The Fake Loan

The Fake Loan

Investment Scam (a 419 Advance Fee Fraud).
Be warned, they promise millions but first you have to pay.

A painful duty – Exposing the British (and Irish) connection. What happened to my money? All 419 fraud victims should read this. What e-mail services do the fraud criminals favour?

Recently we have seen an increase in reports of very dubious loan and investment offers. Don’t let criminals fool you into sending an advance fee for an imaginary loan. Examples of fake names and titles used in suspicious e-mails follow. Fraud criminals will often use the names of real companies in their junk mail. These companies are victims insofar as their reputations suffer at the hands of the scammers.

A contact familiar with the fake loan and investment scams has this advice: «Over time, the marks are becoming less dumb and refuse to pay front fees for funding. The scammer then backs up and ‘arranges to have the fee paid by a third party’ so the mark can pay the fee from funds provided. What they seek is to pay with the equivalent of a ‘hot check’ and get the mark to pay the fee before the deposit bounces…

Scammer warning signs:

1. The scammer is willing to fund you without any apparent due diligence.

2. They use free and anonymous e-mail services – especially yahoo.com and gmail.com.

3. They pose as English investors, barristers and bankers but their English grammar and spelling are usually poor.

4. They insist on payment of a fee or expense before you are funded OR send you funds and demand that you immediately pay the required fee/ expense from the money you are sent (i.e. before the forged or stolen check is identified by your bank).

5. The criminals will usually ask for payment via Western Union.

More information:
InterFraud
The Internet Fraud Advisory Group
A not for profit group based in Britain.
http://interfraud.org/