"Thank you. Goodbye," was the automated message you received yesterday when calling TransCredit Financial, a company that claimed to provide thousands of dollars in unsecured loans.

Turns out, the loans were apparently a scam.

The Better Business Bureau has received 20 complaints regarding TransCredit Financial from consumers around the country, said spokeswoman Erin May. The organization issued a warning to consumers.

The scam worked this way: Consumers applied to TransCredit for unsecured loans, at first online and then by phone, too. Once the company said loans were approved, it asked consumers to send hundreds of dollars in deposits to addresses in Canada before they would get their loan money.

When some consumers didn't get their money, they called TransCredit. The company would tell them there was a discrepancy in the paperwork, so they needed to send more money.

"Advance-fee loan scams are everywhere," May said. "The best thing [consumers] can do is to be very cautious."

TransCredit listed a Bellevue address of 601 108th Ave. N.E., but the company was not listed on the building directory this week. Other workers in the building said they had not heard of the company. The Web site the company listed, www.transcreditfinancial.com, has been shut down.

Information

For more about consumer fraud, contact one of these agencies:

Better Business Bureau: www.thebbb.org or 206-431-2222

Attorney General's Office: Consumer Fraud Division, www.atg.wa.gov/consumer or

800-551-4636

Department of Financial Institutions: www.dfi.wa.gov or 877-RING-DFI

Federal Trade Commission: www.ftc.gov or 877-382-4357

Internet Fraud Complaint Center: This partnership between the FBI and National White Collar Crime Center is online only at www.ifccfbi.gov.

"There's nothing existing here in Bellevue so ... we don't have anything to investigate," said Bellevue police Lt. Jim Hershey, who said police talked with building managers and found there were no tenants listed as TransCredit Financial.

The state Attorney General's Office has received complaints but said it cannot confirm or deny that it is investigating. The state Department of Financial Institutions issued a warning on its Web site and has received six complaints but doesn't have the power to investigate them.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, received about a dozen complaints and leads from the state, spokeswoman Virginia Kice said. Agents will study the information to determine whether to open an investigation or direct the information elsewhere, she said.

May said the Federal Trade Commission is investigating, but Laureen France, an FTC investigator, said she could not confirm that.

France advised consumers to guard personal and bank-account information and give it only to agencies they know to be legitimate.

Amanda Sitko, a logistics specialist from Michigan, applied for a loan online and got a call from a man who said his name was Thomas Chapman. The man told Sitko she was approved for a $10,000 loan at 6 percent interest for seven years.

But to secure the loan, she would have to pay five months in advance.

Sitko and her husband sent $731 via Money Gram to a Joshua Cole in Toronto. The loan money was to be in their accounts the next day, but it wasn't.

Another representative called on Monday, and said the lender was asking for another deposit, which they sent. In total the couple lost more than $1,500, which included the $55 fee they paid to wire the money both times.

"We were trying to get caught up on our bills," said Sitko, 23. "This is the first time we've done a personal loan."

The couple filed a complaint with the BBB, the FBI and the sheriff in Wayne County.

"We needed that money," Sitko said. "We were excited that we'd get that money, and then I borrowed $700 from my mom just to pay them. It makes us feel terrible."

Seung Hwa Hong: 206-464-3347 or ihong@seattletimes.com

Times Eastside reporter Ari Bloomekatz contributed to this report.