Category Archives: Fraud

Avoiding a Loan from Fake Lenders

Particularly for borrowers trying to get out of the difficulties brought about by having bad credit, avoiding transactions with fake lending companies that offer alleged instant or fast loans is a must. It is unfortunate that there actually are unscrupulous individuals or groups who take advantage of anyone who is in dire need of monetary assistance. This is why extra caution must be practiced in seeking any type of financial arrangement, especially with those advertised via the internet.

With the economy being how it has been in the last couple of years, more and more banks are imposing stiffer penalties for delinquent borrowers while turning away those in real need of additional credit or even just a small loan. Individuals whose incomes are not as high as is ideal but have no history of bad credit whatsoever continue to suffer the negative perception that the banking industry attaches to low-earners. These circumstances encourage people to look for alternative, sometimes more expensive, financing elsewhere.

The introduction of lenders and loan brokers online opens up a whole new range of options which credit consumers can potentially benefit from. The problem is that when a person becomes overly desperate or is in a panic to find as much debt help as he or she could grasp, discerning a loan company’s reputation ends up being neglected. Disreputable lenders make money by offering attractive low-rate loans to reel in possible victims. The cheaper the fake loan seems, the more tempting it becomes to take it. Anybody then that takes the bait is tricked into paying an upfront fee prior to receiving the loan itself. The loan never does materialize and the concerned lender becomes unreachable at that point.

For anyone who may be on the brink of losing a home or is constantly missing out on credit card payments each month because of sudden unemployment or reduction of hours at work, every opportunity to repair personal finances will always be worth a look at. Whether it be for a personal loan, homeowner or any bad credit loan, never forget to check a lender’s credentials first before dealing with them to avoid fake companies from dragging you even deeper in debt.

Facebook users at risk of ID theft

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.

Thought chip and pin was safe? Think again!

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.