Simon Burton, 102 Harbut Road, Battersea London SW11 2RE
Complaint 166848 Details

I did a post on Craig's List on 9/29 looking for a $5000 loan, to be paid back with 20% interest in one year. Mr. Burton responded on 9/30 indicating he would be willing to give me the loan. He gave me the name of the company he works for and his position as well as a link to their website. After many back and forth e-mails he sent me an agreement, which I signed and returned on 10/4. I was told I would have the money in my bank account by 10/5. I sent him my bank info. He then told me his bank could not transfer any money overseas and that the only way he could get the money to me was to pay the balance on any credit cards I had up to $5000. I would then withdraw the amount he paid and wire it to a woman in California. Once she had the entire $5000 she would transfer into my checking account. It had to be done this way because that is the only way he would have a receipt that he could attach to our agreement. I am a fairly intelligent person (hard to believe isn't it) and I was not happy with this. We argued over this method but, at this point, I had notified my landlord and several other accounts that were overdue that they would be getting their money. I only have one credit card he would wire to (not sure why he couldn't do the others) and the credit limit was $2050 which I was over. He sent $2,1?? which paid the card off. He kept a close watch on it and on 10/9 he told me it had cleared. I went to my bank to withdraw $2050 and it was declined. That card only allows a cash advance of $250/day. He then told me to go to an Apple store. When I got there he told me what phones to buy (3 I phone 4S). The total cost was $1749. I then Fed Exed them overnight to another address. That cost was $110. The plan was that the phones would be sold and the money would go toward my loan. He was not happy because the charge wasn't settled in my account quickly enough so he couldn't do another transfer until it was. That happened yesterday and he ascertained that the money he transferred into the account would be available for use today. He wanted me to go online to price phones for purchase today. I couldn't find any of the phones he wanted that were available in stores and he didn't want them bought online. He was going to try to find them last night when I said I was done. Every morning when I get up there is a text message from him about what was happening. Nothing today. I texted him and no response. I then went to the credit card sight and the money he sent Monday had been returned and the money that he sent yesterday was gone from the sight which means that, in addition to the complete balance, the money that was returned will result in me being responsible for the cost of the phones and the shipping. I am about to contact Credit One to find out what happened, i.e., what happened to the original deposit after the purchases had been cleared, and what happened to yesterday's deposit.
More information: He started texting me on Tuesday after I couldn't do the WU transfer. The number the texts came from is: 205-208-5069. I tried to get info but could only find that the # is in Alabama.
The cash advance money was to be sent to:
SALLY BOVE, 20501 COHASSET LANE, HUNTINGON BEACH, CA 92646, PHONE #: 214-994-9798;
The phones were sent to:
ALLOY TONY, 10535 ROCKLEY ROAD, #104, HOUSTON, TX 77099. I just realized he gave me the same number for this address as he did for the CA address. Probably both bogus.