We filled out a loan application with Loancity.com and apparently they passed that loan application onto Cornerstone State Financial. However, after reading other complaints posted on your site, along with some additional research I firmly feel that loancity and Cornerstone are the same company.
Anyway, on Monday October 24th we rec'd a call from a Jim Walters with Cornerstone and he said that he had a loan offer for us for $7000.00, but it was a secure loan and we would need a security deposit of $1003.00. He said that it was a private loaner who works with military bases is Europe and we would have to wire $1000.00 to this Angela Banitez in Spain. He also informed us that it would cost us an additional $68.00 to wire the money, but we would be refunded $65 of the the Western Union fees, the $3.00 difference would make up the extra $3.00 needed for the security deposit. Walters also said that we would not have to start repaying the loan until May. We researched Cornerstone, and did not find anything negative. There website, the contract we signed along with their phone system; everything looked every professional and legit, boy we were wrong.
We wired the money on 10/25 and on 10/26 we rec'd a call from a Rick Harris, who claimed to be the Senior Account Manager. Harris stated that the lender had re-evaluated our credit and they re-accessed the loan and we would need an additional $1000.00. He said if we wanted to pull out of the offer we could but we won't be able to get a refund until 11/24, because they only run refunds once a month and we just missed the date. We discussed this new development, did a little more research on Cornerstone and came to the conclusion that we were desperate, especially since the original $1000.00 was our rent money. We borrowed $1100.00 from a family member who also, googled the company and did not find anything negative and we wired the additional money again to Angela Benitez, with a promise from Harris that we would have our $7000.00 loan plus an additional $133.00 for the Western Union fees. Harris stated that the loan re-payment would now begin Nov. 2012. Harris promised us our money by Sat. 10/29.
On 10/31 we called Harris to let him know we hadn't received our money, over the phone he acted as if he was looking up our account and he acted shocked to discover that the lender had backed out of the loan. At this point Harris said that he would sue them for breach of contract. We explained our financial situation and that we needed to have our refund immediately, because we could be evicted from our apartment as early as 11/6. Harris said to give him a couple of days and he would see what he could do.
We continued to call Harris and Walters and their only solution was to wire them an additional $2000.00 for a $14,000.00 loan. It was at this point that we told him no, was he crazy. And it was at this point when Harris and Walters stopped answering the phone, stopped returning our calls. And it was at that point when the realization set in that we'd just been scammed, robbed and violated.
We are a family of 6, who make too much money for any kind of assistance, but not enough to keep everything paid on time, and food on the table. We were going to use the money to pay off a few small bills that were lingering, catch up on a couple of others and we'd have a little leftover as a nest egg. Now we are further in the whole then before, we are now facing additional fees, late charges, we are behind on the rent and I have no idea where to turn.
We called our local sheriffs office, and when we explained the situation they told us that since the crime crossed state lines that it was an FBI situation. We were directed to ic3. Gov, the FBI website to place a formal complaint, which we did. We also filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, we did that when we thought our legal contract had been breached.
I ask everyone who's been scammed by these scum bags to file a formal complaint on ic3. Gov website, the more complaints against the same people the more likely that they will be investigated.
Like someone else wrote carma is a (Personal Info Removed) - I hope they rot in hell for this!
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