Consumer complaint received 2021-03-11
Company: FREEDOM FINANCIAL NETWORK
State: TX
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit repair services
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
To the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ( CFPB ) __ XX/XX/XXXX__ ====TITLE : Freedom Debt Reliefs Systematic Fraud to Their Clients Who Have Severe Financial Hardship ( including six attachments of 35 pages ) ==== In XX/XX/XXXX, I contacted the Freedom Debt Relief , LLC ( FDR ) to resolve my huge credit card debt of {$110000.00}. After more than three years, I made a total payment/deposit of more than {$20000.00} to FDR. However, FDR only resolved one small credit card debt of {$1400.00}. It was my big mistake that I never checked my account spending record at FDR before XX/XX/XXXX, because I TRUSTED FDR too much. Moreover, although I have a XXXX XXXX, I even did not notice a simple lie using fake mathematical principles by FDR. *** Recently, I searched FDR and found several lawsuits against FDR from the State of New York, and your Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In XX/XX/XXXX, CFPB alleged that FDR, Charging fees in the absence of a settlement, and other bad issues. However, my case was even worse, because I found FDRs systematical fraud to these clients who have severe financial hardship. *** On XX/XX/XXXX, I submitted a complaint ( the same complaint as this one ) to FDRs support email address and uploaded the complaint to my account documents. On XX/XX/XXXX, I called FDR and talked to a lady XXXX, who claimed she is a member of FDR leadership. She said she would spend seven business days to review my complaint. After seven business days, I called another FDR staff and found XXXX two lies1 ) she is only a regular staff at the resolution department, and 2 ) she did not review my complaint at all. *** A staff at the resolution department, XXXX XXXX, briefly checked my complaint and then she emailed me three documents ( only one document provides me new information ). She rejected all my refund demands and cited FDR does not give refund. Therefore, I do not have any choice - I have to report my case to CFPB. *** 1. Fraud using language -- paying settlement fee only AFTER the debt is resolved FDR gave me a client guide first ( attachment 1 ) and its debt relief process was described as four stages upcoming current in process and RESOLVED ( i.e., debt has been completely settled, paid off100 % of payments ). After the clients settlement authorization, FDR had three steps : 1 ) your creditor receives funds 2 ) you continue your monthly deposits 3 ) FDR is paid its fee from your dedicated account for providing RESOLUTION services for each debt. Because FDR used the term resolution, my understanding was that FDR was paid its settlement fee after my debt was 100 % paid off. *** Moreover, in my agreement ( attachment 2 ), section 1, our guarantee : We will not charge any fee for our services until we successfully resolve a Debt for you and, if required, you have made a payment to your Creditor. Any client would believe that he/she only paid FDR after his/her debt was 100 % paid off ( RESOLVED ). I felt confused by if required, you have made a payment to your Creditor, because I did not pay my creditor. Indeed, I only paid FDR, and FDR paid my creditors. So, this requirement was not applicable to me. *** Section 5. Fees of the agreement is the longest and the most misleading section. The content of section 1 was mentioned again. But I felt very confused about the time for me to pay FDRs settlement fees because FDRs new claim became, When we negotiate a proposed settlement of a Debt and you make a payment toward the settlement of that Debt, we charge and are entitled to collect 18 % of the enrollment amount of that Debt, as reflected on Exhibit A. This statement contradicted section 1 of the same agreement, so I talked to Ms. XXXX XXXX at FDR who prepared my agreement. She said I only paid FDR after I paid off my 100 % debt -- -- exactly my understanding based on FDRs guide and section 1 of the agreement. If she told me the opposite information -- I must pay several thousands of settlement fees right after FDR pays a few dollars to my creditors, I WOULD NOT SIGN ANY AGREEMENT WITH FDR. *** ___<<2. Fraud using mathematicsvery small annual settlement fee percent>>____ Section 5 also stated that On an annualized basis, if we settle your debts over the estimated 48 month program life, your fee would work out to be approximately 4.5 % of your enrolled debt per year. Here, FDR invented one mathematical formula : 18 % ( fee ) / 4 years= 4.5 % ( fee ) per year. However, a simple example can expose this lie. My debt of {$100.00} is paid off in four years, so I pay {$18.00} total settlement fee to FDR ( 18 % ). Therefore, I pay my debt of {$25.00} and a settlement fee of {$4.00} every year, i.e., my annual settlement fee percent is still $ 4.5/ $ 25=18 %, not 4.5 %! This answer exactly demonstrates FDRs fraud using mathematics, NOT A LOW-LEVEL MISTAKE. I have learned all kinds of advanced mathematics, but I feel sad to notice this fraud very recently. *** ___<<3. Eight debt accounts and five fraud cases>>___ I have three records of settlement offers/authorization to FDR : ( 1 ) XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, enrolled debt of {$1400.00}, and settlement fee of {$260.00}. This is the only correct debt resolution with FDR ( attachment 3 ). ( 2 ) In XX/XX/XXXX, I received and authorized a settlement offer from XX/XX/XXXX, and ( 3 ) in XX/XX/XXXX, I received and authorized a settlement offer from XX/XX/XXXX. *** Attachment 4 is my dedicated account history from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX ( got it in XX/XX/XXXX ). Only after one month of the agreement, there was no evidence of my authorized settlement offer, but FDR started to charge a {$2000.00} settlement fee on XX/XX/XXXX. From XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX, FDR charged a {$4100.00} settlement fee. This amount was exactly the settlement fee of my XX/XX/XXXX debt from FDRs website ( attachment 5 ). So CFPBs allegation is true : FDR had XX/XX/XXXX settlement offer in XXXX, but they charged the settlement fee almost three years ago. *** In XX/XX/XXXX, FDR charged four settlement fees of more than {$3500.00}, but only sent two {$5.00} payments to two XX/XX/XXXX accounts using my money in my account. Therefore, FDRs business model is EXTREMELY GREEDY. FDR got several thousand dollars of settlement fee, but only paid a few dollars to the creditors, while their clients ALL have financial hardship. Moreover, I do not have any record which was a settlement offer of XX/XX/XXXX from FDR. In contrast, I resolved my three Chase bank debts by myself. Attachment 6 includes my three final settlement letters from XX/XX/XXXX. *** From XX/XX/XXXX, I had a sharp income reduction again so I only can deposit no more than $ XXXX/month for more than one year ( previous deposit $ XXXX/month ). In XX/XX/XXXX, after FDR paid {$1.00} to XX/XX/XXXX, they charged more settlement fees right away. Again, this case demonstrates FDRs fraud -- paying the settlement fee only AFTER the debt is resolved. Moreover, FDR also breached the agreement because in section 3 of the agreement, Your Responsibilities : A. Program Deposits : Unless we can demonstrate to a Creditor that you have sufficient funds available to make a settlement payment, we may not be able to negotiate settlement offers for you. The balance of my account was around {$60.00} per month then, but FDR still negotiated a settlement offer in order to earn more settlement fees. *** ___<<4. FDRs payments to my creditors disappeared>>___ From XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX, FDR paid {$3000.00} to a creditor called XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX I never authorized any settlement offer and this payment. Ms. XXXX emailed me a document that claims my payment was related to my XX/XX/XXXX debt. However, in the agreement Exhibit A, my initial debt of this card was {$22000.00} in XXXX, and this amount was changed to {$21000.00} in the settlement amount in XXXX ( attachment 5 ). Their difference is only {$960.00}, i.e., my payment {$2000.00} ( $ XXXX {$960.00} ) disappeared. Moreover, in XX/XX/XXXX, FDR should pay {$1.00}, XXXX to XXXX location and I had enough funding in my account ( {$4.00}, XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX ) according to the agreement. But FDR did not inform me and just stopped future payments because FDR charged a few thousands of settlement fees from my account. *** My XX/XX/XXXX debt is a typical fraud case, because FDR 1 ) did not inform me of any settlement offer, 2 ) did not have my authorization, 3 ) arbitrarily stopped payments to the creditor. Ms. XXXX claimed that she had records of the settlement offer and my text authorization. When I asked her to email me all evidence, she failed to do so. The nature of my case isFDR is EXTREMELY greedy to earn the settlement fees. After I compared all credit card debts ( except the XXXX XX/XX/XXXX debt ) in XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, I find that my debts did no decrease and even increased. All my three XX/XX/XXXX card debts increased after FDRs payments. *** Thank you for your attention and I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible due to my tough financial situation. *** ================== Attachments : 1 ) FDR client guide in XXXX ( selected four pages ). *** 2 ) My agreement with FDR in 2017. *** 3 ) settlement information with XX/XX/XXXX from FDRs website in XXXX. *** 4 ) My dedicated account history from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX. *** 5 ) settlement information with XX/XX/XXXX from FDRs website in XXXX 6 ) Final settlement letters of my three accounts of XX/XX/XXXX .

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation