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Tue 8th Apr, 2008
Posted in Bad Credit, Banking, Borrowing, Card fraud, Consumer Credit, Consumer debt, Credit Card, Credit record, Financial news, Fraud, Identity theft, Personal loans, Spending, UK Finance, Unsecured loans at 1:22 pm by Steve Smith
It has been revealed that Facebook users are putting themselves at serious risk of becoming an unwitting victim of ID theft. Even posting just a few private details on your Facebook page can give fraudsters enough information to cause serious damage.
Using the information that they have come across on people’s Facebook pages, fraudsters are able to open bank accounts and take out credit cards and personal loans in their victim’s name.
The warning was sounded by a BBC1 consumer show Watchdog. The show conducted an experiment in which they set up a fictional identity on Facebook. The Watchdog team then invited 100 random people to become friends with their newly created fictional character ‘Amba’.
35 of those invited to become Amba’s friend immediately accepted the request despite knowing nothing about her. By accepting, the victims allowed the fictional Watchdog character to view any private details that they had posted on their page.
Details which could easily be accessed included date of birth as well as hometown. The Watchdog team then used these details in order to obtain more private details about their victims from other publicly available websites.
With this information Watchdog then opened up an online bank account in their victims’ names as well as successfully applying for credit cards.
One of the victims, Scott Gould, stated that he was “very surprised” by what Watchdog managed to do despite having only the slightest bits of information about him.
Users of Facebook as well as all other social networking sights are advised to be very careful when posting their details. Fraudsters often leave a trail of bad debts behind them, in Your name. Not only is the onus on you to prove that you are not responsible, it is hard work correcting your damaged credit rating.
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Fri 28th Mar, 2008
Posted in Bank charges, Borrowing, Card fraud, Consumer Credit, Consumer debt, Financial news, Fraud, Missed payments, Overdrafts, Personal debt, UK Finance, Unsecured loans, mortgages at 12:15 pm by Steve Smith
Since their introduction building societies and banks have been claiming that chip and pin technology is foolproof. However a new flaw at the heart of the design to prevent fraudsters from stealing your money has been exposed.
Many cash withdrawals are being carried out using cards that do not have a security chip and the shocking thing is that it is the banks themselves that are allowing this to happen.
This is how it works. Currently there are roughly 140m cards in circulation in the UK and every day an average of 7m withdrawals are made from UK cash machines. Now it is only to be expected that some of these cards will be slightly faulty therefore if banks were to reject cards with a slight fault they would then be inundated with complaints from angry customers who could not withdraw their own money.
This has left the door open to fraudsters who can use cloned bank cards that do not come with a chip to get their hands on other peoples’ cash. This leaves bank claims that the system is foolproof as completely false.
The banking industry trade association for payments has admitted that an undisclosed number of the UK’s 60,500 cash machines will allow cloned cards to withdraw money provided the cloned card is used with the correct pin number.
Because bank customers are not protected from fraud in the way that credit card holders are, account holders could find themselves fleeced of their entire balance with no redress. Not only are people finding themselves without the money to meet their home loan repayments or rent, they are going into unauthorised overdrafts and forced to borrow money to cover the shortfall.
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Wed 21st Nov, 2007
Posted in Borrowing, Consumer Credit, Consumer debt, Financial products, Fraud, Personal loans, Property, Secured loans, UK Finance, mortgages at 1:50 pm by Steve Smith
Many homeowners are being encouraged by their brokers to lie about their income in order to secure large mortgages. To lie about your income in order to secure a loan is a punishable offence and could land you with a hefty fine or even a jail sentence.
The whole story revolves around a care worker employed by the citizens advice bureau who claims she was advised by her broker to lie about her salary when trying to secure her mortgage.
Sandra Ashcroft, 59, told her bank she received a £35,000 salary as a mid-wife in order to secure a home loan of £102,000 in 2003. She then applied to increase that mortgage to £122,000 after telling the bank she earned £80,000 working in the public services. Ms Ashcroft actually only earned between £3000 and £5,500.
What Mrs Ashcroft did was highly illegal and she was charged for obtaining money transfers by deception. She was given a six-month suspended sentence but the judge said that there was evidence to suggest that she had been steered towards giving misleading information.
The danger often lies with the temptation offered by self-cert loans and mortgages. These were created for self-employed workers or business owners who don’t always have records of their income. Whilst these loans are vital for those who have an income that doesn’t come from a salaried job, they open a window for people to try to obtain credit they cannot repay by lying on their application.
So if you are thinking of lying on an application for a mortgage or even if your broker is encouraging you to lie do not be tempted. This is a very dangerous route to take and if you are caught out you could face losing your house, ruining your credit rating and even a jail sentence. So always consult the mortgage company or even a lawyer if you are unsure about specific details on your loan application form.
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