Advance Loan Fee Scam

[RyanMcC]

A friend of mine got taken for $2000 by this scam a few weeks ago.

Someone claiming to be with Ameritrust Financial in Wilton Connecticut offering a loan saying they needed 6mos payment up front, then, oops, there was a problem, need another 6 months up front.

Oh and the money needs to be sent via moneygram to a woman's name in Canada.

He got a call to verify he sent the money because the woman's name was on some watch list. He still authorized the transfer.

They sent him paperwork to fill out beforehand, asking for bank account information, ect. When he finally told me about it I told him to go to the bank and close the account atleast.

The site he originally went to was down shortly after he got scammed, there are a few sites still online claiming to be "Ameritrust Financial" that are clearly scams.

Unfortunately I knew nothing about it until it had already happened or I would have pointed out one of the atleast 5 red flags that were blatent.

These people are quite busy this month using the exact same story in each case:

RipoffReport

Quite sad, taking advantage of people in bad situations to begin with. My friend was even advised if he can't come up with the money that some people go get payday loans to pay the fee then pay those loans off once they get their check in a couple days (which never shows up).