Internet Loan Scam - Rockcliff Venture

Well you always say it will never happen to you. I was one of those people but, it did!! We were having things rough and needed some money to help finish our addition we built on. Also some money to try to pay off the credit cards and like everyone else some extra to live off of.. Knowing that our credit wasn't nothing to brag about, I of course went to the Internet to see what I could find. I didn't want to pay out more than what I already was paying so I applied to a couple of different places and wasn't anything interesting. Until, I got an email from a place called Rockcliff Ventures. I filled out the application and soon after competling it I got a telephone call from the same place. I talked to the person on the phone and seemed like they wanted to help I told them I would have to think about it and get back to them. They were fine with that, they gave me their phone number and his extension so I could talk directly to him.

I explained to him that we had a 3 year old son and my fiance is on disability and that we were building an addition to our mobile home and that since the hurricane the price of the wood has tripled and we just ran out of money, we also wanted to take care of some credit cards and help with Christmas. He seemed to really understand and care, which felt nice to actually have someone to understand what we needed and why we needed it. After hanging up with him I actually felt kind of relieved.

I hung up and did my research on the Internet. I looked up Rockcliff Ventures on the BBB Better Business Bureau and found nothing. I even looked up their address and found out they were in a business office in Oklahoma, I also tracked their phone number, came back fine. I even went as far to call the local BBB to just double check, they told me " they have nothing bad on them at all". Well, to me that sounds great, but come to find out that isn't true. Nothing bad also means nothing good.

I had to Western Union them $1000.00 for the first 4 months payments up front for good faith and then they would send the loan amount directly to my bank account. So I did the $1000.00 and I faxed them our bank account number, voided check, a copy signed of the contract and waited. Well for some reason the Western Union didn't go through and I had to go somewhere else. So I did that and they called to say that it finally went through. But the thing is I had a bad feeling about this whole thing but figured it was just because no one else was willing to help us. But they told me that their was someone in Canada that was fronting the money and I had to send the Western Union to a certain person and say that it was family business. They said that it would be cheaper on the payment to send it. Well, after all of this I was still waiting and waiting. I called them and they said that since we did the transfer on Friday that the bank will not always accept them in time to post it to my account before they close. Which sounded right to me and I even called my bank to confirm. Which they said is sometimes true not to worry. Will more than likely be there Monday morning after opening. I said fine and waited until Monday.

Well Monday came and went and I called Rockcliff Ventures again and guess what happened. The phone number I had didn't work anymore. The extension didn't work anymore, there was no way to get in contact with them. So I knew that we were Scammed!!!!! So not giving up I messed with the phone number a little bit and finally got another phone number, I even talked to the same person. They said I must have wrote the phone number down wrong or just dialed it wrong. Right, what ever, you know that important business you don't mess up on something like that. I told them I wanted my money back and I am done. They agreed and said they send refund checks out on the 15th of the month and will receive it shorty after that. Still wondering if I was scammed or not I said fine and decided to wait.

Well the 15th came and went like everything else and no money, no check, and no contact. So I went back on the Internet and got on their website and reapplied for another loan with my finance name and his cell phone number, and also used a friends name and number, just to see if they would contact them so I could get their new phone number cause, yes they changed it again. Well a day went by and they called both of them. So I got the phone number and contacted them and still got the run around. The next day, their new phone number was off. Again no contact.

So again back to the computer and I got on the BBB and reported them, I went to the site of their website contacted the Internet site of the web site and got it shut down. I even contacted everyone on the Internet that was about scams, I even got contacted by the FBI about it. I had to fax everything I had to them about and for the loan. I even had to contact my local sheriffs department. They were at my house for over an hour. They tried to call the Western Union and told them they needed the name and address on the person who picked up the transfer. They told them that it had to be a local official he told them again who he was and that he was a sheriff in our home town. But, they told him that he would have to fill out some paperwork and fax some paperwork and report it to the Western Union main office. Which whom we thought we were already talking to, we were on the phone for over an hour. Well, from there nothing locally was done.

The FBI never told me anything and of course I never got our money back. The main reason I am writing this is so everyone knows that just because you check everything out it still my not be legal. Also just cause you check with the BBB keep in mind that they don't have bad things on places if people like you and me don't turn them in. But doing everything I can helped me feel a little better about losing $1000.00.

Do everything you can and try to go with someplace you have heard of or that is local to you. That is the best thing you can honestly do. I hope this don't happen to anyone else.

I would like to know your stories too, please email me with your scams.

Sources:
Rip-off report.com
scambusters.com
FBI.gov
fraud.org
scamsafe.com
scamdex.com