“Dear Steve,
My wife signed up for a debt buyers program where the debt buyer is suppose to buy my wife’s debt and she pays back the amount owed at reduced amount over time payments.
A guy named Steven Ciantro of American Debt Enders offered this program and I found out he is affiliated with Cyrus Global and Next Generation Debt Settlement. This guy Steven Ciantro works out of a mail box in New York City somewhere but I can’t find his real address. www.americandebtenders.com
She also paid for some kind of legal protection.
Questions:
1. Do debt buyers really exist to buy people’s debts and make arrangements with the debtor?
2. This sounds like a scam to me and I want to get her money back and I don’t know should I call the New York Attorney General or sue in small claims court, or both?
Mike”
Dear Mike,
I think I’ll let the comments from this Cyrus Global article on this issue speak for themselves. This one in particular I found these interesting.
You are absolutely right about wanting to know who the hedge fund is. This is not anywhere in the contract from American Star. I know this because we signed up as an affiliate of them. I was told directly from Hassan Kassir that the hedge fund will buy all the consumers debts. This was what he told me before I paid him $2500 as an affiliate fee! After paying him and getting a chance to read the consumer agreement……. the hedge fund is never mentioned. I questioned Hassan Kassir about this and he said “we cannot list this because we only use this as a tool to negotiate lower settlements and delay collection efforts by moving the file from the collection department into the settlement department”. I then asked him what percentage of people actually get their debts bought and he said it is about 30 percent. What a crock! I hope someone shuts down these shysters! Moral to the story if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. Keep up the good work Steve.
Steve,
First and foremost I want to thank you for exposing scam artist in the debt industry. I have worked in the Debt Settlement/Debt Management industry for the last 5 yrs and still do not understand the need to lie, cheat or steal. This industry is great and does provide help to distressed consumers but also puts food on my families table.
The reason for my comment is I was contacted by a Hassan Kassir and a Sam Kassir (SAME PERSON) from American Star Debt Settlement/ American Star Lending Corp around the same time last yr. He presented me with the exact Power Point that you have listed. Obviously, at a glimpse it looks wonderful. Consumer gets out of debt instantly (ON PAPER) due to the hedge fund and they offered an extremely high commission split to their affiliates. So we looked deeper, everything came back clean!
Needless to say we started off small, due to the fact that we had other vendors they (ASDS) were last on the list. The first 5 clients went smooth for the first month so we sent 10 following month. Again, everything went smooth! After the first 3 months I believe had a total of 95 clients with them and thats when everything started hitting the fan.
At this point we found out that the first 15 clients we actually entered under Hassan’s logins so the commissions were paid directly to him instead of Noteworld paying us directly. Well needless to say while I was sending him clients he was paying the commissions to us in CASH! But that was just the beginning!
Customer service was not existent! Hassan stated that ESP was supposed to handle that and that the clients just needed to call them(ESP). Every client that was enrolled called and questioned what was going on? Who do I talk to and so on and so-forth! So with a client on the phone I figured that I would get to the bottom of it! We called ESP together, the customer service rep stated that she had no evidence if the client. We then asked if the hedge fund was in fact going to be purchasing the debt received the question “WHAT HEDGE FUND!” To solve this , Hassan took it upon himself to purchase an 800 number and offered that to my clients.
The 40 hrs of FREE IN COURT SERVICES that would be serviced by FBL was also non-existent. When the first client received a summons they got me on the phone and we called FBL together. Talk about evasive. Needless to say he did not receive his 40 hrs of free service.
As for the hedge fund, out of the 95 clients and an average of three accounts per client NOT ONE ACCOUNT was ever purchased, The response that I received from Hassan was the the hedge fund will only pick up accounts that they can buy for 10% and they aren’t required to purchase any accounts. Which is the exact opposite from his original pitch.
All around Steve it was a horrible experience to be their affiliate and my heart goes out to there clients. As for the 95, I reached out to my most successful attorney in the industry and worked out 2% fees and enrolled most of them into a new program and didn’t collect a dime for doing so! Hassan also immediately stopped sending my commissions as well.
Truly,
Kyle Hartfield
And for the life of me I can’t figure out why your wife, as a debtor needing help, was given the commission referral agreement from Financial Solutions Center that you sent me below.
At this point I don’t believe the debt buyer claims, I’m worried about a guy selling debt relief out of a mail drop, and I can’t figure out if this is a business opportunity or a debt relief company.
The American Debt Enders website says they are an affiliate of Consumer Debt Solutions, so they are not even the direct debt relief company. And who is Consumer Debt Solutions. Is it the one with the BBB F rating or A+ rating? American Debt Enders has no BBB record.
According to the State of New York there is no company registered to do business in the state under the name American Debt Enders.
This is even though the website says the company is:
American Debt Enders
265 Sunrise Hwy
Suite 1-#250
Rockville Centre, NY 11570
And you are correct, the mailing address goes to a mail drop.
The only street address I was able to locate was the one associated with the domain name.
Anna Ciantro
American Debt Enders
125 Christabel St
Lynbrook, 11563, New York 11563
According to Google Maps those two addresses are less than six miles apart.
According to the State of New York Banking Department, American Debt Enders is not a licensed budget planner. – Source
So based on the information above and the fact the company claims to be a credit counseling group and offers credit counseling services and is not licensed to do so, operates out of a mail drop, has no BBB report, does not appear to be registered with New York as a business, and my concerns over the debt buyer program I’d give this a strong RUN AWAY.
If you want to try to get your money back I’d suggest you closely follow this process, How to Get Out of a Debt Relief Program and Get a Big Refund.
Please post your responses and follow-up messages to me on this in the comments section below.
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I was striving with the money and was incapable of staying on top of my debt payments. Creditors use to call me every day, and I was exasperated. Then, one of my co-workers suggested me too, and I am delighted with their assistance. They worked with my all my creditors to decrease the cost I owe, which assisted me in paying off my debts quicker. I am in such a relief now since their Debt Dispute program —no more stressing..? Finally!
It looks like they are very reputable company. See nice review: https://monthlybudgettemplate.org/american-debt-enders-review/
Just posted fax from Anna Ciantro regarding American Debt Enders.
We had this email created just for this post–as we are SEO experts..we will not help promote your site. You need to know: Mike is a bogus person. Neither he or his wife ever enrolled with ADE. He is in fact a former lead provider who we terminated business with, because frankly he is extremely unethical. He does not live in the US, he does have a very active website, which we shall not name, which is not incorporated in any way, so he avoids paying taxes, he requests payment through pay pal. We terminated him because he is unsavory, not unlike your site. He posts the same complaint everywhere, except where he should, which is on our website with NETCHECK–where we are members in good standing, with no complaints, which is where all legitimate complaints belong. Facts: ADE is the registered DBA name of Grace Unlimited Incorporated which is an LLC, registered in NY State with the Secretary of State. The company has absolutely no complaints until this idiot showed up, and we assure you we file tax returns regularly.
We will not continue this dialog, as it does not merit it. We have brought this to the attention of our Attorneys for possible defamation.
It took me a few minutes to track you down with New York state since Grace Unlimited Incorporated is not your official name, There is a Grace Unlimited, LLC however. The New York State records say:
Current Entity Name: GRACE UNLIMITED LLC
Initial DOS Filing Date: MAY 20, 2008
County: NASSAU
Jurisdiction: NEW YORK
Entity Type: DOMESTIC LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY
Current Entity Status: ACTIVE
Selected Entity Address Information DOS Process (Address to which DOS will mail process if accepted on behalf of the entity)
C/O NATIONAL REGISTERED AGENTS, INC.
875 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS
SUITE 501NEW YORK, NEW YORK, 10001
Registered Agent
NATIONAL REGISTERED AGENTS, INC.
875 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS
SUITE 501NEW YORK, NEW YORK, 10001
Your NetCheck record says the company name is actually:
Company Name: American Debt Enders
Contact Person: Steven Ciantro
Address: 265 Sunrise Hwy Ste 1-250
City: Rockville Centre
State / Country: New York
Zip / Postal Code: 11570
Phone: 877-766-2465
Fax:: 207-470-5903
Net Address: http://www.americandebtenders.com
Email Address: help@americandebtenders.com
Year Established: 2007
Which is odd since it claims you were in business a year before your New York state record says you began to do business and you make no mention of your alleged real business name of Grace Unlimited.
The mystery does not end there. It was the bottom of your actual website that claims you are American Debt Enders, LLC which you just confirmed is not true.
The reference NY State credit counseling license holders list does not have a Grace Unlimited on it.
So are you SEO experts or debt experts? Is your website just a lead generation device or do you provide the actual services you list on your site?