unauthorized debits from checking account
Complaint
Annie Teter
Country: United States
On Feb 25, 2008, these people debited my checking account for $149.99, causing 4 checks to bounce along with the accompanying overdraft fees. I called the 1-800-2802028 which was listed next to the charge on my bank statement and left messages all day yesterday after i discovered the charge. I then googled medcare rx and discovered they have done this to literally hundreds of people! My bank is investigating and i'm going there today to open a different account. I'm not sure how these people got my routing number and account #, except i did get a payday loan from some company called Zip19 recently, which is how i think they got the number. i'm just trying to get the word out to as many people as i can because these people need to be stopped!
Comments
http://www.hotfrog.ca/Companies/U-S-Medical-Trust
"...
U.S Medical Trust
2015 rue Drummond Bureau 350,
Montréal H3G 1W7, QC
..."
http://www.fraudwatchers.org/forums/showthread.php?t=10878
http://buffalo.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2004/07/05/story8.html
"Northern N.Y. scams cost business millions
Business First of Buffalo - July 2, 2004
by Thomas Hartley
Champlain, N.Y., might be tiny but it looms large in the files of the Better Business Bureau in Buffalo.
The quiet little town on the Quebec border is the hub of Canadian-run, cross-border mail and telemarketing scams, says David Polino, president of the bureau which covers all of New York except metropolitan New York City and Long Island.
"We get about 20,000 complaints a year and 6,000 of those we are getting now involve Champlain 'companies'," says Polino. Furthermore, Champlain figures into 40 percent of all business-to-business complaints to the U.S. Better Business Bureau, he says.
The Buffalo bureau, at 741 Delaware Ave. (buffalo.bbb.org), has nine branches and 43 employees.
Polino says the Buffalo BBB has complaint files on more than 232 companies that list their home address as Champlain, a community of 1,173 residents, 582 houses and 1.45 square miles of real estate. Champlain is 40 miles south of Montreal and 20 miles north of Plattsburgh.
"Most of the 'companies,' or we should say mail box drops, are owned by Canadians. There are no exact figures but we estimate that American companies are losing hundreds of millions of dollars through these businesses. Champlain is the hot spot of cross-border scams of the business-to-business kind," Polino said.
Plattsburgh also is a center but there are only about 40 to 50 mail drops, he said.
The operators run scams "like phony credit card companies or they offer advance fee loans, or business-to-business directories. People think that they are dealing with a U.S. company but they are not. The business end (of the operation) is all in Canada. They just send people into the U.S. to pick up the mail," Polino said.
The volume of complaints in 2003 was enough to vault Canadian-run scams ahead of former leader Nigeria in terms of number and amount of money lost, Polino said.
"So far in the 2004 calendar year, we have opened files on 49 new companies in Champlain New York. That's crazy. We know the same people are changing names with some common phone numbers and fax numbers. Whatever they are doing, they are making a ton of money," Polino said.
There are no dollar figures to measure the extent of loss to the cross-border scammers. But the real loss probably is in the "hundreds of millions of dollars," Polino estimates. Many victims don't complain and many also don't realize they've been scammed.
The Better Business Bureau has had its eye on Champlain for the last few years, Polino said, and has worked closely with the Federal Trade Commission, the Canadian Competition Bureau, the FBI, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and Phone Busters, a branch of the Canadian government that monitors telemarketing fraud.
But arrests have been few.
"Prosecution is difficult because this kind of activity is hard to track due to its cross-border nature, the different jurisdictions and the fact that they operate on the fringe of legality in some cases, while in others are engaged in out-and-out fraud," Polino said.
"With the differences in Canadian and U.S. laws, many of these scam companies are able to conduct operations without abiding by federal guidelines," he said.
The Internet, which more than anything is responsible for the rising tide of fraud complaints has been both a boon and a bane, Polino said. While modern technology has opened the door to opportunistic scammers, on the other hand it also has made it easier for the those trying to protect businesses and consumers to get their warnings out.
"That's one of the best ways we can combat fraud," Polino said. "The more we get the word out, the more alerts we have -- those are the best ways we have of educating business and consumers so that they don't go for these kinds of things."
Polino says the chief reason for Champlain being a focal point of cross-border scam schemes is its location close to Montreal, which he suspects is the base for most of the originators of the illegal or marginally legal activity that he receives complaints about.
Buffalo, like Champlain, is a border community, but its proximity has not lent itself to a similar volume of fraudulent activity, Polino said.
"There isn't anything close to what we saw in the mid-1980s when Buffalo, Houston and Las Vegas were involved in a huge amount of sweepstakes telemarketing fraud," he said. "At that time, the FBI even used our office as part of a sting operation.
"But even then, the numbers (of complaints) were not even close to what we're getting today about Champlain," he said.
"I sent an alert out to the 120 Better Business Bureaus and alerted our members about Champlain. We told them basically to look very carefully at any bill with a Champlain return address because it is almost guaranteed to be fraudulent."
..."
Ramon Caracas
2030 Jeanne-Mance
Apt #3
Montreal QC H2X2J5
514-848-0326
2015 Drummond
Suite 350
Montreal QC H3G1W7
514-842-6851 Phone
514-842-8806 Fax
Quebec Drivers License C6227-080580-02
This is a scam number and now we have to cancel her checking account.
People, call all of your elderly family and friends to inform them to NEVER provide any information to solicitors. Hang up and immediately call the bank FROM A NUMBER THAT YOU HAVE IN YOUR RECORDS, not a number that they give you.
https://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/8664936921
"number was given to me as a customer service number for medicare"
https://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-866-493-6921
"Virginia
5 Jan 2010
Caller said he was from a District Office of Medicare and wanted to verify my checking account number."
"Callie
12 Mar 2010
This is my mother and she received a call supposedly from Medicare regarding a Medicare discount card."
"Elouise
8 Apr 2010
These people called my Mother between 12:00 & 1:00 P.M. on the 4/7/10. They said something about needing more insurance. She told them she did't need any more coverage. They called her a liar and got her upset and she give them her banking information. "
They use empty promises to delay you past the 60 day FRB Reg. E dispute window during which you could have disputed unauthorized or fraudulent charges and your bank would have just reversed the charge and yanked it back from them.
In the future, immediately dispute fraudulent charges through your bank, and close the account or block the card number to prevent additional charges. In fact, you better do that now on this account, or they will take more money.
You cannot trust someone you already know is a liar and a thief.
With this scam, there are a number of reports that the "payment processors" whose names show up on statements appear to be partners in the scam, acting to block attempts to dispute.
Again, ALWAYS dispute through your bank, close your account or block your card number, and follow up with a written dispute or fraud affidavit.
FTC recently settled with a payment processor, Landmark Clearing, caught aiding and abetting these schemes.
https://complaintwire.org/Complaint.aspx/PLhoHHSPzQCJOgjN4GUuQQ
Immediately dispute fraudulent charges directly with your bank, and close the account to block additional fraud. Follow up with a fraud affidavit.
File fraud complaints with FTC and OCC (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency).