Consumer complaint received 2015-06-11
Company: CNG FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: VA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Payday loan
Issue: Taking/threatening an illegal action
Sub-issue: Threatened arrest/jail if do not pay

Complaint:
My mom and husband were contacted using my personal cell phone which was at home ( that is unlisted due to it being a prepaid phone ) at the end of XXXX by people who identified themselves as XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX. They were rude, and said that my husband would be arrested and taken to jail if we did n't pay them money that he owed. My husband and mom did n't know what to do, so they had me call the company when I got home from work. They told me it was a loan with Check N ' Go from 2008. We were panicked. My husband did n't think he had a loan with Check N ' Go, but it had been so long ago, he did n't remember who he had a loan with. The caller ( XXXX XXXX, whose name was spelled for a man but sounded like a woman ) insisted that if we did n't pay money by that day or at the least by the next business day at XXXX. They stated that the original loan amount was {$390.00}, taken out on XXXX/XXXX/2008, but they also said that because of collection fees and late fees, that we now owed just over {$1100.00}. They said without any payments, they would simply have my husband arrested for check fraud. 
We sent a payment in on the XXXX of XXXX to XXXX, XXXX, XXXX XXXX. I asked for them to make arrangements, as we did n't have the money in full. I asked about paying in installments. They said I could make the first installment of {$220.00} that day. but that the next XXXX installments in XXXX and XXXX had to be for {$520.00} each. We really could n't afford that, but they said we had no choice. I asked who they used to take payments, thinking that I could send a cashiers check or pay online. They demanded that we pay by credit card or by wiring money through XXXX, those were the only XXXX options. We only have a debit card, and I was afraid to give out that number, so we chose to send the {$220.00} by Money gram through XXXX. 
After I sent the money, my husband kept thinking that his loan was n't with Check N ' Go. So we looked up the number for Check N ' Go, and called, they said that they were n't the ones who did his loan, but that they did find him under Allied Cash Advance, since the XXXX companies had merged a while back. They pulled up his loan and saw that it was with XXXX, and that the rights to collect on the loan was sold in 2008 for {$390.00} to XXXX XXXX XXXX. They also said that no collectors for them should be threatening arrest or criminal prosecution, because there was no such thing as debtors prisons. XXXX XXXX XXXX, could n't find any information pertaining to my husband 's loan. They did n't know who they may have sold it to, if they did have his file at XXXX time, but it was likely sold to another company. 
I looked up the company that called us and that we sent money to, so that I could find out more information. I called the XXXX, and they said that XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX was a business that was out of business. I looked up the company to see if there was anymore information, and the number I found for him was an ice cream shop. I know that I will get a call to pay these people back the rest of what they say I owe, and I do n't know what to do, as I think it may be a scam, and living on a low-income, we need, if possible to get the money back.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation