Continental Services FRAUD! Rip-off! They attempted to automatically debit my account for $329.80. Toronto Ontario

On Wednesday July 21st, 2004 I received a telephone call at my office from Jennifer with Continental Services. She explained that I had applied for a credit card about a month ago and been denied. I thought "Yes, I did apply, but I haven't heard anything from the credit grantor, so how would she know if I was denied or not." Well, she explained in greater detail that I had been approved for a $2500 MasterCard with 0% interest. Right, how in the hell would I be approved for a no interest credit card, unsecured at that. Well, I filed a fraud alert on my credit report nearly 2 years ago due to a break-in at my house where my personal checks were.

After listening to her B.S. for nearly 3 minutes on how great this offer was, I asked her a few questions. How did she get my information, what was the company, etc? She didn't ask for any of my information, rather she wanted to verify it. Okay, she spout out some numbers, and to my surprise she had the correct information (routing number, checking account #) This was scary! She told me that there was a one-time processing fee of $329.80 and I told her to send me some information in writing. She began to say that this was a one-time offer and I rebuted explaining to her that no offer is as good as what she had to offer, and at the least I wasn't willing to authorize a transaction of that amount without having written correspondence from them.

She then transferred me to a man who said he was recording our conversation for verification that I didn't want to accept the offer. After hanging up with the man, I went online and saw a previous complaint about this company. Even though I told them I did not want to do anything at the current moment, it turns out that they attempted to automatically debit my account for the $329.80. I immediately went to the bank and closed my checking account and called the Federal Trade Commission about this.

Word to the wise, anytime someone says they have your personal information, challenge them and go to your bank and close the account. Thankfully they were not able to run this payment. The U.S. District Attorney for my area and I are working on this to bring an end to this fraudlent activity. Best of luck if you are a victime of Contintenal Services.

Michael
Shreveport, Louisiana
U.S.A.