GREENSBORO, N.C. - A Triad woman is out $100 and wants to warn you not to make her mistake.
“It really, really upsets me,” Lekesha Swaringen said. “I was online trying to find a loan, and they called me.”
She wanted some money for new furniture, but the caller told her in order to get a loan of $1,500, she'd have to pay a $100 deposit – in the form of 2 iTunes gift cards.
“He told me the money would be in my account within 10 to 15 minutes. I checked my account, there was no money,” she said.
A full day later we checked. The codes for the gift cards had been redeemed, but still no money in her account. And the company started calling Lakesha asking her to buy even more iTunes gift cards. The Better Business Bureau says this is not how a loan should be done.
“To do it in the form of a gift card, that's a huge red flag that you are about to be scammed,” said Kevin Hinterberger, CEO and President of the BBB office serving Central North Carolina. “If somebody asks you to wire money if they want you to put in on a green dot card or an iTunes gift card, those are huge red flags, walk away!”
2 Wants To Know tried talking with the loan officers. They said she could not get her money back and eventually hung up on us.
The lesson: don't ever pay with iTunes gift cards.
"Do not fall for it,” Swaringen said. “Do not do not do not send no money."