By Dr. Kavita
A loan is something that comes as a much needed assistance or relief from a messy financial situation. That is exactly why we all apply for loans, isn’t it? But imagine for a moment that this loan which was supposed to be the answer to your burning problem suddenly becomes more painful and troublesome than your original difficulty.
The loan which was looked forward to as a respite from financial difficulty is now an attempt by a fraudster to deprive you of your hard earned money. Harsh, but true. It happens every single day. Just visit FTC (Federal Trade Commission’s) website and you will see all the latest scams laid out for you.
How do loan frauds happen?
The scam typically begins with a phony lender approaching you with his/her loan offer right in your inbox. These scammers frequently mention the familiar name of a genuine lender to get customers in. After all, if they reveal that they are affiliated with a business that you recognize to be legitimate, they must also be authentic, isn’t it? Not at all!
Their e-mail may also mention an address that you need to reply to. There are also details of a third party consultant who will initiate the loan application process, in case you are interested. If you believe this trick and respond back to the address/phone number given in the mail, you will be asked to share your sensitive info like date of birth and social security number. Then after a short duration of interactions, your loan suddenly gets a magical approval.
To cut a long story short, you will be made to believe that your loan is fully approved and all that you need to do is to wire an advanced payment to the scammer. If you continue to be naïve even at this point, you will in all probability send the money and once you do this, all that you will get is a bank account that is much lighter and a scammer who has fled with all your sensitive information.
Don’t be surprised to read this, because it is possible and there are so many unfortunate people out there who have been actually scammed by loan fraud. As the popular adage says, ‘Better safe than sorry’, so here are three tips to protect you from having to go through the pain and loss of loan fraud.
Do not trust any loan offer that comes unasked
The common trait with all the loan fraudsters is that they will always initiate the first conversation. You will find a loan offer even when you never asked for it. Heed this warning and simply refuse to respond to these emails, no matter how awesome the loan offer is.
Do not deal through mediators
If the loan offer is actually from the reputable company that you think the e-mail is from, do you think that they need a mediator? Just read the email, but avoid clicking on any links in the mail, no matter how legitimate they look. Use the Internet to search for the company’s site and check their loan offers directly.
Never share your sensitive info
Unless you have dealt with the company directly via their support center, do not ever share your financial and other important personal information, such as social security number and so on.
As a final note, it always helps to heed to your intuition, because when something appears too good to be true, it usually is not. Be safe. Don’t fall prey to unscrupulous loan fraud schemes.
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