Spectra Financial misleading, unhelpful, fraudulent, identity theives, scam, liars ripoff Champlain New York

I used to work for the company that operated under the Spectra name among many others which I later found out. The company is a complete fraud and has misled its consumers and employees. You all will be pleased to know that actions have been taken here in Canada to shut them down and they were finally caught Last summer. Below is the report of what action has been taken against the accused. Just so people know, as employees we were led to believe that we were selling legit credit cards US customers.

We were given a very interestingly worded script that made sense to us and we worked with it. They sold to US b/c they knew most of us employees did not know much about the credit system and banking system in the US. They had a nice office in a big building and everything seemed legit. They even worked with legit clients, working on some political campaigns, selling PRIMUS telecom. stuff so I had no reason to question anthing. I became a little weary when we changed the name of the card, then again and then again. When I started, we were selling a card under the name Guardian Financial. when we questioned why it changed, our managers simply said that it was b/c the CSRs were giving wrong info about delivery dates which caused too many complaints so we changed the name.

For any question we had, our managers had an answer that made sense. I now realize that they were quick to hire students, newcomers to the country and those not so bright, in order to promote their scam. I was a student myself, never having been in the telemarketing industry and thought it was a good job to help get through school. I began to see that this was not a job I could pursue b/c of all the questionable activity so I left. Thank God for that since they were eventually raided and shut down. It really is upsetting that I too was a victim and sadly sold these ridiculous cards to innocent people.

The down side to all of this though is that the head boss of the company owns many other call centers like this one. I overheard while I was there, that he had one set up in India selling the same thing, but of course labour being quite cheap there, paid them less and he made so much more money. Also I heard rumors that the managers and some sueprvisors may have started up these companies again with different names, One guy opening a center in Montreal and another supervisor that may have opened one in downtown toronto. I wish I knew about this site sooner so I could have posted this. I just was happy to be done with that job and never looked back.
But I feel its my duty to make sure no one UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE, SHOULD GIVE THEIR BANK INFO OR PURCHASE ANYTHING OVER THE PHONE.
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By the way here's the company info and report that I mentioned earlier. Its closed down now and the number is out of service.

Company's real name: ESI (Employment Solutions Inc.)
Address: 703 Evans. Ave, Etobicoke, Ontario
Ph: 416-622-5225
website: www.esi-solutions.ca

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Article taken from phonebusters- they work with the RCMP in Canada.

Toronto Police Service
Canadians Telemarketing Ring Arrests

September 27, 2005 -- Members of a sophisticated telemarketing ring have been arrested by the Toronto Strategic Partnership in Deceptive Telemarketing. Two Toronto telemarketing rooms were shut down following the execution of search warrants. At the same time another room operating in Calgary was simultaneously shut down by the Alberta Partnership whom also executed a search warrant. The search warrants were executed on Monday September 26, 2005.

The Toronto Strategic Partnership is a multi-law enforcement agency response to Mass Marketing Fraud. It includes the TPS Fraud Squad, Ontario Provincial Police, Phonebusters, York Regional Police Service, RCMP-GTA Commercial Crime Section, Competition Bureau, Ministry of Government Services formerly MCBS, Federal Trade Commission, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the U.K. Office of Fair Trading.

It is alleged that during the years 2002 through to 2005, a telemarketing scheme was set up and perpetuated in Canada and the target victims were mainly United States citizens.

The investigation was of entities and persons carrying on business as, but not limited to, the following business names: Centurion Financial Benefits, Guardian Financial Benefits, Spectra Financial Benefits, Integra Financial Benefits, Sureway Financial Benefits, Simple Choice Financial Benefits, Oxford Financial Benefits and Prosperica Benefits.

United States consumers were contacted through direct telephone communications and/or through the Internet and were offered a guaranteed unsecured credit card with a credit limit of $2,000.00. The unsecured low interest credit cards had 0% interest on purchases and no annual fees. To complete the sale, some consumers were persuaded to divulge their bank account information so that an advance fee of approximately $249 (USD) could be withdrawn from their account.

Consumers made the payment and no credit cards were received.

It is believed that in excess of 70,000 consumers were victimized of millions of dollars (USD).

Arrested:

Eric Folgora 34 years-Mississauga.
Sean Carlos Somma 30 years-Toronto.
Antonio Marchese 42 years-Bolton.
Claire-Stephanie Tan 35 years-Toronto.
The aforementioned are charged with Fraud Over $5000.00 and are scheduled to appear in College Park Provincial Courts 444 Yonge Street Courtroom 501 on Tuesday, September 27 2005, at 10:00 am.

Further arrests are anticipated and investigations are continuing.
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My boss was Sean Soma who went by a different last name when I worked there
Stephanie Tan was the HR manager there.
Eric ran another office in Toronto.
All last names were changed.

The Big Boss is Frank Bellissimo, though I'm sure thats not his real name. He runs things with his wife and I am sure a few others. He has serious connections and has been smart enough to keep these things running for many years all over the world.

Hope this is of some help to you all and a warning as well. Sadly these rings are hard to stop as they can pop up and reopen again anywhere.

DONT BE A VICTIM, DONT WORK FOR THESE TYPE OF COMPANIES.

I heard that the employees that were then when it got shut down lost out on 3 weeks pay.

I now have a great job and am really helping people and making a difference and I must apologize to anyone who may been sold this card by myself or anyone else there because I assure you that only a select few at the top knew that this was a scam and were all working hard to make sales and do a supposed 'good job'.