Don’t become the next Victim of a Personal Loan Scam!

When you’re stuck in a situation where you can’t pay medical bills or your car needs repairs that aren’t covered by your insurance, a personal loan might be an easy answer to all your problems.

However, you always need to be wary when it comes to personal loan scams; luckily there are a few red flags to look out for to help you spot the fakes and frauds!

Here are the 8 signs of a personal loan scam…

1. There’s no credit check. All legitimate personal loan lenders will do a credit check before to ensure that you can repay the money. A scammer will not be interested in your credit score because they’re typically after your personal information instead.

2. The personal loan lender isn’t registered. In South Africa, as well as most other places, you have to register to be a loan provider. If you search for a loan provider or business and find they are not registered, you’ve probably found a fraudulent website!

3. The loan offer isn’t complete. All loan lenders need to complete all the terms of a loan, this includes the final costs and the interest. If the offer you are signing for has the bare minimal information, spelling mistakes, grammar errors and just looks a little suspicious, it’s probably a scam.

4. There’s no physical address. If you cannot find any contact information or you can’t find their physical address then be aware that this personal loan is probably a scam. All scammers will make it as hard as possible for anyone to get in touch with them later to avoid legal action!

5. You must act now before the offer expires. The offer is urgent and you need to sign for the loan before it expires – this is most definitely a scam! All legitimate loan providers will have a steady rate, while scammers will fool you into acting quickly without reading the fine print.

6. You need to pay upfront. Any loans that demand you to pay certain fees for “processing” or “insurance” are scams. Any loan provider that asks you for payment before to process your application is just a scammer looking to take advantage of situations when people desperately need money.

7. Guaranteed approval. It is impossible that you will always be guaranteed approval of a loan, there is no such thing as a guaranteed personal loan. A legitimate loan provider will first have to check your credit as well as your information before the loan is guaranteed.

8. Payment in the form of cash or a gift card. A loan scammer will try to get you to pay them in a way that is untraceable, such as with cash or in the form of a gift card. No legitimate loan provider will request you to pay like this and if they pressure you to do so it is probably a scam!

I think I’ve been scammed – Now what?

Please contact OSINT immediately on 021 110 0422 or email contact@osint.co.za otherwise learn more about our open-source intelligence & digital forensics services on www.osint.co.za or www.tcgforensics.co.za