A Marketplace Tip from Your BBB Denver/Boulder
Local lending company . . . is neither
A holiday spike in unhappy frantic calls from consumers to the BBB Denver/Boulder has the BBB’s attention focused on a loan company that claims to be located at 1333 W. 120th Avenue, Suite 220. The landlord at that address says that suite is vacant and the company is not a tenant anywhere at that address. The company’s voicemail menu leads callers nowhere.
Meanwhile, in transactions conducted electronically, the company is collecting up-front fees of $1500 or more from people thinking they’re getting a personal loan in return.
The loan company calls itself Federal Resource Investment and advertises at www.federalresourceinvestment.com. The domain name appears to have been registered on December 8 to an entity in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
“We may never get the dots connected on this advance-fee scam, since it can disappear and re-surface somewhere else in a day,” said the BBB’s Susan Liehe. “We know that it’s not actually in the Denver area and we know of people who are frantic to get in touch with the company. The best we can hope for is to remind everyone, again and again, that there are no easy answers to post-holiday debt hangovers.”
The BBB reminds consumers that the web is full of too-good-to-be-true solutions, from advance fee loans like this one to various debt consolidation and “wipe out your debt” schemes.
The BBB is an unbiased, non-profit entity that sets and upholds high standards for fair and honest business behavior. Businesses and charities that earn BBB membership contractually agree and adhere to the organization’s high standards of ethical business behavior. The BBB provides objective advice, free business reliability reports and charity Wise Giving Reports, and educational information on topics affecting marketplace trust. The BBB also offers complaint and dispute resolution support for consumers who need help with unfair or unethical business treatment. The first BBB was founded in 1912. The Denver/Boulder BBB serves the 12-county Denver metro area. Today, 128 BBBs serve communities across the U.S. and Canada, evaluating and monitoring more than three million local and national businesses and charities.
