Payday loans in the United States are an extremely predatory industry, and now the landscape is getting worse as scammers posing as popular lenders try to defraud people.
A new report from the Better Business Bureau on these scammers highlighted the story of Shirley, who “received a call from a woman who said her name was “Lauren Green.” Lauren told Shirley that she “had qualified for a $5,000 loan from the West Point Lenders” but that she “needed to do was pay $535 as a fee” before the money would be deposited in her account. Then, Green again said that “another $535 was needed because her credit was not good enough.” However, once Shirley had handed over the $1,070, Lauren disappeared with Shirley’s money, and when she went to do some research, she found that the company was fake and that her information had been stolen.
Be on the lookout…
Many scammers are using names that are close to major payday lenders to work off of the name recognition that some of these companies have. The BBB has warned that fraudsters who pose as debt collectors can also use the same tactics to “make their threats sound more serious.”
