Alternative Financial Services (Loan Advisor Shirley Phillips) A.F.S. Financial Services, Alfinser, Robert Herstek President according to BBB Company can not be verified> Do not send any money to Alternative Financial Services! Its a SCAM! Larksville, Pennsylvania

I was desperate to find a private lender to finance my house purchase. I went online & filled out numerous forms on numerous websites requesting loans. I got an email from a Shirley Phillips with an approval. I looked over the papers & was a littel confused

so I called & spoke with Mrs. Phillips & she explained the Income Protection Insurance Policy that would have to be taken out in order for the loan to go through & the cost was either $3,145 or $5,465 dependent on options chosen. Half of this amount would be refunded about a year later once payments on the loan were made on time & the other half at the end of the loan.

This all sounded good but then when I asked how payment could be made she told me that the best way to do this would be to go to Wal-Mart & purchase a few Green Dot Money Pack Cards (each card has a $1,000 limit so mutliple cards would have to be purchased @ $4.95 each) She said that the cost of the cards would be refunded.

I would then have to call back & give them the numbers, then the paperwork for my loan would be sent out in the mail & the process would be started. It would take 24-48 hours for the payment to show up on my account which would include the funding information & closing information.

Since I have never used these money pack cards I immediately looked them up only to find the warnings associated with using them. There is no guarantee on them for fraudulent companies. Once you give the number out the money is as good as gone. It is just like cash & can not be traced! The website says to never give out the card number over the telephone or to a company that is not legitimately on their OK list. Of course Alternative Financial Services is NOT on their list.

I did some more research on the company & came up short. No where online is there anything about this company. The BBB has them listed as startign the business on 1/1/1992 & in their files since 1/13/1995 but no other information. The owner is said to be Robert Herstek but when you research him you come up with some shady information. He is also listed as a computer programmer?

There are numerous telephone numbers listed & I keep getting emails from Shirley Phillips with new numbers. If you look up the numbers nothing comes up. Sure you'll get a person if you call them but is that person really who they say they are? There is no way of knowing. When I replied to the emails sent I get no reply. Sounds like an automatic system just spitting out emails with no monitoring or they could just be ignoring my concerns for proof of who they are.

I googled the address & I can see a sign the says A.F.S. outside the address which looks like a house converted to a business across from a used car lot. After all this research & no proof that this company really exists I have decided not to send them anything!! This company has to be a SCAM! What legitimate company uses money packs?

If they are legitimate why don't they use a payment system that has a guarantee or at least has a way to trace the funds? CONSUMERS BEWARE! DO NOT SEND THIS COMPANY ANY MONEY! Their guarantees are worthless! Sure they say you'll get your money back but when it comes down to it they will be gone by then!

I am posting this experience to hopefully prevent another consumer from making a mistake that I almost did. Luckily I am not so quick to spend thousands of dollars before thoroughly researching where my money is going! As the old saying goes "IF IT SOUNDS TO GOOD TO BE TRUE THEN IT MOST LIKELY IS"!