Beacon, Datsun, Weston/Weber Financial Loan review: Loan Scam 2

PLEASE, I want to post this because its Christmas time and all the scammers are coming out of the woodwork! 2 years ago I applied online for a few loans. A few days later I got a phone call from a Beacon Financial group, saying I was approved for a 5000.00 loan. She gave me the interest rate plus the monthly payments and told me the loan would be for 5yrs. She said I was already approved, but since my credit wasnt too good, they needed collateral. She asked if I had anything I could put up. I said no, so she then said since I didnt, I would need to pay the first 6 monthly payments, which came out to about 720.00. I talked it over with my husband to see if we could come up with it, since it was so close to Christmas. We came up with a way to scrape it up, so I called her back. 1st sign I should have known it was a scam was, before they even connected me to the lady working on my application, I had to state my name. Well, we talked to her and said we can scrape it up and asked how we pay this. She said the quickest and easiest way was Moneygram. I asked if I can send a check, she said I could but it would take over a month to get the loan, so we decided to send it Moneygram. 2nd sign I should have known this was a scam was, the Moneygram was addressed to a a man in Canada. We asked why Canada and she told us this was a "private lender" who was willing to finance our loan, and this 720.00 we were sending was money we were paying this guy to assure this guy we would make good on our payments, that and this 720.00 meant we wouldnt have to pay the monthly installments until June of the following year. Well, we ended up sending the money, faxing back our loan agreement, along with a voided check, ID, SSN, etc. After we sent the Moneygram we called the lady and she assured us the money would be in our account the next day. Well, the next day instead of getting money, we get a phone call saying they re-reviewed our application and the money we sent wasnt suffecient enough to cover the loan, they wanted us to send another 6 mos worth of payments. We told them to forget about it and give us a refund. They said they would and we'd get it in January, we said we wanted it wired back to our checking account, which they said they couldnt do, since they needed to void my application, etc. Well, lets just say we NEVER got a refund, and when we went to call them back, the number was no longer in service!
I since got similar phone calls around November/December, same situation, except they use another name. I just got called twice this year. The name used this time was Datsun Financial, also Weston and Weber Financial. They wont patch you through unless you state your name, and same thing, they say you're approved for a loan, ranging from 5-10 thousand dollars, in which they need the first 6 months worth of payments due to your credit.
NEVER, EVER, EVERRRR send money to get a loan. If you get a call and they say you're approved for a loan and they want any kind of payment, HANG UP IMMEDIATELY, also write down the name of the company calling so you can report it. ALSO, if you do get a call and you call them back, and before you can even talk to someone, you have to state your name, HANG UP, and again, get the name of the company...DONT EVER FALL FOR THIS like I stupidly did. Im ashamed and embarassed at myself for falling for such nonsense. Thats how they get the scam, they call people around the holidays, who have tarnished credit, and try to get any money they can. PLEASE dont fall for this.
ONE, if you cant talk to someone unless you give your name and TWO, they ask for any money, especially money they want you to wire them IS A SCAM!