Loan Scams Hitting the Upstate

By: Heather Sullivan/News Channel 7 | News Channel 7
Published: November 07, 2007

It's the time of year when people are looking for extra money for the holidays. If you're looking for a loan, watch out. The Better Business Bureau says its receiving complaints from consumers being taken by several loan scams hitting the Upstate in the last week.

Said Zorada Robertson after applying for a loan, "It took a real bad toll on me, it really did."

Robertson was just looking for a break. Three words in an ad in the Greenville News spoke to this single mother's heart. "Need a loan?"

Said Robertson, "I was just desperate. You know, I was desperate."

Robertson says she wired about $500 to what she thought was North Star Bank in Minnesota. But she says her $5000 loan never arrived. When she called about it, she says they asked for another $500.

Said Robertson, "I just hung up. I got mad because I knew I was scammed."

The Better Business Bureau says it discovered the company was just using North Star Bank's name and address, but was really a scam being run out of Canada. The BBB says it's a common trick right now.

Said Kathy Barrett, President of the Better Business Bureau, "The victims are not only the consumers in this, the victims are also the legitimate banks in the legitimate locations."

Barrett says another example of the same type of scam involves a loan offered by what she says is a bogus company called Seacoast Lending Group, that used an address on Haywood Road in Greenville. At that same address is a legitimate bank, First Reliance, which tells us their address is being used by this bogus company.

We called the same phone number Robertson called for her loan. We left messages, but our calls have not been returned. Barrett says there's not much hope of getting her money back.

Said Barrett, "Most of these are in different countries, therefore there is just no recourse."

Robertson says she hopes others will learn from her experience, "If you're in desperate need for a loan, oh no, no, find a better way, somewhere closer that you can go talk to personally, not over the phone."

The Better Business Bureau says it turns these cases over to law enforcement and had the ads and websites for the scams pulled. But new versions of the same scam pop up frequently. They remind you loans that require you to pay money up front are illegal and to check out any loan company at www.bbb.com before you apply.