Description

On July 16, 2024, I applied for a short term loan online and received a text message from Ryan Paul with Advance America stating that my loan was approved. Within three minutes of receiving the text, my phone rang and it was Ryan Paul discussing all of the details of this loan. He advised that their credit team would deposit a small amount of money into my checking account (like PayPal does) then withdrawal it to verify my account. He sent me loan docs to my email address as well. After approximately an hour, he advised me that due to the time difference, since he was in California, they could not verify my account as the banks were closed in Florida. On July 17, 2024, at approximately 11:30 am, Ryan Paul called me to continue with this loan process. He further advised that once they deposit money and I send it back to them, they would boost my credit score 30+ points, just for the month of July. He made sure to stay on the phone with me when he claimed that the deposit was made and told me to check my mobile banking to verify. I did see the balance of my account showing an increase of $1370.00 so I assumed this was their deposit. Ryan Paul instructed me to send the money back to him VIA Cash App. However, Cash App declined the transfer, so Ryan instructed me to send the money back VIA Apple Pay. So I did. Only to find that they had searched my banking transactions and found a payment to Geico for $1300.00 for my insurance and they disputed that payment so my account was credited my 1300.00 payment back. Making it seem as if money was in fact deposited. Now my account is negative 1300.00.