Pine Valley Financial
Complaint 284661 Details

On 10/22/13, I was researching online how to secure a loan for $5,000 and sent some information to several third parties. I was promptly contacted by Timothy Hamil (a Pine Valley Financial representative) from (888)-990-9437 ext 615 about securing a $5,000 loan.

He mentioned that I had three options to secure the loan and promised as soon as I signed all of the required documentation and chose one of the options, I could receive the loan in as little as one business day. Option 1 provide collateral in the form of a physical asset, such as the title to a car. Option 2 to have a cosigner for the loan; and Option 3 to provide $626.00 in a one-time collateral payment to secure the funding; this one time payment was three months of monthly payments.

I was a little skeptical, but decided Option 3 was the best; so on 10/29/13 I sent the first payment(Option 3)from Western Union to, what Tim told me, was a private lender Pine Valley Financial uses to broker funding. This individuals name is Anthony Hudson, and I sent the payment of $626.00 (plus $58.00 money in minutes fee) to him with the address New York, NY.

After I sent the first payment I called Tim back and provided him with the trx number as well as the location I sent the funds from.

He assured me that my $5000.00 plus the $56.00 trx fee would be deposited in my USAA banking acccount the following day at either 11am EST or 3pm EST. At 11am that morning, I received a call from Gary Howell at 888-990-9437 (ext 402), who identified himself as the Sr. Manager of Lending w/Pine Valley Financial. He told me that an independent review was performed on my file and it was deemed that I needed to send an additional $626.00 (plus trx fee) in order to obtain the $5,000.00 loan.

I was very skeptical at this point and did more research on Pine Valley Financial online; it turns out that several complaints of the same nature have been listed against this company on Scambook--all within the last 1-2 weeks. I called Gary back and had several discussions with him on the rationale for asking for additional funds.

He assured me that this seldom happens and if I send the additional payment, he would personally see to it that my loan would be processed either tonight or first thing tomorrow am. He repeatedly said that the worst case scenario is that I would have my funds by the next morning. Also in the dialogue, I told him multiple times about suspicious reports and he remarked that he could not control what people say over the internet and he was very convincing in establishing himself and his organization as a legitimate enterprise who provides 50-100 loans a week to individuals, business etc.

Suffice it to say he convinced me to send the second payment...so I made an additional $626.00 payment (w/a $65.00 trx fee)to Anthony Hudson, New York, NY via Western Union.

I called Gary back to confirm the trx number and he reiterated that the latest I would receive funds was the following morning. He also said that he would call me that night to verify/confirm that I would be receiving these funds.

He never called back; so feeling like I got duped, I called Western Union to report a potential fraud and spoke to a rep and she instructed me to call the police, file a report and have them call 1-866-628-5067 for further info. I subsequently filed an IC3 w/the FBI and I encourage everyone who got scammed to do the same thing so we can prosecute these guys.

Gary and Tim both sounded like they had either a Midwest accent and both seemed like they were white males in their mid-30s to early 40s. Furthermore, Gary mentioned Pine Valley Financial had been in business for over 10 years (which is a lie b/c upon further review their website is 3 weeks old) and that he had been there for roughly 5 years. Also, he stipulated that Michael J. Spencer was the CEO, was in charge and had to authorize all documentation. His signature is on my loan agreement and loan guarantee.