Looking for a loan, a viewer said he lost over $7,000, and it all appears to be a scam.
The way they started asking Don José for money, even before giving him the amount they offered him, was the first red alert, and now he wants to share what happened to him, to try to to prevent other people from being victimized like Good.
“To pay all my debts and stay with one payment,” said José Raúl Islas, victim of an alleged scam.
He wanted to consolidate his debts, Don José told Telemundo 52 Responde, and that’s why he started looking for a loan, and precisely, one day he saw something that caught his attention on social networks.
“He said they made loans for cars, houses, everything,” he added.
Don José refers to “Crecimiento Latino”, an entity that describes itself as a company dedicated to providing loans to Latinos abroad.
“And I spoke to them and everything and out of the blue they said yes, to send him a passport, two checking accounts and that was it,” according to his account.
They reportedly said they abducted her daughter and threatened to kill her if she did not cooperate.
They told him he would receive a loan of $15,000, provided he met a requirement.
“In the contract, it says I have to send them a payment of $295.” José said he didn’t think much of it and sent the money, but then they informed him of a second payment.
“It’s $625.69, for tax,” he said.
Don José says he sent a closed payment of $626 because he didn’t think the lack of 69 cents would be a problem, but he was wrong.
“This because there is a balance in my favor of pennies. So I sent them back to him,” he said.
And when it looked like he was finally going to receive the promised loan, entity representatives assured him that he was eligible for a loan of up to nearly $30,000. The only requirement was to send more money.
“There’s $825 to unlock the loan, but it’s all repayable,” they told Jose.
And so they started charging him all kinds of fees, payments for alleged new contracts, taxes, even bogus penalties for using offensive language. Don José reported that he sent Crecimiento Latino a total of 14 different payments, the total amount he disbursed, receiving nothing in return, totaling $7,180.
His receipts indicate that the money was sent to accounts outside the United States.
“The money went to a bank in Mexico, to Citibank, Banamex,” he said.
Telemundo 52 responds contacted the number of the person Don José was communicating with during the process, but never returned the calls. However, by texting them asking about their loans. They responded with questions like “whose pleasure do I have?” and “how did you hear about us?”
Upon learning that Telemundo 52 Responde was investigating the company, their stance changed and they assured us that they could not contact us as they were not customers.
Don José wants his situation to alert others.
“That there are no more people who fall into the same thing. Let them be very careful about this because we don’t know who they are, we know where they are,” Don José said.
Remember that if you are considering applying for a loan, it is very important to do your research to find out if you are dealing with a reputable company. If they start asking you for payments even before you have given the money they offered you, it is a sure sign that you are dealing with a fraud.