania Attorney General. PA has a do not call law that levies fines against organizations that use your resource (phone) for business. If you request that a company does not call you and they do call you, the law provides for fines ($1000s) to be levied against the company.
Summary:
This company is allowed to exist because it does provide a fee based service, albeit a service of little value. Most of the reports that I have read state that for a large amount of money the company sends information that you can get for free elsewhere. It is a little like the "Solar Clothes Dryer" for $200.00 - sounds great until you receive a 8 foot length of clothesline and 50 clothespins. Consumer beware!
If you need help getting these folks off your back, please send $1,000, 000.00 to... Just kidding - good luck and pay attention.
Tom
Wayne, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.
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