Hallmark Finance

CHRISCARPFISHER

I was a mortgage broker for twenty years and i had several letters from Hallmark over the years of trading and one day needed finance myself so called them! They appeared very plausible and we submitted vast quantities of information to them including mortagge statements bank statements accounts etc all to no avail.
each time they would ask for more even after doing a "valuation" eventually we smelled a rat but we are still £800 out of pocket on valuation fees. He did refund our initial application fee after some concerted harassment by my wife and threats of trading standards and even police for fraud. We started a court case against them based on the name on the cheque we received in our refund but he actually had the nerve to put in a defense.
he says he has an accounts dept,a secretary,a valuer and several partners!! when you look at the signatures of all these people on his correspondence they are all the same!!
he rarely answers the phone especially when he knows the number calling. i cannot believe that no one has managed to stop him doing this as he has been doing it for 20 years. he is unregulated and has no data protection registration we can find.
can we not get martin lewis to get one of the rip off britain type programmes to visit him??
can anyone tell me what he looks like? as myself and my sons would like to visit him. the guy who did the valuations did indeed look like a scruffy chainsmoker in a clapped out cavalier!! was that him??:mad:

CHRISCARPFISHER

please just dont send them anything else they are crooks, end of. see my recent post for further info. we are going to sort this if we can.

androo235

I too am seeking finance now and have been unfortunate enough to be snared by this companies attractive and plausible looking offers. I’ve already sunk £750 into FirstNationalMoney (FNF) – a company I now believe to be associated with Hallmark – although Hallmark distance themselves from them saying that FNF merely “introduce” business to them. I paid FNF by Barclaycard – although the payment was then routed via paypal for some reason – probably because it will make it even harder for me to get it back now that I realise the whole things is probably a con (even now a part of me still wants to believe it….). Luckily I haven’t paid Hallmark anything yet.
Initially I couldn’t understand why I didn’t find the negative stuff earlier as I did search the web for information on FNF and then on Hallmark but couldn’t find much apart from their plausible looking websites. I now realise that I should have searched for them with keywords such as “scam”, “fraud”, “rip-off” etc and this brings up the bad news. That’s one to remember.
Anyway, I saw someone saying he was Lloyd Green this week – I went to Hallmark's offices in Mill Hill. The receptionist wouldn’t let me see him – so I rang on my mobile saying that I was in the foyer, got the usual answerphone response. A few minutes later he appeared. Definitely the same bloke I had been dealing with on the phone as I recognised the voice – but whether or not he is really Lloyd Green, well who knows. The man I saw was white, overweight and about 5’8”. If I had to place him ethnically I’d say Jewish, though probably secular in outlook and it appears probably a crook.
If like me, you haven’t paid him yet and he thinks there might be more money for him I imagine he’ll come right out to see you, if you’ve already paid and you’re trying to get your money back – you’ll probably get no response (I guess he learned that one from Paul1970). If you are physically confident and wish to confront him I suggest you pretend to be a new customer. However, I’m not sure how you would do that as Hallmark seem to be reachable only via FNF and FNF will only put you in touch with Hallmark once you’ve paid them – it’s so obvious in hindsight.
When I saw him I did refer to things that I had seen about them on the web, however, at that time I had not come across the thread in moneysavingexpert – only one or two older complaints on other sites saying that a loan had been refused. Well I suppose some loans are refused and besides the fact that the complaints were old was reassuring. I thought, “they have been in business for some time then” and “any established company, even the best have some unhappy customers”. When an offer this good and plausible is in front of you it’s hard to be as rational as you would have hoped you would be. You want it to be true. They know that.
One of the entries on the moneysavingexpert thread said that LG becomes defensive when put on the spot and that he is very good at deflecting direct questions – I agree as, although I came away reassured, on reflection I realise that I actually found out very little if anything. He showed me no id, we met in a meeting room used by the whole of a multiple occupant building – I suggested he show me their offices which I said must be very busy given all the people who had contacted me already and all those listed on the website – he blustered and avoided that issue. I tend to agree with the suggestion that it’s probably just him – though the fact that he is confident enough to be found at the advertised address suggests that he must have some colleagues. Perhaps they are all Lloyd Green. (I suspect Siobhan and Gabriella at FNM are the same person – what front they’ve got!).
I’ve now got to decide how much effort to put into retrieving that £745 – my feeling is that it will take at least £745 worth of time and energy to recover it that might be better spent doing something else (unfortunately I don't have paul1970's physical confidence which probably would be cost effective and quick). I guess that helps them get away with it, but, there it is.

Almost as annoying as the loss of £745 is the four weeks I have wasted on pursuing this - still not nearly as long as some I gather. I'm afraid I'll just have to scale back my ambitions for a while and look at the regular lenders I suppose.
Incidentally, Paul, if you are reading, I'm open to an arrangement with you. 50/50?

androo235

#14 but he does have a point. Seems like a lot of bother for £400.

#16 The link to the singingpig doesn't seem to have anything at the other end.

What am I saying (see my first post above ) - "almost as annoying... is the four wasted weeks" - it's much more annoying. Essentially my first property developing payday is put back by a month that's cost me much more than £745. Geez that's annoying.

CHRISCARPFISHER

Legally you can get your application fee back. A broker can only charge £5 max if no deal is done. They are doing the "valuations" because they imply that a service has been given and they can legally defend this as they did when we county court summonsed them. We got our arrangment fees back after my wife harassed them for some whileie threats of trading standards barnet police fraud etc and we also got all our documents back. There is almost certainly more than one person but none using their real names we suspect. They keep the amounts smallish ie max £1000 as customers mentally write this off. They prey on desperate situations financially and generally make a good living doing sweet fa.
Another thing they rely on is generally there is a middle man between them and the customer. They are usually a genuine broker who has asked for their help. When the deal is "declined" it is the genuine broker who breaks the "good" news to the customer. They actively tout for business from ifa's mortgage brokers ,accountants etc
when the genuine broker asks the customer for £750 valaution the customer generally happily pays up.
It is a nasty little business and despite all the authorities being informed -they do nothing?

androo235

i just had this email exchange with Lloyd. About sums him up I'd say.

My reply this morning...

OK Lloyd have it your way. I guess I never really measured up did I. What’s sad is that you find it necessary to make a living the way you do – I guess you do well enough, but it’s possible to do well without ripping people off . Perhaps you’re just delusional and really believe that you do have some kind of inside track to savvy investors willing to lend to promising entrepreneurs with collateral. Sorry but I just don’t believe it now especially given your last response. If you were rational and ran an honest business you would see that you would be able to save a possible £2K fee opportunity for yourself simply by satisfying the customer of the bona-fides of your product – you would also choose to ignore the customers “paranoia” and just deal with facts that the customer could verify. You haven’t done that have you. It seems I’m not the only one that has this negative opinion of you and your operation.

Goodbye – I hope.

Andrew

From: [EMAIL="HMFIN@aol.com"]HMFIN@aol.com[/EMAIL] [mailto:HMFIN@aol.com]
Sent: 08 July 2011 8:57 AM
To: [EMAIL="housesnflats@virginmedia.com"]@virginmedia.com[/EMAIL]
Subject: Re: 28/06/7674

Dear Andrew,

Thank you for your e-mails.

I find the tone and content both of your emails to date and of your internet posting most unfortunate, indeed sad.

You arrived at our offices on Tuesday afternoon and were afforded the courtesy of a meeting, despite having no appointment. Your various e-mail requests and enquiries have all been accommodated, save for the provision of our banking details.

Your e-mail under reply, I'm afraid, only endorses the opinion I formed from the moment we met, that at no time were you a genuine applicant for finance and accordingly, I am closing my file.

Regards, LLOYD GREEN


In a message dated 08/07/2011 02:08:23 GMT Daylight Time,
[EMAIL="housesnflats@virginmedia.com"]@virginmedia.com[/EMAIL] writes:
Hi Lloyd,
I just posted the following [my first post] on an internet forum. Of course I still want to believe your offer is bona-fide, and if it is I’m sure you will now offer me convincing evidence of that and no more prevarication and defensiveness. I had thought to string you along for a while – give you a taste of your own medicine or something, but I’m sure you’re far too smart for that. You say I’m paranoid well prove that you’re not out to get me then.

See you

Andrew.

androo235

#16 when I say there's nothing there. I mean the site exists but it looks and feels to me like some kind of scam or at least puffery which blew up during the last boom and is still deflating. I searched it for an article or thread relevent to this thread and could find nothing. That's what I mean when I say that the link led nowhere.

androo235

He's really thowing his toys out of the pram now. I was going to reply, but I think that's enough now - anything further will be through official channels - or at least - official and matter of fact in content. His tone is pompous too don't you think - that's always a bad sign.

Dear Mr Andrew,

Thank you for your latest e-mail.

With respect,do you seriously expect me to prostitute myself at the whim of someone who is not only rude to me,but without just cause,rude about me and my firm to " all and sundry "

We have been in business since 1987 and really are not so desperate for a "possible £2k fee " that we have to " perform tricks " at any third party's behest

I have no idea to what your comment " savvy investors " relates to,incidentally.

Goodbye to you,and all the best in your future endeavours

LLOYD GREEN

MRS_DETERMIND

Dear all,

i am chriscarpfisher's wife - the one he mentions in his thread. i have been on this case for some time now and only had to stop for a while due to ill health. however, i kept looking on the internet for others like us who have suffered at their hands and found even more over the recent months. i emailed mr green, or is it mr burdett or mr marriott - or even jayne jaggar - 'his secretary'? i informed him that we were still on his case and are going to take it all alot further and this morning i received the usual bulls***t letter from 'mr burdett' - threatening this and that - slander and libel etc etc. yabber yabber.

anyway - the most interesting thing is that i have several letters here in my dossier - all have different names printed and signed - not strange you might think - but the same name of mr burdett, say, has signed it completely differently on seperate occasions. again mr marriott has written another letter and yet signed it completely differently? all the signatures change with the wind it seems and do not match up to the names printed on all the letters. then most interesting of all i found that the typing style and punctuation traits used in the email sent this morning from hallmark to andrew, (see above thread), are identical to those i have before me in a letter i received this morning from mr michael burdett !!!!!!!! NO ONE types exactly the same and these two have absolutely been written by the same hand. the wording and pretend eloquence are also identical. just call me columbo !

i will get the letter on here later so you can all see. the point of this tale is to say that all the names on the letterhead are fake - this is just a one or two man band i reckon. he has wrapped himself up in a tangle with all the names and signatures.........

i have informed him that i am indeed this afternoon, finalising our file to submit to scotland yard serious fraud office and the guardian newspaper etc etc. also i have asked him to meet us all with all the members of his company along with the police so we can get to the bottom of this. he actually blocked my email address this morning - but i sent it from another address.

looking at this thread - there have been over 2500 views on the subject of hallmark - so how many are there of us? - the police are going to help us - so we need to get together and fight this.

will be back !:D

GMS

It would seem that there are simply too many people with the same version of events for it to be a coincidence here. I hope everybody gets a resolution.

One thing which I noticed which may well seem pedantic is that the emails from a so called finance company are sent from an @aol email address. For me this would set alarm bells ringing from the start. Why would somebody not bother to have a domain name for emails if not a web site?

One of my nit picking things. I would not deal in financial transactions with anybody with a hotmail, yahoo, aol etc email address.