Mauldin Police: Internet Loan Scam Costs Man Hundreds

A local man seeking to secure a loan over the Internet was forced to run all over town and pay hundreds of dollars to secure the loan before realizing he had been scammed, a Mauldin Police report said.

The 33-year-old victom said he had applied over the Internet to what he believed was a legitimate Cash Advance USA personal loan. After filling out the online application, the man was told he was approved, but things quickly went south from there, the report said.

A representative who contacted the man to say he had been approved told him he would have to secure the loan with a cash deposit, the report said. The victim was told to use a prepaid Vanilla Reload Card. He complied and went to a CVS and put $163.95 on the card, the report said. The victim then contacted the supposed loan company and gave them the account number and PIN. He was then contacted gain and told that a filing mishap had occurred and that he did not have enough moony to secure the loan, the report said.

Still not thinking anything might be amiss, the victim was told to go to Walmart and purchase a MoneyPak card for $225, which he dutifully did, again giving a phone representative the account number and PIN, the report said.

Then, the man was contacted again and told he needed to pay fees to get the loan, the report said. The man went back again to Walmart and purchased another MoneyPak for $189.64, again giving the account number and PIN to the representative, the report said.

The report said the victim was later contacted yet again, and told he needed to pay more money, the report said. The victim finally complained to a representative who gave his name as "Austin," who told the victim the loan was close to being processed but that he needed to pay just a little bit more, the report said.

Finally smelling a rat, the victim refused and demanded that all his money be refunded, whereupon the person he had been speaking to abruptly hanged up the phone.

The victim said he then called the Cash Advance USA number. A representative there said the man had been scammed and that the company had had several complaints about it. But the representative the victim spoke with said he would have to go through the same procedure and was told he needed to place a secure deposit on the loan, the report said.

The victim hanged up and promptly called Mauldin PD. The case remains under investigation.