Exhausted and unwell, Nelson Guzmán yesterday announced that he was the victim of a fraudulent telemarketing scheme. Although he’s ashamed of “having been taken for a ride” at the age of 56, he decided to report what happened to him so that other Latinos won’t fall into the same trap. According to Guzmán, one day he saw a commercial on Canal Sur and Canal 47 television networks for a credit card that said it would approve cardholders solely on the basis of being Hispanic. “You didn’t need a credit check and they didn’t ask for a Social Security number.” “[But] the first thing they did when I called was to ask me for my Social Security number,” said Guzmán, adding that when he put in his application for the card, “they promised me a five star card that could be used anywhere.” The credit card is called the “Latin Card Plus,” and the advertisement promised a credit line from $3,000 to $10,000.
Representatives from the company, located at 9793 NW 41st Street, Suite 545, Miami, Florida (according to a promotion), called Guzmán, congratulated him, and told him that he had been approved for a card with a credit limit of $7,000. They assured him that as soon as his new credit card arrived, he could take out $500 in cash and spend $2,000 on anything he wished. They told him to have a money order for $300 ready when the card arrived at his home. He was to give this money order to a Federal Express delivery person and subsequently receive his credit card. Guzmán followed all of the company’s directions, but when he opened the package delivered to him by Federal Express, he was shocked at what he found. Instead of receiving a normal credit card, the company sent him a gold-colored card without a name printed on it, which only had some a series of numbers on it, “which doesn’t work to buy anything anywhere.”
Along with the card, they sent him some forms that had to be filled out and sent by fax or mail in order to activate the card. He also received a catalogue of items that could be bought with the card and outlined the steps he had to follow in order to make a purchase.
Guzmán sent in the forms by mail in August under the agreement that the company would activate his card 48 hours later. After repeated calls and even a threat to bring in a lawyer, Guzmán’s card was activated. Guzmán decided to buy something from the catalogue in order to recuperate his $300. When he called the number printed in the catalogue, they told him that his card had not been activated.
Guzmán then decided to buy something from Latin Card Plus’s webpage, http://www.latincardplus.com, and he chose a video camera. “It turned out that the camera cost $760. When my daughter indicated the form of payment was [Latin Card Plus’s] own credit card, they told me that we had to put down an initial payment of 60 percent of the total cost. We cancelled everything, because this was a camera that I could get on sale for $200,” he said. El Diario/LA PRENSA called Latin Card Plus’s telephone number, 1-800-473-0640, for information about the credit card for Latinos that they were advertising on television. Someone who identified herself as María Cristina told us the same thing that the company had told Guzmán before he applied for his card. “It’s a regular credit card, which will allow you to buy whatever you like, wherever you want,” noted the salesperson. She told us that we had to send in a $300 money order via Federal Express. “You have to be there in person to receive the card because at the same time you will be given what you need to activate the card. Afterward, you will be able to withdraw money from ATMs,” she said.
When we identified ourselves as journalists, we were connected to a supervisor named Ana, who told us a very different story from what we had just heard. She informed us that the card could only be used to make purchases through the catalogue, the Internet or via telephone. She added that the person who made a complaint against her company must have his facts “slightly wrong.” However, when we told her that we had also attempted to apply for a card, Ana stated that her company was backed by a “legal department.” Yesterday we left a message with Thania Dimas to get a comment from the company. When this issue went to press, we hadn’t yet received a response.
