At the end of April I was cold-called and offered a $2500 unsecured credit card. I'd been mortgage shopping, and figured that's how they'd come to possess my information. They wanted either $279 or $289 as a 'service fee', and nothing but the $2500 unsecured Mastercard was mentioned.
They did an electronic check (not an ACH, they made up a check number...) shortly before I left the country for a few weeks for work. I was supposed to have the card within 10 days, and when I got home 20 days later, there was nothing. This was when the Canadian phone number still worked... The 416-542-1611 number. I called up, got a 'rep' right away, and asked where the card was - she asked if I filled out and sent in the credit application in the 'benefits package' I'd received... No, I didn't fill out the bad Xerox copy of a typewritten 'credit application'. So I did, and sent it in.
I give it three weeks, and call back - I was asked to verify a few details, and was told that NOW the card would be there in 10 days... I told the friendly lady that nobody told me that I needed to call back to verify anything, and she sounded surprised to hear that. At any rate, I give it a month, give or take... I'd partially forgotten about it because I've been busy with work. Then I remember again late last week, and I get a bit pissed off. Started calling that 416 number... And now the call couldn't go through. At first I didn't know it was a Canadian number, and I got curious as to whether it was a Florida number or not, since it was now ringing out-of-service.
I Googled the area-code, and I'm surprised to find that it's a Canada number. Try it a few more times over the weekend, up until Monday. Then I googled the name 'Prime One Benefits' and found links to their site, and to here... Read a few articles here, and needless to say, now I feel stupid. I hadn't suspected that I'd been scammed at this point - they called my cell #, which is the number that I give out to everyone, so it's not like I can be looked up in the whitepages, and they already knew certain things (I don't remember what details they knew, because my guard was totally down). So, I read a bit more here, then go to *their* website looking for contact information. I only come up with the [email protected] email address, so now I *know* I'm screwed... There's just no way that I'm not... Real companies have telephones... Especially when there's money involved. So I emailed them, giving them a 48 hour time limit before I start talking to my bank, law enforcement, and the FTC since it appears there's international wire-fraud. This morning there was no reply, so I write back telling them to forget about the credit card entirely, and just refund my money. Then I get this:
We sadly announce Prime One Benefits is no longer in business, however we still will be honoring all benefits that were included in your package. You can certainly take advantage by visiting our Website. Should you have an application in process, you should receive a reply shortly. We will still be working with you in order for you to receive the credit card. Do contact us thru our website or our email address.
Sincerely, Prime One
Around an hour later, I got the exact same email sent in response to my more terse second email which was a demand for a refund, which cited a few references to this website.
In the morning, I'll be talking to Washington Mutual's Loss Prevention and Fraud department - this morning the telephone banking lady said that the charge had gone through as a check, not an ACH transfer, and I told her that I hadn't yet gotten to check number 9999 yet. She still hassled me a little, insisting that I authorized the charge.
No, I did not - I authorized a payment for a very specific thing, and it was not what I received. She still insists that I wrote them a check, so I ask her to send me a copy of the cancelled check, and to look up the last check number that I'd written (which was in the low 1200's)... Now she gets it and tells me that I need to talk with the LP & Fraud people. Yay. One way or another, I'm getting my money back... Fraud is fraud, and I've been beyond patient.
Mike
Las Vegas, Nevada
U.S.A.
0 comments