I have recently run into a scam trying to finance my first deal. I only view this as a setback, but it does complicate things a lot, so I thought I would share what happened, tell what I learned, and ask anyone with advice on this subject to post here. It would be terrible to see potential new investors leaving because they ran into something like I did. Mostly it was my own mistakes and lack of due dillegence, but I thought I would post a few tips, maybe obvious to most, but overlooked by others. Please, anyone who has more or better advice, post, so no one else has to learn my lesson the hard way.
The main thing I learned is to check and double check every site every time when looking online. check with the FCC and BBB, plus anyone else you can think of, even reviews. One google search of the company I applied through would have saved me a lot of trouble.
Also look at the verification links, like the one at the bottom of this page. Make sure they are clickable, if not it may be copy and paste and a scam. Also make sure they are as newly posted as possible, and make sure all information on clickable ones match. Yes, click it. As a matter of fact, click this one, and you will see, it is a real link to rip off report, and that they certify dean is valid. Yay Dean!
Also, call companies like lifelock and scoresense, no i'm not advertising, just throwing out ideas, and see if they will tell you anything about the website you are checking on using. If it's a scam, they may know.
Some of these sites will refer you to legitimate sites to get you to give them your credit score, etc. I thought they would be working together, thus my site was valid. Wrong, they just new scoresense had a free trial and wanted my credit scores. They now have all three, and I have an account with scoresense.
You can also google the phone number and only the phone number. No company names, potential problems, mobiles potential problems. None of this will necessarily tell you if a site is a scam, but more than one red flag, and odds are it is. Make your gambles elsewhere, not with your identity or credit.
Once again, please post and let others know your wisdom. I know all of this information is probably available somewhere on this site, but maybe we should bring it top again.
I have recently run into a scam trying to finance my first deal. I only view this as a setback, but it does complicate things a lot, so I thought I would share what happened, tell what I learned, and ask anyone with advice on this subject to post here. It would be terrible to see potential new investors leaving because they ran into something like I did. Mostly it was my own mistakes and lack of due dillegence, but I thought I would post a few tips, maybe obvious to most, but overlooked by others. Please, anyone who has more or better advice, post, so no one else has to learn my lesson the hard way.
The main thing I learned is to check and double check every site every time when looking online. check with the FCC and BBB, plus anyone else you can think of, even reviews. One google search of the company I applied through would have saved me a lot of trouble.
Also look at the verification links, like the one at the bottom of this page. Make sure they are clickable, if not it may be copy and paste and a scam. Also make sure they are as newly posted as possible, and make sure all information on clickable ones match. Yes, click it. As a matter of fact, click this one, and you will see, it is a real link to rip off report, and that they certify dean is valid. Yay Dean!
Also, call companies like lifelock and scoresense, no i'm not advertising, just throwing out ideas, and see if they will tell you anything about the website you are checking on using. If it's a scam, they may know.
Some of these sites will refer you to legitimate sites to get you to give them your credit score, etc. I thought they would be working together, thus my site was valid. Wrong, they just new scoresense had a free trial and wanted my credit scores. They now have all three, and I have an account with scoresense.
You can also google the phone number and only the phone number. No company names, potential problems, mobiles potential problems. None of this will necessarily tell you if a site is a scam, but more than one red flag, and odds are it is. Make your gambles elsewhere, not with your identity or credit.
Once again, please post and let others know your wisdom. I know all of this information is probably available somewhere on this site, but maybe we should bring it top again.