fraud-This company took money I did not authorize.
Complaint
Pat
Country: United States
Jan 28 I got a notice from my bank with a charge I did not authorize for $49.99. This company "Unlimited Local Savings" says they will refund. 1st I must get a "cancellation" or "customer" number from them. 2nd I must file this number on their refund request form. 3rd they said it could take up to 72 hrs. To safe guard yourself you need to file a police report (for you and the bank) and make sure your bank stops payment and/or files fraud. Each bank usually has a form for fraud and it needs to be notorized and submitted. Just ask your bank branch manager or the fraud dept. at your bank. Most banks are going to require you open a new account and close that account. That is the safest thing to do. All this work and all this hassle just to get "my" money back! Researching this has indicated that this is a fraudulant practice on "payday loans" that is under goverment investigation. Shame on you "Montel Williams" for shady activity and fraud. If you ended up with a bank charge, as I did, then the bank needs to reverse that. If it should not have been withdrawn then the charge would not have exsisted. I am going back to the old-fashioned way of bill paying--checks. Stopping all debits except my handwriten check, stopping the debit card usage is going to be hard. Mom had it right...looks to good to be true.
Comments
These scams use the "payday loan" site to get your account information, with deceptive or obscured disclosures to claim you "authorized" charges for some "membership" scam with monthly charges. Many complaints indicate they then direct you to some site to "cancel" or "request a refund", which they may ignore while they keep taking money or claim they don't have to refund. The scheme is designed to delay you in filing a bank fraud dispute, which is the only effective way to get your money back.
This particular group is run out of Scottsdale AZ. You can find links between the various names used in the scheme via BBB reports, and through common management in filings with the state of Arizona. The Florida Attorney General site shows they investigated an earlier version of their scheme.
There are numerous complaints similar to yours, of unauthorized charges under various names, notably "777savingsclub". Did you actually get any payday loan, or did they just use your information to cram "membership" charges?
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1st I must get a "cancellation" or "customer" number from them. 2nd I must file this number on their refund request form. 3rd they said it could take up to 72 hrs. To safe guard yourself you need to file a police report (for you and the bank) and make sure your bank stops payment and/or files fraud. Each bank usually has a form for fraud and it needs to be notorized and submitted. Just ask your bank branch manager or the fraud dept. at your bank. Most banks are going to require you open a new account and close that account. That is the safest thing to do.
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You are correct. Filing a fraud dispute with your bank, and closing the account to block ANY additional fraudulent charges, is the safest way to handle this problem.
Immediately contact your bank to file a fraud dispute, and close the account due to fraud to prevent additional fraudulent charges. Under FRB Reg. E, if you dispute charges through your bank within 60 days of the statement date of the statement showing the disputed charge, your bank can yank back the money. Follow up with a written dispute or fraud affidavit, mailed certified, sent to your bank's dispute address from your statement, to document timely filing of your fraud dispute.
File fraud complaints with FTC, your state Attorney General, the Arizona Attorney General, and at www.ic3.gov, which is a government site for filing internet related fraud complaints.