Colfax Woman Receives Settlement in Fraud Case

When Helen Holdefer got the first overdraft notice from her bank in the mail, she just assumed that she’d make a mistake balancing her checkbook. It wasn’t until they started to pile up that the 93 year old Colfax resident realized that something was wrong. With the help of her son Mike, who’s disabled, and the state attorney general’s office Holdefer was able to recover nearly $700 that had been sucked out of her bank account.

“I don’t know why they’d rob someone like me,” Helen Holdefer said.

The scam started slowly in April of 2016, with monthly deductions made by electronic transfer from Holdefer’s account. The money was being sent to a company called Advantage Consumer Savings, based in Maryland. At first Holdefer and her son paid the overdraft fees and tightened their belts. Holdefer, a lifelong resident of Colfax, retired from Maytag when she was 60. She lives with her son Mike, disabled since 1979 due to an automobile accident. Both of the Holdefers are on a fixed income.

“It hurt us bad for a month or two, it took all of our spare money,” Mike Holdefer said. “It was tough, we were behind, our budget is just so tight that when something like this happens it hurts.”

By July of 2016 the Holdefers realized that something was up. By poring over his mother’s bank statements, Mike Holdefer noticed that there was a recurring charge for $50 that he didn’t recognize. By Googling the name of the business Mike Holdefer found a phone number, but it wasn’t long before he hit a brick wall.

“You could call them and talk to them, but they wouldn’t do nothing,” Mike Holdefer said.

In desperation, the Holdefers filed a Consumer Protection Complaint with the state’s attorney general. In the complaint Mike Holdefer noted that while they’d changed account numbers with their bank, the First State Bank of Colfax, had refunded some of the overdraft charges, too much time had passed to make a fraud claim through the bank.

With the help of Holdefers and others the attorney general’s office was able to identify other in Iowa who had been defrauded as well by Globe Marketing Group Inc. of Woodland Hills, California. In April of 2017 Globe Marketing Group Inc. agreed to return $85,000 to the four Iowans who had been defrauded.

State Attorney General Tom Miller said that all Iowans need to keep a close eye on their bank statements, phone bills, and credit card statements for suspicious charges, and to challenge them right away if they think they’ve defrauded.

“These kinds of schemes are somewhat common, it’s a major priority for our office to try and deal with these,” Miller said. “If you think you’ve been taken be sure and let our office know.”

For the Holdefers, who’d run out of options, Miller’s help has been invaluable. They received their settlement check last week, and they hope that their experience will serve as a warning to others. When Mike Holdefer told Miller that he’d been repeatedly hung up on every time he’d tried to ask Globe Marketing Group Inc. for a refund, Miller told him that the business would have a tougher time hanging up on the state’s attorney general.

“It takes some time to deal with people like this, they never give the money back readily,” Miller said.

Miller advised Iowans, especially older residents, to be exceptionally vigilant when talking on the phone, and said while telephone fraud is common, his office has made it a priority to aggressively go after companies attempting to defraud Iowans.

“One of our consumer lawyers, Steve Sinclair is just an absolute bulldog when it comes to these kinds of operators,” Miller said.

As for the Holdefers, it’s back to business as usual. Helen Holdefer said she didn’t have any plans for her unexpected windfall.

“We’ll just go right back to paying the bills,” Helen Holdefer said.