I registered with Raise Me Capital, on their website, seeking lenders to contact me for investment in my project. I filled in all the pertinent information regarding my scenario.
The next day, Dec. 28, 2010, I was contacted by 5 different potential lenders claiming to be interested in my deal. I could not see their full names, nor their client ID numbers, issued by Raise Me Capital, nor could I respond to them until I paid the $150 to become a member. The memberships are tiered, the most expensive being close to $1,000 - offering different levels of "service"
One of the lenders, named "Okan" happened to list his client ID number, as well as mine, so I went into the list of financiers supplied on the website to find his profile. OF course, I am not going to invest $150 into something I found online without checking it out to see if it was legit. I found that the list of lenders were in order of client ID number, with the largest number being issued to the last to join, and coming up first. The list ran backwards, so if you went from page 1 to page 2 to 3, the ID numbers get smaller and smaller. The list starts with 34646, yet this person's ID is 34856.
I contacted the company via the 800 number supplied and the agent took the time to search the ID number I gave him, and after a minute he exclaims, "Oh, Okan, YES..I talked to him this morning". I asked him where to find his profile on the site so I could be assured that he was, (they were) for real. I was told that as soon as I became a member I could call him directly. I told him I would not commit $150 before feeling secure about who was getting it, and that I wanted to see where he was in their directory of financiers. I got several different excuses as to why i couldn't find him, how he could find him in his admin directory, how Okan was a good guy, had a million dollar office, was in Florida and answers all of his calls. That was all nice, but where was he on their site? I got told that I didn't have to join, that they had upwards of 50, 000 members....I told him that he implied he didn't care about my membership as he had plenty, and that was NOT good customer service, and were there any of his supervisors there to talk to? He said there was no one else but him, and that there was "no one" to talk to as it was an internet company.
I asked him if it was HIS company and he said no. I asked him for his name so that I could report to his higher ups about his inferior customer service and he absolutely refused to give me his name. When I tried to call back he told me he was reporting me to the police for harassing HIM..I told him I was glad as then I'd get a chance to report his scam. The next time I called I got an answering machine I went online to see that my account has been "suspended".
Upon examination I see that the website has a gold tag saying they are rated "Number 1", but not saying who had bestowed that title.. I also see NO accreditation of any kind, no licensing, no names, no address, city or state...
When you call you only get the menu saying "Raise Me Capital" and you are instructed to punch in the desired extension, or press 0 for the operator. The operator is this wimpy guy that gives you the run around, and is the "only one there today" according to him, and has no supervisor to report to.
"He" told me that his company had NO bad reports on the Better Business Bureau but I cannot find them anywhere on there. What's even juicier is that the OTHER scam report about them states that they too were contacted by "Okan"!! I had said to the "operator" that they could just have a set of phony lender letters that they send out to new accounts that haven't paid, yet, to lure them into paying the $150....now I feel I am right. Isn't that called FRAUD...and MISREPRESENTATION. both CRIMINAL OFFENSES?
Internet Crime gets my report next.
CREEPY!
|