Agents investigating loan firmPolice: Company takes fee, doesn't provide funds By Glenn Smith (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Here's who to callCustomers with complaints about Richfield Lending can call PhoneBusters, an anti-fraud calling center, toll free at 1-888-495-8501. Desiree Wenning and her husband desperately searched for a loan so they could afford to move from Ohio to North Carolina for the expert cancer treatment she needs to stay alive. But with marginal credit, their chances seemed bleak. The Wennings thought their prayers had been answered when they received a call from Richfield Lending of North Charleston, offering to loan them $15,000 in return for an up-front fee. The couple quickly wired off $4,000 in two payments this month. In return, the Wennings said they received ... nothing. Desiree Wenning, 30 years old and with stage 3 non-Hodgkin lymphoma, doesn't know how she will ever afford to get to Duke University Hospital for her treatment. As it is, she and her electrician husband are taking cash advances on his paycheck just to afford food for their five kids after losing their savings to Richfield. "I don't know what we're going to do," Wenning said Wednesday, her voice choking with emotion. Wenning is one several customers who have filed formal complaints against Richfield after losing thousands of dollars in an alleged loan scheme that targets people with shaky credit, authorities said. North Charleston police and U.S. Secret Service agents are investigating, but they seem to be chasing a ghost. The company lists its address on Faber Place Drive in North Charleston, but it has no offices there and none of the property managers have heard of Richfield Lending, said police Sgt. Joyce Smith, a fraud investigator. It also has no business license to operate in the city. "I haven't been able to get close to this company," Smith said. "It doesn't exist." Ten customers from New York to California complained that they put up $800 or more but received nothing in return after wiring cash to Richfield's representatives, Smith said. Some of the lost money appears to have ended up in Canada, she said. Richfield representatives did not return phone calls Wednesday or respond to an e-mail inquiry sent to its Web site. Thomas Judd, a correctional officer from New Jersey, said he lost $1,500 in his dealings with the company. Judd, a father of three, said he was short on cash and seeking a $5,000 loan to cover his rent and help his family stay afloat for a few months. A Richfield representative called him last week after Judd filled out an application on the Internet, he said. Judd said the man told him he would get the loan, but he first needed to put up some money as collateral. Judd sent two payments, as he was told, but the loan didn't appear. He pleaded for his money back, but to no avail, he said. "Now, I don't have money to pay the rent and I have to go to court tomorrow," Judd said. "I'm just so aggravated by this situation." Judd was so angry that he considered driving to North Charleston to confront company officials face to face. He decided to call a cousin in South Carolina first to check on the business. The cousin went over to Faber Place Drive on a lunch break to find the third-floor suite that the Richfield representative had provided as an address. "The building was there," Judd said. "But there is no third floor." Customers were apparently recruited through e-mails or phone calls from Richfield, authorities said. Once the money was wired, it could be retrieved from just about anywhere, making it difficult for investigators to track down the recipients. The company's e-mails are routed through Honduras and its faxes through a location in Clover, S.C., that investigators haven't located, Smith said. The company seemed to appear on the scene this month, and the Better Business Bureau already has 19 complaints pending against it, according to Chris Hadley with the bureau's Columbia office. The bureau has posted a notice of Richfield's business licensing issues as well as a warning about so-called "advance fee" scams. John Kenney, resident agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service in Charleston, said advance-fee schemes are an all-too-common update on the old telemarketing scams that flourished north of the border. Legitimate brokers don't ask for advance fees or wired cash. They take their commission from the loan itself after it clears, he said. Jane Carson of Indiana said Richfield's request for more than $6,000 in advance fees caused her to balk at a $60,000 loan the company offered her for a new home she wanted to buy. That, and the fact that a different woman answered her three return calls to the company, all claiming to be a broker named Cathy Foster, she said. "Red flags were going off everywhere," said Carson, who is now reporting Richfield to every governmental agency she can find. "These people need to be stopped." Reach Glenn Smith at 937-5556 or gsmith@post andcourier.com. |
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Comments
This article has 24 comment(s)
Posted by WhoCares on September 18, 2008 at 6:02 a.m. (Suggest removal)
What a bunch of idiots!! I sure wish I could line up some fools so eager to give me their money! I say they deserve what they got...call it a lesson in stupidity...and hope they learned well!
Posted by moonpie on September 18, 2008 at 6:03 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Are people really this stupid? I mean to pay up front that kind of money to get a marginal loan? God bless them, but man people THINK a little on your own!
Posted by oldglory on September 18, 2008 at 6:58 a.m. (Suggest removal)
WC and Moon, my thought process after reading the article and your comments led me to almost totally agree with you.
Then, I stopped and really thought. You know what? There were millions of people who bought in on ARM loans for homes they really couldn't afford, and those people were bilked by 'legitimate' sub-prime companies. I kept thinking that when I was young you couldn't get a loan if you had a car payment/credit card/debts of any sort. You had to find a way to pay them and then apply for the mortgage loan. I could not believe our government didn't put an immediate end to sub-prime lending. And those people in FannieMae and FreddieMac are our nation's economic experts.
Look at the state our government and the economy is in. Hey! Those people were supposed to be specialists! I have been absolutely flabbergasted that our government has done nothing about the oil companies. Wish I had one of those CEOs in my pocket--slicker then snake oil apparently. Is there truly any CEO worth that kind of money?
Well, we all know what I'm saying, and I'm sure everyone could add more examples.
Posted by postman01 on September 18, 2008 at 7:27 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Sadly, there are those who prey on stupid and ignorant people. This is a perfect example.
Posted by Roget on September 18, 2008 at 7:50 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Hey Crackcorn, sounds like a good deal. I just need to know if I can trust you. If you'll wrap up $2,500 in a handkerchief and let me hold it for a while...
Posted by DoaMM on September 18, 2008 at 8:06 a.m. (Suggest removal)
If you are trying to get $5000 to "make ends meet", how in the world did you come up with $1400 for the loan?
You sent $8000 to company for a $15,000 dollar loan? Why?
Are people really, TRULY so stupid as to GIVE money for a loan...of money?!
Wow...These folks make me look like a genius with my in-debt arse...
Posted by Larz13 on September 18, 2008 at 8:15 a.m. (Suggest removal)
oldglory,
You obviously know very little about the mortgage business and subprime lending in particular except that the loans are made to people with less than stellar credit.
HERE IS SOME EDUCATION: Fact is, about 15% of these loans are delinquent, when typically it is about 13%. Without these types of loans, someone who was late on a payment ONCE would not be able to get a loan. While these loans carry a higher interest rate to account for risk, they are also more profitable for banks and entities such as Fannie and Freddie. Typically, they come with a higher downpayment and require mortgage insurance to cover losses and late payments. The problem that companies got into are that these people were the first to bail out on their loans (stopped paying) when their home values dropped below what they owed on the homes. You can check out the statistics--75% of these foreclosures had zero borrower action (they did not pay nor did they attempt to contact the bank for a workout). Many were immigrants (legal and illegal). Banks 99% of the time do not want to foreclose (that is, reputable banks). They lose...even if the borrower puts 20% down.
Next time think twice about what you are saying. There is a guy who writes letters to the editor about this (are you him?) and never thinks about that it may be the borrowers to blame.
Posted by Larz13 on September 18, 2008 at 8:17 a.m. (Suggest removal)
ColdBeer-
Ever see Faux-bama's pastor Rev Wright's (wrong?) new retirement digs? Something like a 6000 square foot mansion outside Chicago.
Posted by tc1 on September 18, 2008 at 9:48 a.m. (Suggest removal)
"I could not believe our government didn't put an immediate end to sub-prime lending"
Actually big brother encourages it. For one example google "community reinvestment act".
Posted by ashleyatwork on September 18, 2008 at 10:04 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Stupid, stupid, stupid people! They make it SO EASY for these scammers.
PS Coldbeer..I know what you mean..the older i get unfortunately the more i dont like what i see and belief is hard to keep up on that subject.
Posted by crankyyankee on September 18, 2008 at 10:38 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I've always wondered how an entity that can create a whole universe can't keep the preacher from bonking the alter boy or keep the roof from leaking on his own house! Amazing!
Posted by mkris on September 18, 2008 at 10:40 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Every week, people take their hard earned cash and give it to a preacher in a church. The preacher, who has no job, lives in a nice house, drives a big car and lives a great lifestyle for an unemployed person. The church gets bigger and bigger... and BIGGER. People keep giving money. All for the promise that an afterlife in a heaven might actually exist. No one knows for sure. No one ever will know for sure... and yet, preachers continue to beg for money and their patrons continue to give them money. It's the biggest and longest running scam in the world. It's worse than what this loan company has done. It's worse than what Al Parrish did... and yet... no one complains about those crooks. The same people being duped by that scam find it amazing that others are duped by this type of scam. I find it odd.
Would that be the Seacoast church?
Posted by crankyyankee on September 18, 2008 at 10:45 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Does anyone remember a few months ago when the P&C ran a series of articles quoting Robert Ford and demanding easier access to loans for marginal barrowers. Where's that wind bag now and what does Ford think of the present mortgage crisis his ideological ideas have perpetrated on the working man? How uninformed and out of touch can an individual be before it is recognized by the masses?
Posted by grannyofseven_2 on September 18, 2008 at 11:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Hey James we must be related I have that same cousin
Posted by grannyofseven_2 on September 18, 2008 at 11:48 a.m. (Suggest removal)
You can order it on line CB. All the old gums and candy from that era.
Posted by DoaMM on September 18, 2008 at 12:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Granny, the only problem is that the candy IS from THAT era.
:)
Posted by VMI90 on September 18, 2008 at 2:04 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Yes, I agree to an extent these people are stupid. However, the family that needed to get $$ to get cancer treatment was just totally taken advantage of. They were operating totally on emotion- we really don't know if we were in their shoes how we would have reacted- a very close loved one dying. That situation is heartbreaking. However, the folks that we just short a few bucks for rent really should have known better.
Posted by grannyofseven_2 on September 18, 2008 at 2:05 p.m. (Suggest removal)
eyfigueroa and CB I find that Chuncky , charleston chews are in walgreens all the time. I know I ambad and shouldnt but i buy the chunky's every week
Posted by Lovely_One on September 18, 2008 at 3:41 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I have yet to read the other comments, but here goes:
WTF were these people thinking? If a company was to ask me for cash collateral my first response would be, "If I had the cash to give you I wouldn't be coming to you for a "loan" to begin with." Some people just leave themselves open to be taken advantage of. As for the guy that sent $1500 and now he is on his way to court for not paying his rent, he could have saved that $1500 and presented it in court and let the judge and the landlord know that is all he had and that he would be working to get the rest of the money up ASAP. It may not have worked, but at least he would have put forth the effort. Or he could have used the $1500 to get a much cheaper place.
I am not condoning what this slimeball company did to these people, I am just saying that they should have used better judgment in their business transaction. I hope they find whoever is behind this and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.
Posted by forget on September 18, 2008 at 3:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Necco wafers!
oooooh, a Chunky.
Posted by Lovely_One on September 18, 2008 at 3:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)
J_CC you had me at "Chic-O-Stick"!!!!
But "Chew Man Chew" is my fave!!!
Posted by Lovely_One on September 18, 2008 at 4:01 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Interesting:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?...
The family was trying to find out about this company on Yahoo Answers. I feel really bad for them. I am sure they have learned their lesson. I still say they should have used better judgment.
Posted by bkeelin on September 18, 2008 at 8:33 p.m. (Suggest removal)
CB,
What pastor of what church really hurt you? To say a pastor is unemployed is a bit assinign. I hope you will someday quit blaming the messengers and really hear the message of the Gospel.
Posted by stranger on October 16, 2008 at 10:45 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I believe this is more of IGNORANCE than stupidity. For most of these victims they didn't know how to verify the legitimacy of a company.
Desperate + bad credit = no savior/feed on me.