PD in Wisconsin reports: “Beneficial / HSBC Finance Corp., is a major player in the credit industry and provider of predatory loans such as live-check loans which are mailed, unsolicited, to customers with bad credit. The customer, simply by cashing it, takes out a poorly advised loan at an outrageous rate. I suppose if you’re desperate, an unsolicited check showing up one day for thousands of dollars, is like manna from heaven!
Out of nowhere one day, I received a collection call from Beneficial informing me that I needed to start paying back a loan for several thousands of dollars. I informed the gentleman that I had never done business with his firm. Apparently, someone who lives over 100 miles away from me had apparently received a live-check loan, and cashed it. The check was in my name and tied to my Social Security number. The collection agent was able to read me my own ss# and refused to listen to my claims of fraud. I asked to whom had the live check been sent and when had it been requested? He said it was in my name, gave some unknown mailing address and he told me that “no one requests these loan checks. They are mailed out as a “service” to those who are felt to meet Beneficial’s criteria for such a loan…”, without the customers request or knowledge.
Repeated attempts to get their fraud department to file a fraud claim met with lies from their staff, disconnects from being on hold for hours and refusal of their collection agents to say anything except “…when are you going to pay, sir..?”
The calls only ceased when I got the attorney general’s office to contact them. The whole mess took about 5 months to clear up and I still don’t know how much damage has been done since they compromised my personal info. The entire ordeal cost me about 48 straight hours of personal time to fix. Nightmare.
HSBC provides credit cards for Best Buy, Bon-Ton, CompUSA, Costco, Helzberg Diamonds, Neiman Marcus, Saks, Sony, Yamaha and many more, so keep this in mind when you sign up for credit offers.”
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I received a similar check from a bank called Bank of America, National Association, Canada Branch. I know about Bank of America.. but when I go to there website, I see nothing about any Canada branch, so I’m not even sure that bank exists. It seems like the same kind of thing though, and am trying to investigate further.
There is some cmpany name on the upper left hand corner of the check called EXOPACK, and the supposed lender is Icon Financial Services. Sounds fake to me, but I am investigating. The check is for $92,788.93, and is made out in my name and address.
A letter came with it, and it was supposedly a small business loan. I am in the process of opening my own business, and when I went on their website, it did look familiar, so I believe I did fill out a loan application, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a fake check, or a scam.
I’m doing all the investigating I can, and will probably take the check to a local Bank of America and see what they have to say about the whole thing. I’m in Rochester, NY. The check was supposedly drawn off a Canada branch in Toronto. I heard about some scam similar to this where a bunch of people got threatened with arrest from a bank that had cashed a bunch of supposed ‘business loan’ checks from a whole bunch of people. I’m not trying to let that happen to me.
If you have any information on this, please email me. I’d love to nail them before they do anymore damage. Thank you!