I am so sorry that I didn't listen to my gut feeling about this but I was so desparate to pay off some bills and I sent them almost $2,000 and now my rent is due, car note, electric bill, cable and I'm so upset that I have been crying and I don't knw what to do!! PLEASE, DON'T BE FOOLED BY THESE THIEVES!!!

I am sorry to hear about this. But there is a way you may be able to get through this. Call the company you have your car payment through and tell them you are in a tight financial situation right now and see if they have a plan that they can put you on. Sometimes companies will break down the payment that you will miss and add that into your regular payment. But also some companies have a program that will allow you to miss a payment, but you may have to re-sign papers.

Now for your electric bill, They also have a payment plan where they will break down your bill. Mine took my current bill and now I have to pay my current bill plus a little extra for the next 6 months.

Cable may do the same thing as long as you have been making the payments on time for awhile now.

Your landlord may be a different story. But please call him/her and explain your situation and they may make arrangements with you but they could charge you a late fee.

You could also contact your local service to help you out also. There are some out there that will help you pay your rent 1 time. There are some places that may be able to help you out. But you have to look and ask for ir.

There is hope to get through this.

I am sorry for all that have been scammed. I too was scammed back in January and have been working with victims ever since. The one thing you have to remember is IT IS ILLEGAL IN THE UNITED STATES FOR ANYONE TO ASK FOR ANY MONEY UP FRONT FOR A LOAN! Regardless if it is for three payments or a so called insurance policy. You will be asked by these scammers to send the money to an INDIVIDUAL usually in Canada some have been in the states also via money gram or Western Union. Rule of thumb is if you can't obtain a loan from a company in your local hometown you most likely will not receive a loan. Stick with lenders you can go to yourself, sit down with, and see face to face. Don't give anyone your personal information over the internet because these scammers not only take your money they sell your identities. In some cases they have overdrawn peoples bank accounts, opened up fraudulent credit cards etc. They don't just stop at taking your money. Plese beware of these scammers and don't give anyone your information over the internet. Again sorry to those that have been scammed and I hope all our experiences will help others!

Investigators focus on loan company claiming N. Chas. ties
By Glenn Smith (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Wednesday, September 17, 2008



Desiree Wenning and her husband desperately searched for a loan so they could afford to move from Ohio to North Carolina for the expert cancer treatment she needs to stay alive. But with marginal credit, their chances seemed bleak.

The Wennings thought their prayers had been answered when they received a call from Richfield Lending of North Charleston offering to loan them $15,000 in return for an up-front fee. The couple quickly wired off $4,000 in two payments this month. In return, the Wennings said they received ... nothing.

Desiree Wenning, 30 years old and with Stage 3 Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, doesn't know now how she will ever afford to get to Duke University Hospital for her treatment. As it is, she and her electrician husband are taking cash advances on his paycheck just to afford food for their five kids after losing their savings to Richfield.

"I don't know what we're going to do," Wenning said Wednesday, her voice choking with emotion.

Wenning is one several customers who have filed formal complaints against Richfield after losing thousands of dollars in an alleged loan scheme that targets people with shaky credit, authorities said. North Charleston police and U.S. Secret Service agents are investigating, but they seem to be chasing a ghost, said police Sgt. Joyce Smith, a fraud investigator.

The company lists its address on Faber Place Drive in North Charleston, but it has no offices there and none of the property managers have heard of Richfield Lending, Smith said. It also has no business license to operate in the city.

"I haven't been able to get close to this company," Smith said. "It doesn't exist."

Ten customers from New York to California complained that they put up $800 or more but received nothing in return after wiring cash to Richfield's representatives, Smith said. Some of the lost money appears to have ended up in Canada, she said.

Richfield representatives did not return phone calls on Wednesday or respond to an e-mail inquiry sent to its Web site.

Thomas Judd, a correctional officer from New Jersey, said he lost $1,500 in his dealings with the company. Judd, a father of three, said he was short on cash and seeking a $5,000 loan to cover his rent and help his family stay afloat for a few months. A Richfield representative called him last week after Judd filled out an application on the Internet, he said.

Judd said the man told him he would get the loan, but he first needed to put up some money as collateral. Judd sent two payments, as he was told, but the loan didn't appear. He pleaded for his money back, but to no avail, he said.

"Now, I don't have money to pay the rent and I have to go to court tomorrow," Judd said. "I'm just so aggravated by this situation."'

Judd was so angry that he considered driving to North Charleston to confront company officials face-to-face. Luckily, he decided to call a cousin in South Carolina first to check on the business. The cousin went over to Faber Place Drive on a lunch break to find the third-floor suite that the Richfield representative had provided as an address. "The building was there," Judd said. "But there is no third floor."

Customers were apparently recruited through e-mails or phone calls from Richfield, authorities said. Once the money was wired, it could be retrieved from just about anywhere, making it difficult for investigators to track down the recipients. The company's e-mails are routed through Honduras and its faxes through a location in Clover, S.C., that investigators haven't located, Smith said.

The company seemed to appear on the scene this month, and the Better Business Bureau already has some 19 complaints pending against them, according to Chris Hadley with the bureau's Columbia office. The bureau has posted a notice of Richfield's business licensing issues as well as a warning about so-called "advance fee" scams.

John Kenney, resident agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service in Charleston, said advance fee schemes are an all-too-common update on the old telemarketing scams that flourished north of the border. Legitimate brokers don't ask for advance fees or wired cash. They take their commission from the loan itself after it clears, he said.

Jane Carson of Indiana said Richfield's request for more than $6,000 in advance fees caused her to balk at a $60,000 loan the company offered her for a new home she wanted to buy. That, and the fact that a different woman answered her three return calls to the company, all claiming to be a broker named Cathy Foster, she said.

"Red flags were going off everywhere," said Carson, who is now reporting Richfield to every governmental agency she can find. "These people need to be stopped."

they con me too.never got my money back.where could I file a complaint?

I AM SO GLAD THAT THERE IS INFORMATION OUT THERE FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT TOTALLY AWARE OF THINGS LIKE THIS. I WAS ABOUT TO SEND THESE SCAM ARTISTS THE COLLATERAL THEY WERE ASKING FOR, BECAUSE I WAS JUST THAT DESPERATE TO PAY OFF BILLS AND GET OUT OF THE HOLE I WAS IN. BUT, MY MOTHER HAD A BAD FEELING ABOUT IT AND I HAVE TO ADMIT I DID TOO, MY GOOD JUDGEMENT WAS JUST CLOUDED BY MY DESIRE TO GET MY BILLS PAID. I DECIDED TO DO SOME LAST MINUTE INVESTIGATING BEFORE I SENT THE MONEY THEY WERE ASKING FOR AND I CAME UPON THIS SITE AND MANY OTHERS. I THANK GOD THAT I DID NOT FORWARD MY MONEY. I STILL HAVE TO FIGURE OUT HOW I WILL GET OUT OUT OF THIS DEBT, BUT ATLEAST I WONT GET INTO A BIGGER DEBT BY SENDING MONEY I REALLY DIDNT HAVE IN THE 1ST PLACE. THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR STORIES AND MAY GOD ANSWER ALL OF OUR PRAYERS. KARMA IS A REAL THING THOUGH, WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND. THESE RICHFIELD LENDING PEOPLE WILL PAY IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER. I WILL DEFINITELY FILE A CLAIM AGAINST THESE FOLKS FOR WHAT I ALMOST DID AND FOR WHAT THEY HAVE DONE TO OTHERS. GOD BLESS YOU ALL AND MAY ALL OF OUR DREAMS OF getting out of debt COME TRUE, LEGITIMATELY.

i am in the same boat - i sent them 1700 and now i am struggling to get things paid and with the way things are no one can really help me

I too was FOOLED by Richfield lending. I sent them 924 dollars, I know that's not a lot of money, but it is to me at this stage. I keep calling Steve Hudson, the so called customer service manager, and Larry Preston, my so called representative, and I'm really surprised that they keep answering, but only if I keep changing my name on their name request answering service. They keep saying that I will get my money back by Oct. 24 and to stop calling them and harrassing them. I guess when you have money STOLEN from you, well for me anyway, I got MAD and UPSET. So I did swear at them, and to my surprise, they immediately stopped being "professional", and began their attacks at me, really it was the two of them ,Hudson and Preston sitting in a room I guess. They asked me if I was gay, then they called me a gypsy, and then an inbred white boy (just because i live in Tennessee I guess). These guys are not legit, in fact they're MONSTERS. Don't fall for the RICHFIELD LENDING scam, I wish I could so something to get these guys.

i also got scammed from them too. hope they find them and them in jail for fraud

I was also scammed by them. I hope they find these guys and cut their balls off and set them on fire.

I was also scammed by them. I hope they find these guys and cut their balls off and set them on fire.