Payday Loans

We are today issuing a warning to UK residents to be on the guard against fraudsters purporting to represent loan companies. Posing as legitimate staff who represent various UK loan companies, scammers are reportedly calling random UK families and offering loans of up to £5,000 – but in order to ‘qualify’ they demand personal bank details.

To help counter this criminal activity, we’ve put together the following guidelines to ensure more people do not fall victim to these scams:

1. Be on your guard – the majority of UK loan companies do not make unsolicited sales calls to potential new customers. To avoid risk, apply online to reputable loan companies. If a deal that you get over the phone seems too good to be true, it probably is.

2. Use common sense – never give out your personal bank details before verifying the caller’s identity and never give your bank details to unsolicited callers. If you have any reservations, hang up, look up the loan company’s telephone number online and call them back.

3. Be aware that legitimate loan companies do not require their customers to make advance payments using Ukash or other vouchers.

Our warnings come in light of the recent Annual Fraud Indicator report published by the National Fraud Authority that shows a 31% increase in telephone banking fraud in 2012, a recorded loss of £16.7 million1

Scammers are coming up with ever more ingenious ways to cheat people out of their money on a daily basis. So, be vigilant, don’t be afraid to ask for credentials, and if in doubt, hang up and call them back.

If you feel you may have been a victim of telephone fraud, identity theft, or have been offered what you suspect to be fraudulent loans, then please contact Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or at http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/report_fraud. Action Fraud is run by the National Fraud Authority – the government agency that helps to co-ordinate the fight against fraud in the UK.

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