Peace On That

CC companies accessing your Checking Account

Just before I moved to Los Angeles I was receiving several calls a week from a company offering me a credit card. The catch: they wanted my checking account information. A red flag immediately went off in my head and I started asking questions. The second I did the gentleman on the other end put on his supervisor and he proceeded to try and sale me on the card. I asked the supervisor about proving that he worked for a legit company. His proof of legitimacy was that they had a web site. Well, anyone with access to the Internet can set up a website so I was unconvinced. I then asked that he send me some material on the company. That prompted him to again ask for more information from me. By this time it was clear that I wasn’t going to bite and the supervisor finally hung up on me.

I suspected something fishy and went online to look up some information on the company. And sure enough, it was a scam. The company that contacted me, American Credit Services, was in the business or separating people from their hard earned cash. There are a multitude of companies out there pulling this scam. The basic premise of the scam goes as follows.

The company calls offering a credit card with $1000 to $5000 in credit in return for a one-time processing fee ranging anywhere between $200 and $400. They require that you provide your checking account information. Note: some of the more savvy companies are not requesting the processing fee. But once they have the information to your account they can draw from the account by using an online service offered by Qchex.com. This is a legitimate company but an individual with the routing number and checking account number can create a check and the bank will honor it.

Don’t be fooled by the names of the companies. They sound legit but they are scams. The best advice that I’ve read is that whenever someone ask for sensitive information, be suspicious.

I did a little digging and came up with some names of companies trying to pull this scam. I suspect that the names change every week but it’s a start. Just be careful.

American Credit Services
Akron Credit
Americred
BFTCLB
Bay Area Beach Council - (BABC)
Capital Choice Consumer Credit
Capital Credit
Chase Credit Corp
Consumer Credit USA
Consumer Credit Services
CrediCorp
E-Credit Solutions
First Choice
First Liberty Solutions
First Liberty Financial
First National Credit
Liberty Benefit LLC
Nexel
NissanBanCorp
Peoples Credit First
Pioneer First
Rockwell Holdings
Southern Telmark
Titanium Blue