Beware of Eastrock Lending Service

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Welcome to our InTouch Blog. The purpose of InTouch is to provide a means to inform and be informed about consumer, business, charity and donor issues that the BBB can address.

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Beware of Eastrock Lending Service Posted Monday, November 02, 2009 by Janice Clemente Janice Clemente, Investigations Manager Last week I blogged about an advance fee loan scam going by the name Overland Lending Solutions. Well, BBB has caught wind of another advance fee loan scam going by the name of Eastrock Lending Service, supposedly operating out of the Cincinnati area when in fact they are not. Eastrock Lending Service says on their website that they offer loans in the amount of $5,000 or more. But in order to receive the loan, you are instructed to wire as much as $1000 in processing fees. BBB’s experience with companies of this nature is that no loans are ever given out. Once the scammers receive the processing fee, the consumer never hears from them again. Eastrock Lending Service has no prior history of doing business in Cincinnati. The company is not registered with the Ohio Secretary of State or the Ohio Department of Financial Institutions, as required by any financial company doing business in Ohio. According to the website registration information, the website was created on 10/19/09 – only just a few days ago. An email sent to admin@eastrocklending.com was returned as undeliverable. BBB contacted the administration offices for the building located at 309 Vine St, Cincinnati OH and were told there is no tenant by the name of Eastrock Lending Service occupying offices in the building. BBB warns consumers not to submit any personal financial information (ie: social security numbers, date of birth) on the online loan application located on Eastrock Lending’s website. Not only is the webpage unsecured, the whereabouts of the persons that would receive this highly sensitive information are unknown. The Better Business Bureau encourages consumers who feel that they have been victimized by this company to contact the Federal Trade Commission at www.ftc.gov. They may also contact their local consumer protection agency and the Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov.

Comments

I too was scammed, for $540.00.I am contacting the Attorney Generals in New York office today.

Comment By Patrick Levesque At 1/5/2010 12:26 PM

heather landry and michael flemming, I am trying to follow you. You have ruined me. I am disabled and you took almost $20000 from me. i will find you wherever you go. I have time and I will find out where you are. i already told you I have your ip address where this all began and I have a son who is a policeman. I am mad and you even led my banker on and a title co. Your voices are recorded and you may run but you can't run forever. I know you continue to scam people and you will get caught. i think you need to clean up and return as many peoples money as you can because you will pay in the end. You have caused me to lose my business and my income for life and i will find you. you know the number and i expect to hear from you because your voice prints will catch you.

Comment By patricia wheeler At 12/30/2009 4:29 AM

i got scamed to by key bank finance serv. these people suck and pray on us hard working people

Comment By nathaniel pellecchia At 12/14/2009 8:55 AM

For those that have fallen for the scam, we ask that you file a complaint with BBB. To file a complaint, copy and paste this link into your web browser and follow the prompts:

https://odr.bbb.org/odrweb/public/GetStarted.aspx?source=cibr&e=5323791&site=77&id=ee483dd4-5545-4d2d-af26-30d226342281

We also encourage you to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at their website: www.ftc.gov.

Another place to report the scam is at the Internet Crime Complaint Center. Their website is www.ic3.gov.

You can also contact your local consumer protection agency (at your state's Attorney General's Office) for assistance.

Comment By Janice Clemente | Manager, Investigations At 11/30/2009 3:30 PM

I got suckered by this fraud.I was trying to get out of the hole when I found this scam.Now I'm out 800.00 in the hole from sending them my money.I just don't know what to do now.Can someone help me with what to do now?Just email me anything that might help at Jsvance81@yahoo.com.

Comment By Joseph Vance At 11/30/2009 2:46 PM

i just got scamed by key bank financial serv. number 877-779-5817 out of 1000 dollars to and now phones are out of order and no one is answering my emails im stuck and dont no what to do i tried my local police and fbi but they wont do any thing so what should i dont no what next

Comment By nathaniel pellecchia At 11/27/2009 10:41 AM

It doesn't surprise me at all that Eastrock Lending's phone and website are down. Our experience with scam artists like these is they prey on consumers for 4-6 weeks, then change their fake names and addresses and start all over.

I have forwarded the valuable information you provided to the New York City Better Business Bureau. They will be the BBB office investigating and issuing a report on the Bardley Lending Group.

Comment By Janice Clemente | Manager, Investigations At 11/19/2009 1:03 PM

It appears that East Rock Lending has shut down some of their things. Cannot reach 877-779-5815 any longer and their website at www.eastrocklending.com doesn't work. I did this and think its the same folks tho. Please have a go at it and verify if you can. 877-779-5816 bardley lending group at www.bardleylendinggroup.com. And 877-779-5817 really hit home. They answer there, the answering service/machine sounds the same, the voice that I know as David Gibson sounds the same. goes by keybank direct lending. Couldn't find a web page yet. The bardley web page is set up very much like East Rock Lending's was. Lets not let these guys go on. I think they are using keybank (how clever) keybank without spaces. i hope someone can try these numbers and verify if these are the same scammers. sounds like it tho.

Comment By randy snow At 11/19/2009 9:18 AM

East Rock Lending's fax line they use 513-297-0536 does not exist at 309 Vine St. Cincinnati Ohio just like the company does not exist there either. East Rock Lending is procuring this fax line from a company named Global Crossings which is an international networking company. Hopefully this can be passed on to the FTC and appropriate officials to track down this phone line to the actual termination location on the planet and locate the individuals of East Rock Lending and take appropriate action to bring them to justice for anything illegal and unethical they may be perpertrating on the population. I'm not sure if Global Crossings has been invited to read any existing comments of East Rock Lending's activities with loans and wire transfer of requested upfront security money for the loans but it might be wise to let Global Crossings know what their clients or at least one of their clients is using their service for. Maybe if the larger companies that provide the means for East Rock Lending and the sorts to do business could be more diligent in who they do business with or feel the pressure of their helping a predator get the public, maybe that would strike home if their reputation as a supplier and supporter of companies like East Rock Lending costs them additonal clients they would then be more selective and detailed as to what their clients are actually doing or planning to do with their service.

Comment By anonymous At 11/10/2009 4:27 AM

Thank you for your comments. We haven’t come across any phone number with a 347 area code yet. But when we do we’ll be sure to add it to our report. As far as filing with the FTC, what that does is adds your information to their database, called Consumer Sentinel Network. This database is accessed by civil and criminal law enforcement agencies across the US and abroad. So, the answer is yes - when you file a complaint with the FTC it is possible that you will be added to any class action law suit against these persons. You will likely receive a notification by mail if this should happen.

In the meantime we hope you are able to recover your money on your own. But if you don’t, please be sure to file a complaint with us and the appropriate agencies so that we all can prevent others from falling prey to this scam.

Comment By Janice Clemente | Manager, Investigations At 11/5/2009 9:51 AM

Thanks for the posting on this company. I have wired some money to them and per David Gibson of East Rock Lending, I am to be sent my refund plus wire transfer reimbursement on 11/24/2009. He said if I call him on 11/23/2009 he will provide me with the FedEx tracking number for the refund check. We will see. I have not filed complaints yet except with ICCC but if I have any difficulty getting the refund I will file with the FTC and other organizations you mentioned here and provided links to. Thanks for sharing that info and the links also. I wish there was someone investigating currently and if so hope they are able to trace the fax number which is a Cincinnati Bell land line 513-297-0536. There is also another number if you check some of these blogs about the company and their org chart for their domain information. a 347 area code but not sure where that would go to but hopefully the authorities can track these numbers to a valid person and verify if they're legit or not and take appropriate action if not. by filing a complaint with the FTC, etc. does that add anyone doing so to any class action law suit against these folks if refunds or actual loans payouts do not occur?

Comment By randy snow At 11/5/2009 8:17 AM

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