Lion Loans Scam

[chrisCD]

I had noticed my credit score was lower than normal, but not totally abysmal so didn't think much of it. We applied for a car loan and the bank that accepted us gave us pretty high rate and then we got several rejection letters in the mail.

I noticed one letter referenced a long over do account and gave a link to Experian.  I signed up for the free account and discovered a fraudulent inquiry and an account.  I initially filed the report wrong, but Experian helped me get that resolved.  Both were eventually removed as I was a victim of identity theft. Experian said the process may go faster if I reach out the companies.

The bank with the inquiry was actually helpful.  They had a good fraud dept and it was the number that Experian gave me to call so I was comfortable giving them my SS#.  The company with the fraudulent account was not helpful at all.  Couldn't ever get to a real person, but what ever process Experian used, got that resolved.  So at a minimum, take the time to monitor your reports.

I would be hesitant to provide personal info to Lions especially when they make a veiled threat.  You are the victim here and they should be a bit more sympathetic.  But, if you can determine via the credit bureau that they are legit, you should be fine.  Experian told me companies go through quite a vetting process before they can access credit information.

cd :O)

[Kamban]

I am sorry that you re going through all this.

I get many calls via my front desk -from loan agencies, loan providers, stock brokers, telemarketers, survey agencies etc. The most sleazy are the stock brokers who will have Indian names and sound as if I am a personal friend of theirs.

My front desk standard reply is that the doctor is in with a patient and will call you back if you give a name, number and a reason for calling. 99 times out of 100 they do not give the info and all is well. The survey companies are told that the doctor does not do surveys.

I never answer any calls on my cell phone unless I know the number or vaguely have an idea from whom it might be. Now many scam calls have started to be spoofed and made to originate with a local area code.

[VagabondMD]

An update:

I thought I was done with all of this. Last week I received a letter from Lion Loans, and it was a letter than I normally would drop into the recycling bin. There was no indication that it was of any import. Recognizing Lion Loans on the return address, I opened the letter, and it told me that Lion Loans was willing to accept a lower payment (by debit or cashier's check), if I paid immediately. $2000 vs. $2700 currently on the account.

I have since filed a report with my state's AG office, local police report, and had previously filed fraud reports and frozen credit at the three bureaus. I have had contact with Lion Loans, and they have asked me to provide the police report and file a notarized affidavit with a lot of personal info (ss#, driver's license # and other personal info). My local police are questioning the veracity of these claims and have recommended me not cooperating by giving LL more info.

I finally spoke with their compliance department today and was told that I needed to provide this information for their investigation. They could not share any information about the origin of the loan, and I informed the agent that I was advised to be careful about sharing information with them-- a bit of a stalemate. We compromised with me completing the parts of the affidavit that I was comfortable with and seeing if we could finish up this business.

The agent told me that if I was not cooperative that I could be subject to aggressive collections efforts (a bit of a threat), and I was not happy with the tone of the threat nor the idea of being hassled for someone else's supposed fraudulent loan.

[DMFA]

Experian is usually very good at removing fraudulent inquiries. Question is if you need/want to go full-court press on the identity theft front: SEC, SSA, local law enforcement, three bureaus, etc.

[VagabondMD]

jfoxcpacfp wrote:

Zaphod wrote:

janettebournes wrote:

My husband and I must be much more anti-social / paranoid than everyone else.

We don’t even bother answering our phones anymore unless we know who is calling.

Everyone else gets routed to voice mail.

If we don’t like what you have to say, # is blocked and we don’t expect to hear from you again.

If you don’t leave a message, # is blocked and we don’t expect to hear from you again.

1 strike policy applies to all

Click to expand…

I have a similar policy. I answer once, if a marketer I simply hang up without saying anything and block the number. Same for marketers that leave a vm.

Click to expand…

I hate being interrupted by unnecessary phone calls. My v.m. states that if i don’t answer, it’s because I don’t recognize your number so leave a msg and I’ll get right back to you. Seems to work. Those who don’t leave a msg get blocked. Is there a reason doctors cannot do the same?

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I am not sure answering vs. not answering is a "doctor" issue. There are times when I am expecting a call or see a number from a familiar location that I mistakenly answer a call that I would be better off not answering. Most calls, especially toll free calls, do not get answered.

Back to my issue, specifically, it appears that there were no soft inquiries on my Experian account between September, 2016 and February, 2017. On Feb 10, 2017, there were about a half dozen inquiries from various internet "payday" loan services, one of which had "Lion Loans" in the name, most had "Clariant" in the name, followed by an alleged application by me to "Cash Central" on February, 14, 2017.

I am not sure what to make of this, where this is going, who the villain is, but I have a feeling that this saga might turn into a guest blog at some point.

My next step will be to report the fraudulent application to Experian and then freeze my Experian reporting account.

[jfoxcpacfp]

Zaphod wrote:

janettebournes wrote:

My husband and I must be much more anti-social / paranoid than everyone else.

We don’t even bother answering our phones anymore unless we know who is calling.

Everyone else gets routed to voice mail.

If we don’t like what you have to say, # is blocked and we don’t expect to hear from you again.

If you don’t leave a message, # is blocked and we don’t expect to hear from you again.

1 strike policy applies to all

Click to expand…

I have a similar policy. I answer once, if a marketer I simply hang up without saying anything and block the number. Same for marketers that leave a vm.

Click to expand...

I hate being interrupted by unnecessary phone calls. My v.m. states that if i don't answer, it's because I don't recognize your number so leave a msg and I'll get right back to you. Seems to work. Those who don't leave a msg get blocked. Is there a reason doctors cannot do the same?

[Zaphod]

janettebournes wrote:

My husband and I must be much more anti-social / paranoid than everyone else.

We don’t even bother answering our phones anymore unless we know who is calling.

Everyone else gets routed to voice mail.

If we don’t like what you have to say, # is blocked and we don’t expect to hear from you again.

If you don’t leave a message, # is blocked and we don’t expect to hear from you again.

1 strike policy applies to all

Click to expand...

I have a similar policy. I answer once, if a marketer I simply hang up without saying anything and block the number. Same for marketers that leave a vm.

[VagabondMD]

Further internet sleuthing and a review of my credit reports revealed that an inquiry allegedly initiated by me was made on my Experian credit report by a Utah-based company that may be affiliated with Lion Loans. Of course, I made no such inquiry as I have no need for payday loans and such. Lion Loans may have a spotty internet reputation, but they may have been the ones scammed in this scenario. I have a feeling that I have not heard the last from them.

[janettebournes]

My husband and I must be much more anti-social / paranoid than everyone else.

We don't even bother answering our phones anymore unless we know who is calling.

Everyone else gets routed to voice mail.

If we don't like what you have to say, # is blocked and we don't expect to hear from you again.

If you don't leave a message, # is blocked and we don't expect to hear from you again.

1 strike policy applies to all

[Dreamgiver]

If you give me your SSN and birthday I can look into this right now for you for free  

 

 

[notadoc]

G wrote:

Vagabond MD wrote:

Earlier this week, I received a phone call from a company called Lion Loans. They want to talk to me about my loan, and I told them that I did not have a loan with them. The woman on the phone, who seemed unpolished and unprofessional, maybe reading from a script, then told me that they took fraud very seriously and asked me for the last four of my social security number. I told her to pound sand and hung up.

Today, I received a call from the “fraud department”, an 888 number which I did not pick up in real time. The person left a message, very professional and polished, wanting to discuss my loan account. My impression was that this was a legit agency that was trying to snuff out a fraudulent attempt to use my name to obtain a loan. I returned the call and was sent to general customer service, where they again, asked for my social security number. I now freely offered my social security number because she was so nice and the other guy was so polished…

Just kidding. I told her to pound sand, and if there was a fraud specialist, I would be happy to talk to him/her. She put me on hold, and I started to google Lion Loans. They have a pretty spiffy website, and it looked legit. Additional digging suggests that it is likely a complete scam. I hung up on them again.

At this point, I understand that I am the target of a scam as it appears likely that Lion Loans is not a legitimate company, and they are trying to steal my id. Alternatively, someone may have been trying to use my id to make a loan, which would be difficult because I have frozen my credit since the Anthem breach.

Be careful out there!

Click to expand…

Can you talk a little about freezing your credit?  I just did a quick google search, but I’d like to hear more.

Click to expand...

Clark Howard on credit freeze.  Has websites, numbers and addresses for all three companies.

http://clark.com/personal-finance-credit/credit-freeze-and-thaw-guide/

[Zaphod]

jfoxcpacfp wrote:

Vagabond MD wrote:

The persistence with which he is pursuing me makes me think that they could be legit (and the ones being scammed), but how am I to know? And what is my responsibility to cooperate with their internal investigation? And why do I have to talk to him when he decides to call, not when it is convenient for me? 

Click to expand…

NOBODY LEGIT ASKS A STRANGER FOR THEIR SSN OVER THE PHONE. Last 4 digits to verify your identity, maybe, that’s it.

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One time the "irs" asked me just to confirm I was the person who the lawsuit said owed all the money. I told them if they were the IRS they should know it, etc...they hung up and never called back. Heard a crazy story about someone who took the fraud to the end, they told him to go to Walgreens and load itunes gift cards and read the numbers to them. Wild the schemes out there, even crazier is that they work. That IRS one was netting 150k/day I believe.

[jfoxcpacfp]

Vagabond MD wrote:

The persistence with which he is pursuing me makes me think that they could be legit (and the ones being scammed), but how am I to know? And what is my responsibility to cooperate with their internal investigation? And why do I have to talk to him when he decides to call, not when it is convenient for me?

Click to expand...

NOBODY LEGIT ASKS A STRANGER FOR THEIR SSN OVER THE PHONE. Last 4 digits to verify your identity, maybe, that's it.

[VagabondMD]

Regarding credit freezes, mine is through Transunion. If anyone does a hard pull of the Big 3, they will learn that Transunion will not release my information. This is a hard stop for any legitimate lender or credit agency.

When I recently replied for the Chase Sapphire card, for example, I had to contact Transunion and manually unfreeze the account for 24 hours, so Chase could get their data and process my application. It cost $5, IIRC.

I highly recommend that everyone freezes their credit. There really is no downside.

[VagabondMD]

The polished "fraud specialist " dude tried to call me a couple more times. I have been busy and not been available. He did mention that he could send me an affadavit of some sort, but I had to take another call and hung up on him.

The persistence with which he is pursuing me makes me think that they could be legit (and the ones being scammed), but how am I to know? And what is my responsibility to cooperate with their internal investigation? And why do I have to talk to him when he decides to call, not when it is convenient for me?

Obviously, they have my name and phone number, but I do not intend to give them any more information. If they think they have my SS#, they can read it back to me.