Protect Yourself and Report the Latest Frauds, Scams, Spams, Fakes, Identify Theft Hacks and Hoaxes
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Have you received an email or postal letter offering you a debt consolidation loan, student loan, mortgage, small business loans or a great credit card rate? It is probably a scam. The offer and their websites may look real, except they will quickly ask you for personal financial information, social security number, bank account numbers, in addition to your name, address, phone numbers, etc.
If you are looking for information about college scholarship, grant and loan scams, see this page.
Also see these examples of loan scam emails:
The scammer sends you an email or letter, or you respond to an advertisement on tv, radio, newspaper, magazine or online. The ad often uses the names of large, reputable and well-recognized lenders. To respond to the advertisement, victims are directed to call a "third-party consultant" who solicits application information including social security numbers. During this telephone call, the "loan" is always approved.
The "third-party consultant" then faxes a loan package to the victim, or directs the victim to a website to enter the information. The package includes a request for bank account information.
Finally, victims must wire a required advance payment or a deposit through Western Union or Money Gram to the consultant. The victim never obtains a loan, and the scammer disappears with the application fees and down payments.
Loan scams are generally a type of advance-fee frauds: with loan sharks are preying on unwary consumers, taking their money for the promise of a loan or credit, and leaving them in hot water. The scam artists often impersonate legitimate lenders to entice consumers into falling for their bogus offer. The scammer will try, generally in this order, to get you to:
provide your personal information so the scammer can steal your identity: opening new credit cards in your name and running up a bill, or selling fake id's with your information on them;
send a check or bank details so they can use it to make counterfeit checks that the scammers can use in other scams; and
send money (loan application fees, down payments, etc.)
According to law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and Canada, ads and promotions for advance-fee loans suggest - or even "guarantee" - that "even with a poor credit history" you can get a loan approved. But to take advantage of the offer, the consumer has to pay a fee. The catch? The scam artist takes off with your fee, and the loan never materializes.
Often, advance-fee loan sharks claim that their fees will go to a third party for credit insurance or a related service. Sometimes, they even fax materials using stolen or forged logos and letterheads from legitimate companies. The materials are fakes, according to enforcement officials, and the contracts the scam artists ask consumers to sign are worthless. Adding insult to injury, some scammers have used the information they collect from consumers to commit identity theft.
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Names used by scammers in the examples on this
page and others often belong to real people and businesses who often have no
knowledge of nor connection to the scammer's use of their name and
information. Sample scam emails and other documents presented on this
website are real copies of the scam to help potential victims recognize and
avoid it. You should presume that any names used and presented here in a
scam are either fictitious or used without their legitimate owner's
permission and have no relationship to any person or business that also
shares that name, address, phone number or other identifying information.
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