The report from the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) showed that around 3.9m British families do not have enough savings to cover their rent or mortgage for more than a month.

As CSJ Director Christian Guy said:

Some of the poorest people in Britain are cut off from mainstream banking and have no choice now but to turn to loan sharks and high-cost lenders.

Worse than loan sharks are online payday scammers. They take advantage of the financial situation of people. They ask for a fee promising to release the loan afterwards, but in the end, you get to pay a fee for nothing.

Our weekly top 3 are all about loan scams. Please read the tips below on how to avoid it.

01616567753 with search requests: 4094

Let’s here it from Tourist on 01616567753:

Last night I kept receiving text messages about payday loans from different companies/numbers. I have never applied for a loan because i’m a TOURIST here in the UK.

This morning i have received 2 calls from this number so far. I have received more than 20 text messages in less than 24 hours offering me payday loans. This is now very annoying. These people should be jailed for harrassment!

01482590502 with search requests: 1626

Mike reported 01482590502:

Call out of nowhere from this number last week. My phone number was dialed by computer who put me through to an operator, who didn’t care about anything except to put me through to her „agent“. Agent knew my name but requested further confirmation details to which i refused as they called me, not me calling them. He said he would contact by other means but has yet to do so apart from harassment phone calls. Decided to fill out their online payment form with clearly false information, yet it still took me to a card payment page. Utter harassment and possible scam, as we are not behind in any of our payments with any company.

01913009131 with search requests: 8557

Skareccrow gave a full account of the call:

Called today claiming to be some consumer finance agency, investigating over payment of loans and finance. asked if I had previously had finance with black horse.

Then the Phishing started

Was it for a car? I said no.
Oh! was it a loan? I said no it was a motorcycle.
Was it for more than £1000 pounds? Yes
Was it for £4000 to £5000? Being deliberately vague now I said yes about that.

She knew my Name and my address (which is different from when I had the finance) and as part of data protection for me to confirm either the date or the year of my birth.( I thought this very clever as they appear to have this info and are only confirming part rather that asking you out right for your DoB)

At this point I was getting very suspicious so asked her what this was all about and was it PPI? she got very defensive saying no no all the were trying to do was investigate if I had been over charged for my finance and that if I confirmed my age she could check if there was a marker against the finance and the claims team could investigate at no cost to me. On confirming that there was a flag against this finance should would now pass me to the claims team.

Claims Handler „Hello, so about your loan for £5000 we can look into whither there is any PPI* to be claimed“
Me „I didn’t have a loan for £5000 and the finance agreement I had with Black horse didn’t have PPI“
Me „your colleague told me this was not PPI??“
CH „How do you know you didn’t have PPI we can look in to that for you“
Me „I declined PPI it was not included“
CH „But we can check“
Me “ no point I didn’t take it“
CH „But we can look into it for you“
Me „You’re not listening, there is nothing to check“
CH „but the banks were sneaking it in“
Me „What’s in it for you?“
CH „We get 39% of successful claims, can we look int this on your behalf““
Me „Well you’re getting 39% of nothing cause I didn’t take PPI on the black horse finance“
Me „GOODBYE“

I think they had My name address and phone number and the rest was phishing.

How to avoid online payday loan scams?

• as much as possible, try other more credible options. Online payday loans should be your last resort!
• i know you’re desperate, but these scammers are even worse – more desperate than you can imagine
• avoid unknown lenders / fly-by-night bogus entities
• do not depend on testimonial videos – looks can be deceiving
• you should know it’s a scam if the lender asks you to wire some money to complete the process or before you can get a loan. Remember – the fee for online payday loan is only assessed on the time you need to repay the loan, i.e., on payday
• if you are asked to put the money on a pre-paid card before the release of the loan, then it must be a scam
• check if the lender is listed with the Better Business Bureau, state corporation commission or state banking regulators
• if somebody approached you offering a payday loan (not the other way around) then think twice!

take care!
your tellows team