I was looking for a small business loan when I stumbled on an ad for Lending Tree. When I filled out the form online it redirected me to a company called Rapid Advance. The next day my phone rang and I was greeted by someone named Nicholas Cook. He introduced himself and asked me all sorts of questions about my business. Of course they needed my credit score and because they sounded so legitimate I actually gave the information. I'm not one that's easily fooled but because of the connection to the Lending Tree I believed this was legitimate.
Once they determined that my business was capable of repaying a loan they directed me to Dominique Da'Cruz. He asked me more questions about my business and then instructed me to send him my bank statements to verify the income I told him we were making. I sent him the first page of each statement which showed him my monthly deposits. He emaled me that he was sorry to ask but he needed the complete statements. When I questioned him about why he saiud that in his business there's a lot of fraud. In order for them to verify that my statements were real and not fraudulent, not only did I need to subit all pages of each statement but that he was sending me a link to follow and fill out. When I got the link which was to a partner of Rapid's, it asked me to select my financial institution. When I did that it was asking me to log into my bank account from that site. After having already been such an idiot and giving way too much information, I finally stopped. I felt like there was something really amiss. I contacted Dominique Da'Cruz and asked what this was all about. He told me that he gets this question all the time! Not surprising!! He said that by logging in it will allow their partner Aquila to verify my statements. He assured me that it was a one time thing and that it would not allow this company access to my account. I was still suspicious.
I started looking up Aquila to find out how reputable they were. As it turns out they do NOT lend money. That's not at all what they do. They sell business account management services and monitor a company's cash flow. I was stumped until I stumbled on a blog. This article explained that lending companies love them! The scam seems to be that once you click on the link for your financial institution and log in, the rep that helped you, in this case Dominique, gets a nice commission. On top of that you now have an unwanted company monitoring your bank account.
I texted Dominique and told him that I couldn't find anything anywhere online to say that Aquila lends money. I told him that they are an analutics company that does ongoing cash flow management. I told him that I didn't want that. His text response to me was "OK". I asked him if I was correct in my understanding of what Aquila does. No response. I texted him that he was a scam amd I'd be reporting him. No response. Enough said?? I think so!
Please don't do what I did! I am a smart person that got fooled. I never thought it could happen but it can and it does!!! There are terrible people out there that will stop at nothing to try and scam honest people.
Stay away. The will bait and switch you. They write faulty contracts and will fund you after taking money from your account. STAY AWAY there are better more Honest companies out there. Cayce Prunesti and Ryan Dearborn will lie to you to get a deal. Don't trust either of these guys. They still have all my personal information. They tried to take money from my bank account.
RapidAdvance Reviews
I was looking for a small business loan when I stumbled on an ad for Lending Tree. When I filled out the form online it redirected me to a company called Rapid Advance. The next day my phone rang and I was greeted by someone named Nicholas Cook. He introduced himself and asked me all sorts of questions about my business. Of course they needed my credit score and because they sounded so legitimate I actually gave the information. I'm not one that's easily fooled but because of the connection to the Lending Tree I believed this was legitimate.
Once they determined that my business was capable of repaying a loan they directed me to Dominique Da'Cruz. He asked me more questions about my business and then instructed me to send him my bank statements to verify the income I told him we were making. I sent him the first page of each statement which showed him my monthly deposits. He emaled me that he was sorry to ask but he needed the complete statements. When I questioned him about why he saiud that in his business there's a lot of fraud. In order for them to verify that my statements were real and not fraudulent, not only did I need to subit all pages of each statement but that he was sending me a link to follow and fill out. When I got the link which was to a partner of Rapid's, it asked me to select my financial institution. When I did that it was asking me to log into my bank account from that site. After having already been such an idiot and giving way too much information, I finally stopped. I felt like there was something really amiss. I contacted Dominique Da'Cruz and asked what this was all about. He told me that he gets this question all the time! Not surprising!! He said that by logging in it will allow their partner Aquila to verify my statements. He assured me that it was a one time thing and that it would not allow this company access to my account. I was still suspicious.
I started looking up Aquila to find out how reputable they were. As it turns out they do NOT lend money. That's not at all what they do. They sell business account management services and monitor a company's cash flow. I was stumped until I stumbled on a blog. This article explained that lending companies love them! The scam seems to be that once you click on the link for your financial institution and log in, the rep that helped you, in this case Dominique, gets a nice commission. On top of that you now have an unwanted company monitoring your bank account.
I texted Dominique and told him that I couldn't find anything anywhere online to say that Aquila lends money. I told him that they are an analutics company that does ongoing cash flow management. I told him that I didn't want that. His text response to me was "OK". I asked him if I was correct in my understanding of what Aquila does. No response. I texted him that he was a scam amd I'd be reporting him. No response. Enough said?? I think so!
Please don't do what I did! I am a smart person that got fooled. I never thought it could happen but it can and it does!!! There are terrible people out there that will stop at nothing to try and scam honest people.
Stay away. The will bait and switch you. They write faulty contracts and will fund you after taking money from your account. STAY AWAY there are better more Honest companies out there. Cayce Prunesti and Ryan Dearborn will lie to you to get a deal. Don't trust either of these guys. They still have all my personal information. They tried to take money from my bank account.