When it is necessary to take out a loan, questions arise: what pitfalls can be expected when applying for a loan?
Currently, the service of applying for a loan online is very popular, where there is no need to visit a bank or microfinance organizations, just enter your data and wait for the application to be approved. Therefore, it is necessary to understand what unpleasant moments can occur, whether the financial organization is legal, and whether the interest rates will be too high?
Credit Fraudsters
Very often, fraudsters use other people's data to apply for loans. It is necessary to understand what fraud schemes pose a danger to someone who has become their victim and disclosed their personal data. For a fraudster to access them, they need to know information:
- about the bank account;
- card number;
- card secret codes;
- banking access passwords.
In most cases, fraudsters collect personal data using internet resources and social networks. One way is to send phishing messages, allegedly from a bank or financial organization, sending fake messages with a link that, when clicked, takes the user to a fake site. They lure victims with bright advertising, lucrative offers, or promotions. Once on this site, you need to enter personal data to activate a fake discount. When obtaining a loan, the victim unknowingly passes personal data to the fraudster.
After which, the following scheme is played out - a message comes saying that the loan was not approved, but at this moment the scammer already has the data and can easily apply for a loan in a microfinance organization using this data. When the victim finds out that they need to pay off the loan, they may not even remember where this data was leaked.
Loan Scams
In modern parlance, there is a concept called “scam,” which means deception. This term is found in many internet projects, especially those devised by fraudsters.
The credit business is no exception. Very often, the client who attempts to apply for a loan online is deceived. Fraudsters may call the victim, pretending to be an employee of a bank or financial organization, and warn that the client's financial data is allegedly compromised and requires data confirmation to secure them. Therefore, it is necessary to provide:
- bank card number;
- password for banking application;
- secret code for verification.
In this case, verification is the information about the card and access to it. After that, applying for a loan with such information becomes quite simple.
Loans are not always in financial organizations; sometimes people turn to friends or acquaintances for borrowing money. This scheme is also present in fraudulent scams. Most often, fraudsters manage to send a fake message via social networks or messengers from the name of a familiar person asking for a loan. In this case, fraudsters act according to a simple scheme, and they use whatever amount they received from the victim.
For greater credibility, fraudsters may specifically work on their scam, selecting a victim in advance, studying their social circle, and choosing an image of a person they trust. Using artificial intelligence, they can create a video where a familiar person supposedly asks for a loan.
Fake Lenders
In difficult times, a person is not always able to think critically, so they can easily become a victim of fraudsters. Due to this, the scheme with fake lenders is widespread on the internet, offering the borrower to apply for a loan on favorable terms or providing a promo code that allows a discount. Fraudsters aim to collect personal data.
When applying for a fake loan, the victim needs to enter on the site:
- passport data;
- identification code;
- mobile phone number;
- card number to which the funds are credited;
- a secret code may be requested, supposedly for verification and identity confirmation.
Having received such information, a fraudster can dispose of it at their discretion. Mainly, these are fraudulent actions involving the theft of money from the victim's accounts, using personal information, and for applying for loans in microfinance organizations by impersonating someone else to gain trust.
Borrower Protection
To truly take out a loan and not become a victim of fraudulent actions, it is necessary to:
- be attentive when applying;
- do not click on suspicious links, it is better to use verified ones on official websites;
- carefully enter your data;
- do not provide banking data about card codes and passwords;
- study the received agreements and interest rates.
It should be remembered that almost all information entered on internet resources is saved there for a long time, so it is necessary to weigh all the processes and decide whether you really want to leave them there when applying for a loan.