You’ve heard the story, someone promises you a loan and you find out later the interest is higher than what you asked for. While I was out, I read a very interesting story of some folks involved in this, and it seems to me that it intales several companies.
What’s worse than finding out that identity thieves took out a 546 percent interest payday loan in your name? How about a 900 percent interest loan? Or how about not learning of the fraudulent loan until it gets handed off to collection agents? One reader’s nightmare experience spotlights what can happen when ID thieves and hackers start targeting online payday lenders.
The reader who shared this story (and copious documentation to go with it) asked to have his real name omitted to avoid encouraging further attacks against his identity. So we’ll just call him “Jim.” Last May, someone applied for some type of loan in Jim’s name. The request was likely sent to an online portal that takes the borrower’s loan application details and shares them with multiple prospective lenders, because Jim said over the next few days he received dozens of emails and calls from lenders wanting to approve him for a loan.
So … this is the first several paragraphs of a full length Krebs article titled Scary Fraud Ensues When ID Theft & Usury Collide.
This article talks about several companies that were involved in this shady business, although I don’t want loans, I want to get money fairly. Here is more interesting things from this article.
Curiously, the fraudsters had taken out a loan in Jim’s name with MSF using his real email address — the same email address the fraudsters had used to impersonate him to MSF back in May 2021. Although he didn’t technically have an account with MSF, their authentication system is based on email addresses, so Jim requested that a password reset link be sent to his email address. That worked, and once inside the account Jim could see more about the loan details:
The terms of the unauthorized loan in Jim’s name from MSF.
Take a look at that 546.56 percent interest rate and finance charges listed in this $1,000 loan. If you pay this loan off in a year at the suggested bi-weekly payment amounts, you will have paid $3,903.57 for that $1,000.
Jim contacted MSF as soon as they opened the following week and found out the money had already been dispersed to a Bank of America account Jim didn’t recognize. MSF had Jim fill out an affidavit claiming the loan was the result of identity theft, which necessitated filing a report with the local police and a number of other steps. Jim said numerous calls to Bank of America’s fraud team went nowhere because they refused to discuss an account that was not in his name.
That’s where they’re wrong. The account was in his name, it was his email address. He was able to authenticate with it by resetting the account, so now it was his. He proved that he didn’t take or even ask for the money and the outrageous percentage of payment. You can learn more about these as it has been covered before in various articles on the web. This is definitely a very interesting article that you should read more of if you’ve seen suspicious loan terms like what is described in these paragraphs.
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Well shows you the bad guys are always on the lookout.
I have never had this with anyone as such, though I have heard stories about issues mostly technical with government agencies and yeah your best bet is to pay and let it go if you can else face trouble.
I had an interesting issue due to system error.
That error was fixed, but it reappeared again.
I was traveling outside the country, and submitted my application to work and income because its needed for various bennifit things.
Fine I was told, go ahead.
Came back and was told that because I hadn’t submitted I was going to lose it all.
Rang them back of course.
They assured me that yes that was fine, but their system had a crash so my output reports never got updated but my trip was logged.
Fine Oh well I thought shit happens no problem.
3 years ago the same thing happened.
This time I decided to submit online.
Sure I was told all done.
I came back, but this time much worse.
This time none of my submittion actually made it to the database.
I was told to rock up with information and submit personally which I did.
Sorry sir, we can’t find your file, we will have to do a system search.
Again another database crash, this time things stopped.
Luckily I had involved my dad who threatened trouble, or something which I wasn’t round for.
Suddenly they decided that I wasn’t worth it and reset things back to what they were.
This time I was more than a little bit angry.
Once fine, twice ok it had happened a second time but with the first result.
But this was really bad.
How could information go missing.
I was able to talk to my local blind organisation user technical group.
What I basically found out was not knowledge the government was willing to share with users.
Its database and computer systems were majorly out of date.
They did know there was data loss going on and just haden’t done anything about it.
They were at that moment upgrading.
I have not had to use their system since and to be honest unles covid promptly fucks right off in the next 5 or so years doubt that I will be ever leaving the country ever again.
I certainly won’t travel by myself for anything unless I find a mate and the chance of that isn’t high.
So when my parents take their final flight to the new world, well thats that for me.
I have no interest to travel, at least for the time I am on this world.
Maybe on the next one I will actually have a better time of actually traveling.
Of course I could be a starship pilot then its fuck all travel companies period.
Going back to the article in question though my dad had his credit card stolen.
This was before where you get a message stating you have issues on your american express which is consistant with it being pinched and they give you another one.
My dad was at a store and assumes someone read his card while he was scanning it for something.
Well they subscribed him to several porn sites and he had to pay a lot of cash.
He reported it to the bank and the police.
The card was replaced and the cash was refunded.
Not much is known exactly what happened but someon managed to hack the store credit card machine and had stolen a lot of info.
It was sorted but yeah there is always someone looking for trouble