sjkuz wrote:
I hope that people who read this learn from me. I am trusting, and I have never been taken advantage of before. I don’t lie to people, and I was brought up in a home to give people the benefit of the doubt. With my background, I think that is how I was able to trust them. I feel like someone came behind me and physically attacked me. I cry almost every night and I can’t believe people would do this. I feel stupid and ashamed and I am working on getting over those feelings.

sjkuz wrote:Here is my loan scam story…

On February 16th, I had a voicemail from a “Greg Owen” from Bennett Financial Group. He said that I was pre-approved for a personal loan for $5,000. I called him back on the 17th. He took down my information and said that he would call back and let me know if he could find a lender who would loan to me. About an hour later, he called back and said that he found a lender but since I had had poor credit I would need to put up 6 months of payments on a 3 year loan totaling $930. I agreed to this because I had the money and I was desperate for money to pay off some debt that I had. He faxed over a loan agreement and I signed it and sent it back along with the front and back copy of my license. He told me that I would need to send it via Moneygram and that I should call him when I get to a Walmart and he would give me the detailed instructions on where to send it. So, I went and got cash and called him from the Walmart parking lot. He told me to send my money as a person-to-person transfer. He said to send to send it Sherri Anderson of West Hill, Alberta, Canada. After I had sent the money, he said to call him back and give him the reference number. I did so, and he said “Great, the money will be in your account tomorrow.” That would be February 18, 2009

On the 18th, around 1pm, I still hadn’t received my money. That is when I got a call from a “Ronald Pickett,” the customer service manager at Bennett Financial Group. He said that the lender went to get my loan insured and the insurance company said that they wouldn’t insure the loan unless there was 12 months worth of payments. Ronald then advised me that I would need to Moneygram an additional $930 to Sherri Anderson of West Hill, Alberta Canada. Still desperate, and the fact that I had this money on hand, I thought I would do it because I would be getting the money back. I went and sent the additional $930 on February 19, 2009. I called him with the reference number and he said that the deposit would be in my account within 3 hours. After 6 hours, I called Ronald Pickett back and said that the money is not my account. He asked if I was sure, and I told him I was. He said that he would figure out what was going on. He called me back in an hour and said that lender “backed out” of the loan and that I would get a refund for $1860 plus the 2 transfer fees totaling $1888.32 by March 6th.

My best friend has an aunt, Mary, who is an attorney and I got in touch with her and told her of my situation. She got in touch with another attorney she works with, Glen. They called Bennett Financial Group on February 20th and spoke with Ronald Pickett. He advised them that their pay period cut-offs was March 6th and wouldn’t be able to return the money any sooner. They wrote them a letter and the letter was essentially returned because the address was undeliverable.

February 25th, Mary was looking this Bennett Financial Group online and we found a release dated February 20th (after I had sent the money) from “Nebraska Department of Banking and Finance” that this group, Bennett Financial Group, is targeting consumers and they are scammers. I also learned that it’s illegal in the state of Nebraska to ask for up front payments as collateral.

When I found this out, I immediately put a fraud alert on my consumer report, filed a case with the FTC, BBB, and the Attorney Generals office. Mary and I also called Moneygram and put in a fraud alert. We also called Ronald Pickett and confronted him of this revelation with the Department of Banking and Finance and he said that those are all lies on the internet. In our heated argument, he hung up on us.

On March 6th, when he said I would receive my certified check, I called him with Mary again and told him I didn’t get it, and he said it would be mailed out on the 6th. I then asked for the check number and tracking number and he said he didn’t have that information and I could call back in an hour and get a check number. I told him that I felt violated and really hurt by all of this and I asked what would he do if someone did this to his daughter, wife or girlfriend. His response was “I don’t know what you mean.” After that I just said that I would call back. Well, it’s Friday night and I just wanted to forget anything and spend time with my boyfriend and not think about any of this for the night.

March 9th, I called Moneygram again because I forgot to write down the location of where my money was picked up on the 17th and 19th of February. I had sent my money to Alberta, Canada and it was actually picked up on Toronto, Ontario. I told my story again to the agent and she put a fraud alert on it again and she also put a ‘ban’ on Sherri Anderson to ever pick up money through Moneygram ever again.

I then went to call Bennett Financial Group to tell them I am on to them and that they would get caught. I also wanted to confront them on what they did to me. When I called, the answering system just says “Goodbye” and it hangs up on you. My guess is they have closed up shop and they are now looking into a new scam and new victims.

I hope that people who read this learn from me. I am trusting, and I have never been taken advantage of before. I don’t lie to people, and I was brought up in a home to give people the benefit of the doubt. With my background, I think that is how I was able to trust them. I feel like someone came behind me and physically attacked me. I cry almost every night and I can’t believe people would do this. I feel stupid and ashamed and I am working on getting over those feelings.

What I learned: no inquires on my credit report since I got a car loan last year, AND my credit score is in the “good” category—not “poor” as Bennett Financial Group said it was. I learned that you can’t trust anyone, and I think this has broken me and I am changed person. Not sure if I like this person, but who knows, I will move forward and may like this change.

The best thing I can say from my experience is this: if it’s too good to be true, then it is! I do want to connect with others who were scammed by Bennett Financial Group because I want to get the FBI involved and get Moneygram subpoenaed, they advised me that if I can get them subpoenaed they would give out all the information on Sherri Anderson – it’s a start!