Scams posted on classified ad
The classified ads are useful for selling and buying things or others services. Nevertheless, even on a reputed classified ad website credit scams are more and more frequent. This means that even if the classified ads are sorted, it is sometimes difficult to discern a serious offer than a scam. Usually serious companies are avoiding to pass by a classified ads for making an advertising. So it is important to be aware once glimpsing a classified ad who is proposing credit solution for individuals.
Social network
According to the coordination services against criminality on the internet (SCOCI) swindlers are more and more active via social networks. The swindlers don’t hesitate to boast cheap rates extremely low or advantageous. Some of them are not hesitating to give banks employee’s name or well-known organisations for given more credit to their scams.
How does these credits scams works?
The operating mode is the same every time: the swindler after contacting you will demand you to:
- Send a copy of your id card, even others documents which maybe more or less coherent with the true documents that are required by an agency.
- Pay an application fee, by making promises of a low interest rate for your credit. Know that a real credit agency will never ask for an application fee, this one being remunerated via the banks.
Identify the loan scams
Even for a person who is not familiar or little with the consumer credit area, recognizing scams is relatively simple as long as the person have common sense and mistrust. So, if a loan offer represents one or several following characteristics, you can consider that it is probably a scam:
- The offer is present via a personal account on Facebook (fake account) under the form of a testimony. “I have requested a credit towards Mr X”. It is important to differentiate these personal accounts from those who are corresponding from a real society, like for example the Facebook’s page of Multicredit.
- The offer is submitted via a classified website
- The offer shows spelling mistake. Often the swindlers are operating from a non-English speaking country.
- The offer is proposing conditions (interest rate for example) much more advantageous than in the current market. In Switzerland the lowest rate is lying towards 5.9% and these one are marketing arguments knowing that the majority of personal credits are sorted with a rate higher than 10%.
- The offer indicates a person to contact (and not a company who has a website).
