Should I send money to someone I dont know in order to get money back from them
Two years ago I invested in an internet company which turned out to be a scam. Since then they have been brought to trial. Several days ago I received a call from David at the Business Justice Center stating that the Consumer Recovery Associates has a sum of money set aside in my name.
I need to file a claim and pay about 1/5 of the total sum in order to claim it. And it needs to be done soon while the pool of money is still there.
My question is: Since this was initiated by them can I trust that they will deliver if I forward them the funds? Or is this just another continuation of the scam? Thank you and I would appreciate a response to this as soon as possible.
Should I pay a fee in order to get funds that are supposedly mine released to me?
—Anna
You should not need to pay a fee to access funds held for disbursement to you. Consumer Recovery Associates is a debt collection agency. A quick search for Business Justice Center did not yield results.
The little detail you provided is enough to make a skeptic out of me. You should be wary of anyone telling you to act quickly by paying money for something that is allegedly already yours.
Do you have a phone number, email or physical address for either the Business Justice Center or for Consumer Recovery Associates? Have you received any documentation from either company?
About Michael Bovee
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Michael started CRN in 2004 with a mission to provide people in need with detailed debt and credit help and education. Michael has participated as an expert panelist in federal consumer protection rule making, collaborated on state law changes governing debt consolidation, has worked as an expert witness in court matters related to the debt relief industry, and is a regular contributor to several personal finance websites.
For people that have been scammed by illegitimate business’ before.. You’ll get a call one day. They’ll ask if you’ve been scammed before and you’ll be asked some generic questions like for how much? What happened? How long ago was it? Different crap like that. Then they’ll give you a ‘security code.’ Basically they’ll want to know the last 4 of your social to set you up long term. With the last 4 of your social, they can verify the amount in your bank account when they get your card #. Then they’ll say that a consultant, or advocate.. or whatever will give you a call back and tell you how to get your money back. The people who make the initial call have no idea what is going on. Everyone is told it’s ‘customer service.’ And that they’re doing this amazing thing, and they believe it. They’ll call you back and spout some information and the Federal Truth in Lending Act.. They always like to use laws that don’t even necessarily pertain to the issue at hand to give their schemes some legitimacy. They’ll say there’s 100% chance of you getting your money back as long as you follow the instructions. It’s false of course. They’ll force you to give them your credit card numbers ahead of time so that they can “search for the records of the transactions.” That’s false, of course. Even if the transactions only happened on one card, they’ll say that all the cards and all the banks are connected. They just want to know how much you have in your bank accounts before they hit you for the price. They say they’ll send something and have yet another person give you a call back.. “Todd Collins.” Then they’ll have you sign something by email. The program they use is Echo-sign. It says something like ‘a price deemed appropriate for services rendered.’ So if you don’t pay, they’ll threaten to have criminal charges filed… ‘theft of services.’ By law, it’s illegal to check funds in a customers account unless a transaction is taking place. Then Todd will give you a call and try to pry the money from you. If “Todd” is unsuccessful, then it’s the owners of the company that you’ll be talking to next.. It’s also illegal for them to ask for any money up front.. in fact, it’s illegal for them to ask for any money until 7 days after your money has been recovered. There’s a 0% chance you’ll recover anything at all if you follow their instructions. And with the false addresses, false names, false numbers… you’ll never hear from them again. Anyways.. if you’re someone who’s been scammed by this, here’s some people you might be interested in talking to.
Owners;
Richard Dean (goes by Mark Wright) (480) 371-4276
Deborah Kohlruson(I think spelling is off a little bit on her last name) (Goes by Ann Scott) (480) 297-8490
Their maid Troi(female) (480) 628-0568
Receptionist (602) 663-0612
Personal Address: 14619 E. Desert Vista Trail, Scottsdale, AZ 85262
Business Address: 501 S. 48th St. Ste. 415, Tempe, AZ 85281
Website: consumerrecoveryassociates.com
Consumer Recovery Associates(CRA) is a business that has gone by many other names before. Consumer Justice, Business Justice Center.. different names like that. CRA is headed by a husband and wife team that met a while ago online and got married the first week they met. One is Richard. Richard has worked in the sales industry for quite some time with an impressive record he likes to boast about. “Does the name Bankcard Empire ring a bell?” His best friend who got scammed by him for over $5,000 to start CRA will tell you about the time they got $80,000 out of an old lady.
Deborah was a teacher that took care of mentally disabled children. For some reason that she would never disclose to anyone, she was forced to retire permanently and never allowed to return to any school district.
Richard regularly partakes in the services of low class escorts.
They’re both morbidly obese.
They have a very nice but obese young boy they drag along everywhere. Poor kid doesn’t have any friends or other contact with people at all besides the 14 dogs they have in their disgusting house. He’s home schooled and every single day you can find him moping around their filthy office. They don’t ever clean, ever.. The poor kid regularly has candy for dinner. He hasn’t had anything to drink besides soda for years. Doesn’t wash his clothes. Doesn’t brush his hair.
They semi-regularly attend Phoenix First Assembly of God, and often pray with their victims. One of Deborahs regular lines is, “You have to walk in faith, one step at a time. When you sit in a chair, you have to have faith that it’ll hold you.”
They scam their own employees and intimidate them into getting a power of attorney so that they can hide what they’re doing. They use several different LLC’s and business accounts under the employees names just in case the bank at the time catches on and closes the account. They’ll have people send checks. They’ll have couriers pick checks up. They’ll have you wire money online. They’ll have people go into their banks to do a direct transfer. They often write bad checks in the employees name and they ‘float’ payroll checks through check cashing locations and run up debt for the employee.
They use what’s called a voip(voice over internet protocol) service. It’s a internet phone service. A tall lanky guy named Zach is their IT guy. Their numbers will show up from places like San Francisco, Hawaii, Nebraska, Carolina, but they’re all in the same building, based in Tempe, Arizona. They often give false business addresses like the county clerks office or the municipal court building. All employees are forced to give false names as well, under the guise that the banks don’t like them for helping people recover their money.
They hide under the front of a gaming design business and will say they do “business consulting and software design.”
They won’t answer your phone calls, but feel free to leave a message or to stop by 😉
Please help get the word out to any websites related to this issue. The victims need to know.
Dear L.
Thanks so much for your information on Richard Dean. He scammed me out of $5,000 and your comment proved invaluable in tracking him down and helping the Arizona Atty. Gen.’s office recover my money. It was a lesson well learned by me but thanks to you it had a happy ending.
Many blessings,
Obie Hunt
I have the same story as Nancy. I’ve talked to 3 different people at Golden Mantel Assoc and they say I will get back $14,960 from E-Commerse but I have to give them $2100 and they will send a curior to pick it up. I should not worry because I have 6 months to put a cancel on that check (but the bank says “if it is not already cashed”) They had all my current bank information down to the penny. When I told them I had already written checks against that money he wanted me to get a cash advance. With all the stories above – not one says they got their money back or even that they got back in touch.
And now it is August 15th and They have called me as well and I have supposedly gone through about 4 different Guys with all this knowledge of my envolvement with a company called E-Commerce that I put away the paperwork for at least 4 years ago. With them I invested $5ooo.oo and now Golden mantel associates are going to get me my money back. Well I am into them for $2200.00 and am going no further. Yes I feel like a fool but no one will ever get me again.
My husband and I experienced the same thing – exact same conversation only they wanted $7200. Then he came back and said $3500 and grant money could cover some of the costs…. I did research on all the names and addresses they gave us and nothing came up. When I questioned the contact about how they got our name he said they are in the same building as the FBI and since they are a trusted partner with the FBI – the FBI gives them files for closed cases. Not only did I not trust that answer, the contact gave me several other scenarios. There is no way on God’s green earth would I ever give them any money to process my own paperwork. We were repeatedly told about the “guarantee” – we would get $14,000 in 23 days guaranteed… I told him if i had a dollar for every time he said guarantee I would be rich and not need him… He then proceeded to tell us we would get that money back if we followed all the instructions – to a tee – no mistakes could be made. I questioned him on that… then – during our last phone call – he said if we didn’t get the money within 23 days – that money would triple… He was so full of himself and said that he actually did not work for Consumer Recovery Associates LLC – he was only volunteering because they were able to get his Mom money back… and he felt he needed to give back to the community… Please beware of Consumer Recovery Associates LLC. My husband was told by two other recovery agencies that it is illegal to ask for money up front for recovery purposes and that our scam (which happened in 2008) was too old and they would not even touch it… I could not find them on the internet – it always bounced back to Consumer Recovery Associates – the debt collecting company in VA. We were given many different office addresses – in Seattle (within the Jackson Federal Building); Everett Washington, Springfield Mo and lastly – an office in Hawaii. I searched and searched and could not find a legitimate address for this company anywhere. I asked our last contact about it and he said – we have a website – crrassociates.org. They put together a bogus letter on bogus letterhead that was sent to someone official in Springfield MO concerning our case. I tried searching for this person and not only could I not find Consumer Recovery Associates in Springfield – the building address was in the middle of a college campus and the name they used on the letterhead came up under Portfolio Recovery Associates – which was tied to several lawsuits. Anyway – too many red flags and this time – they will not get our money… beware of Consumer Associates Recovery LLC. Thank you
Hi Charlene,
I have spent next to zero time looking at the services offered by consumer recovery associates. I suppose I should with the company name being so close to CRN’s.
I don’t have anything meaningful to share with you at this time, but I may in the future. I will post an update comment when I learn more.
Can you share more about what they were offering to do for you for the $4900?
Sounds like the same Consumer Recovery Associates that contacted me today. They said they could recover a good size loss from an internet scam plus interest from the banking system. This would be under the Truth In Lending Act. The banks and credit card companies carry liability on allowing their services to be used by fraudulent groups. You can go to their site and read about it. It’s consumerrecoveryassociates.com and click on the subtitle about banks. They are based in Virginia and South Carolina.
They took a credit card information, did some research and came called back in about one-and-a-half hours after they reviewed by banking statements for the last 4 years and told me the amount I could expect to receive. However, and not until the end did they disclose that I had to come up $4,900 to process the claim. When I said I didn’t have that kind of money, he left the phone for a few minutes to check on grant money, came back and said there was grant money to cover 50% of that. I still said , “No.” The money was to be held in escrow with a company called Golden Mantle Associates. Do you know anything about them?
Is there anyone out there doing a legitimate business? I can’t tell you how many scam calls I get. I’m afraid to even try finding something on my own because I would just come across more scams to get hooked into to.