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     | Wednesday, April 26, 2000 - 01:18 pm  I got a call on an unlisted phone from National Consumers Benefit Club. They tried to get me to give them my checking account number to charge $149.95 for 1) an unsecured M/C with a credit line of up to $500 ($250 minimum) with NO credit check. They also stated that the account will not be reported to the credit bureaus. No annual fees, or any other fees, ever. 2) a $250 credit line, with the $250 to be deposited directly to the checking account within 2 weeks. 3) a bonus free lifetime internet access. When I inquired with who, it turned out to be netzero. Isn't it free anyway? I tried it once and it totally sucked. When I inquired about the interest rate, I was advised that it depended on my payment history. This was a call from a boiler room, I could hear the other operators in the background. When I asked how they got the number, as it is unlisted and very new, a supervisor told me that whoever had the number before must have been turned down for a credit card. After spending some more time with the Gina, the operator in training, I spoke with another supervisor, Amanda Johnson, because I wanted some more info and inquired about a web site. Amanda said their customer service at 877-701-2800 would be able to help me out. When I tried calling, nobody answered. There is no VM, it just rings. They claimed they are registered with the BBB Ohio and also gave me their 740-353-1046 which is supposed to be in Portsmouth, Ohio. I only got busy signals. They cannot fax or mail info, this is a "limited time promotion." Gina kept assuring me that everything goes through an independent verification company licensed with the FTC and I forgot who else, who will call me back to confirm everything. This is of GREAT interest to me because I have been looking for a company who will issue a credit card WITHOUT obtaining a credit report. Obviously, every indicator is screaming FRAUD! They're supposed to call me back in an hour, I'd hate to spend $150 to find out that I'm right. On the other hand, I'd really like to know about this type of credit card. Has anyone dealt with this outfit? Well, Gina called me back already, they will have a meeting in an hour. So I talked to her some more. She's been on this job for 3 days, they're paying her minimum wage. She is 32 years old and has no checking account. I asked her to call back tomorrow. Gina gave me the 740-354-6276 which was answered by Chad. He supposedly was fixing the secretary's computer and there are a number of companies in the building such as National Consumers Benefit Club, Satellite City, United States Cellular and a few others. His uncle owns the building and everything is legit, according to Chad. Tomorrow I'll call the Ohio BBB. I'd appreciate hearing about any experiences or suggestions on how to find out more about National Consumers Benefit Club. I found nothing doing a web search, searching creditnet.com and creditinfocenter.com.
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| | Thursday, April 27, 2000 - 10:05 am I called the 877 number again and it just rings and rings and rings. So I did a web search for "BBB Ohio" and ran across http://www.ohiocitizen.org/. I looked at their page and decided to give them a quick call. I spoke with Sonia Hale, the office manager. They're only interested in legislative efforts. She had NOBODY to recommend. She suggested I call the BBB. I asked if she could give me the number, as I was in Arizona. She declined. I guess it's not her job. e-mailed to: Citizens Policy Center, Executive Director, Chris Kuwamoto, ckuwamoto@ohiocitizen.org
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| | Thursday, April 27, 2000 - 10:23 am I called the BBB in Columbus, OH and after some VM hell got to Kim, Customer Service Rep. She searched for all 3 phone numbers, had absolutely NOTHING on the National Consumers Benefit Club. I asked her whether she could refer me to an agency that would investigate consumer fraud. She had NO recommendations.
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| | Thursday, April 27, 2000 - 11:41 am I finally got to speak with Debbie Lawver, Ohio AG - Consumer Protection phone 614-466-4320 fax 614-728-7583. She told me that this type of fraud is quite common. They had no reports on the National Consumers Benefit Club. I faxed her my postings here and I hope they'll do something BEFORE the National Consumers Benefit Club changes name and location. If I reported that I was observing somebody stealing a loaf of bread in a supermarket, the police would rush there and make arrests. Here we have literally hundreds or thousands of people being ripped off at the tune of $150 per person. The majority of these people is already poor. Nobody is rushing to stop that .... It's just a corporation stealing poor people's money, no big deal!
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| | Thursday, April 27, 2000 - 11:52 am I also found that the Ohio AG 800 #s aren't working, apparently because I called from another State. Obviously, this means that those targeted poor people that are being called by National Consumers Benefit Club out of Ohio can't report those crimes unless they are willing to incur long distance charges as I did. The Ohio AG apparently does not WANT these crimes reported when the victims are in another State. And where do you think National Consumers Benefit Club gets their leads? It could only be from the creditors who declined credit card applications or the credit bureaus.
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| | Thursday, April 27, 2000 - 01:10 pm Scary
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| | Thursday, April 27, 2000 - 04:24 pm Surprise! My neighbor called me after she got off the phone with National Consumers Benefit Club. I had told her about them last night. So apparently it's not true that they call people who have been declined for a credit card, they must be using random dialers. One of my top 5 reasons for living "on the road" is that I meet so many new people. Nancy is one of the most interesting persons I've met in a while. Just like me, she went through great efforts to find out who National Consumers Benefit Club is. The guy who called her claimed to be in Baltimore, Maryland. He could not give her a number. But because she told him she didn't have a checking account (smart move, Nancy!), he gave her an address to mail a money order to. First he started to give her a South San Francisco, Cal. address, then put her on hold. He then gave her this address: PO Box 210243 Bedford, TX 76095-7243 Now, I think there's probably a mistake in the box # or the last four digits of the ZIP, I think they're supposed to be the same. She also managed to get a new phone number: 800-980-9301 This was supposed to be the Bedford number. After I got to her house, she called. First a woman answered. She could not provide a physical address and claimed to be in Ft. Worth. She didn't know how that related to Bedford. Nancy eventually asked for a supervisor, it took a while, and there was Chad again! I didn't know the name Chad was that common and suspect it's the same Chad who was fixing computers for the secretary yesterday in Portsmouth, OH. What you can do with call forwarding .... Nancy had him on the phone for at least half an hour. He finally stated that he was just a "service company" handling the "fullfillment and cancellations." He would not give out a street address at all. I got some really good laughs listening to Nancy pester the guy. She was phenomenal at stringing Chad along. After she got off the phone with Chad she called the AZ AG Consumer Fraud division. They took down the name of the company, but were NOT interested in details such as addresses or phone numbers. They will mail her a form to complete. In the meantime, desperate people are being defrauded by the hundreds. Police officers are turning on their lights and sirens to arrest shop lifters and to hand out speeding tickets. You wouldn't want to slow down a corporation doing business ....
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| | Monday, May 01, 2000 - 11:16 am I called Debbie with the Ohio Consumer Protection Division and she was VERY helpful. Last week she had turned my fax over to the lead investigator. According to her, Ohio takes a strong stand against phone fraud and today I faxed her my previous posting about my neighbor's call. The preliminary investigation takes about a week, and if they proceed it might take anywhere from 6 to 18 months. One case they are finally now prosecuting after 18 months. Those telemarketing scams are white collar crime, with LOW priority. Do you know what happens when you get caught stealing a $1 item at Walmart? You get arrested. I have witnessed those arrests at stores. Why do American laws condone the exploitation of the very poorest and helpless population by these white collar thugs? I'll try to update with the results in a few weeks, or months ... however long it takes.
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| | Thursday, June 15, 2000 - 02:25 pm FWIW it *is* possible for a CC account not to appear as a "countable" inquiry on your credit report. I've received solicitations which stipulate that responding to the solicitation will NOT create another inquiry item on your file (I think Providian Bancorp was one of these). As a result, the only inquiry item related to this card will be the original promotional entry (where the provider pulled your credit file speculatively to work out if you were worth soliciting), and credit providers don't count these when calculating scores. Having said that, this particular deal you mention would be pretty useless even if it wasn't a scam, because it doesn't help you put a good line on your credit report.
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| | Thursday, June 15, 2000 - 05:18 pm You are right that you can get credit through the promotional inquiries, provided your credit is good enough to qualify for those. I didn't know they even promoted this on their solicitation, the word that inquiries lower your scores must have really gotten out! The above scam was not promoted to re-establish credit at all. They were clearly targeting people who NEEDED money and a credit card to rent cars, order stuff via phone, online, etc.
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