Consumer agency warns of widespread loan fraud
• Better Business Bureau alert: Hundreds of complaints throughout northern Illinois

February 10, 2008
By NICOLE BROOKS Sun-Times News Group
The Better Business Bureau of Chicago and Northern Illinois is warning consumers of a massive fraud under way by a fake business claiming to operate out of Mount Prospect.

The BBB says it has received nearly 400 consumer inquiries since January regarding Fairway Lending Group, fraudulently using the location of 1699 Wall St. Seventy-five of those calls have come to the office in the past week.

"It is very unusual for us," BBB president and CEO Steve Bernas said of the volume of complaints of one scam. "Which means that they're really proliferating around the country."


Watch out for these numbers
Fairway Lending Group is using the following phone numbers and Web site to conduct its operations:

• (866) 681-1281, Ext. 529, "Randy Gold" (senior loan consultant)

• (866) 681-1281, Ext. 773, "Terry Singald" (customer service manager)

• www.fairwaylending.org

Anyone victimized by Fairway Lending Group should file complaints with the Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3, at www.ic3.gov and with Phonebusters at www.phonebusters.com.
The fake lender is victimizing consumers by illegally requesting advance fees on loans. People suckered in by the scam wire money to secure a promised loan.
The BBB now has 20 complaints on file from consumers who lost between $900 and $5,000 each in "collateral payments." These victims wired money via Western Union to various locations in Canada.

"I see this as tantamount to opening your window and throwing the money out," Bernas said. "You're going to get the same thing -- nothing."

Bernas said he does not understand why people would believe they have to pay collateral to receive a loan.

"I've been here 20 years, and I don't understand why people think it's true," Bernas said.

Advance-fee loans are illegal in the United States and Canada, and the BBB warns consumers never to do business with lenders who request money prior to disbursing loan funds.

Often, consumers will see a business' name in a newspaper ad or on the Internet and come to see the business as legitimate, Bernas said.

Even the Yellow Pages can dupe you, he added.

"A water main breaks in the night. You open the phone book. That's the worst thing you can do," he said.

The best thing to do, he said, is check a business' legitimacy with the BBB. Its Web site, www.bbb.org, has a searchable database. The organization can be reached by phone during business hours at (312) 832-0500.

"Call us. We have a Top 10 list every year of scams," Bernas said. "If everybody called us first, we would not have a Top 10 list."

Anyone victimized by Fairway Lending Group should file complaints with the Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3, at www.ic3.gov and with Phonebusters at www.phonebusters.com.

IC3 is a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center whose mission is to help victims of cyber crime, while Phonebusters is a Canadian anti-fraud call center.




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