Fraudsters and scammers love to use legit finance companies to extort money from unsuspecting victims. We’ve set up this Fraud Prevention Centre to make you aware of possible threats to your safety when applying for loans. If you have information about an active loan scam that you think people should know about, please let us know so we can check it out and help publicise it.
Be alert! Be aware!
Stay updated with the latest loan fraud and scams here with Cashfloat.
A group of criminals have cloned the website of a reputable online brokerage firm called Personal Loans Now.
Real Company Name: Personal Loans Now, a trading name of Rigstone Capital UG
Clone Company Name: Personal Loan Now
Personal Loans Now, a trading name of Rigstone Capital UG, works with Quint Group Limited to offer brokerage services. UK citizens can apply via the online website for a loan of £500 up to £25,000, with various options such as applying with bad credit or using a guarantor. Their website is personalloansnow.co.uk – note the ‘s’ in ‘loans’.
There is another website, almost identical to this one, called personalloannow.co.uk. This one is a scam! The people behind it have already successfully extorted thousands of pounds out of unsuspecting consumers!
They have been known to be using this telephone number: 03302200132.
The bank details they are asking people to deposit money into is as follows:
Bank: Santander
Sort Code: 09-01-28
Account: 00549982
They claim they are FCA registered with the FCA authorisation number: z1498441. We checked for this number on the FCA register and it was not found - clearly confirming that it is all a scam.
Look at the images below. Can you spot the difference between the real website and the clone? (Click the image to enlarge).
A member on our team has spoken to the scammers, posing as an interested customer. The first time, they impersonated Credit Extra Cash and the second time, they impersonated Bad Credit Site. Listen to these call recordings to see what happened!
Scammer ask for 190 pounds for "insurance"
Talking to the 'Tony Berga' the "supervisor"
As you can hear, the correspondent becomes quite aggressive when there is a suggestion of a delayed payment.
This case was successfully reported to the FCA, GoDaddy and Google by Cashfloat.co.uk.
It is thought that a criminals operate www.neofinance.loan. They have specifically chosen a domain that is very similar to a legitimate company called Neo Finance Limited to trick borrowers into trusting them.
The website is clearly not authorised by the FCA as there is no FCA authorisation number showing anywhere on the website. Another telltale sign is that there is no address or telephone number. The website asks customers to hand over their bank details and debit card details, including security code, to apply.
The FCA have a released a statement confirming:
“This firm is not authorised by us and is targeting people in the UK.”
If you’ve been contacted by a lender called Get Your Loans, stay away! It’s a scam!
Real Company Name: Nouveau Finance Limited, trading as Bizzy Loans, TermLoanz and LendersCombined
Fake Company Name: Get Your Loans, a trading name of Nouveau Finance Limited
Nouveau Finance Limited is a lead generation company that aims to collect applications for short term loans and pass them on to direct lenders. Additionally, they help other brands set up shop as a credit broker, offering design and marketing help as well as providing the infrastructure to get the company going. They are authorised and regulated by the FCA.
Some scammers have set up their own company, Get Your Loans, and claim to be a child company of Nouveau Finance Limited. Their website, getyourloans.co.uk, looks genuine at first glance.
Reading through the text will reveal some obvious errors, a clear warning signal, Furthermore, although they proclaim “We're a free licensed credit broker, not a lender.”, there is no reference to an FCA authorisation number anywhere on the site. Although this scam is already listed on the FCA’s website, their site is live at time of writing and the scam is still active.
The scammers have used the email address getyourloans.info@gmail.com as well as the following telephone numbers:
This case has been successfully reported to the FCA.
On their website, Soft Loans claim to be an FCA authorised credit broker – but they’re not.
Real Company Name: FIDELITY WORKS LTD
Clone Company Name: Soft Loans, claiming to be a trade name of Fidelity Works Ltd
Fidelity Works Ltd describe themselves as an affiliate ‘bargain superstore’, acting as a go between for affiliate marketers and lenders of payday loans, instalment loans and car finance. They are fully registered by the FCA and are a well-known and established company.
Soft Loans looks like a decent credit broker where you can apply for a loan of £500 to £20,000. They claim to be a trading name of Fidelity Works Ltd, acting under their license – but they’re not. This is what their home page looks like:
As you can see, it looks like a normal credit broker’s website. There is nothing to suggest that it is actually a scam. If you want to be sure that they are authentic, you are likely to scroll down to the bottom of the page where you will see this:
It looks like this company is registered with the FCA, and you may even have heard of Fidelity Works. All this makes users more likely to continue with their application. However, Soft Loans is not a trading name of Fidelity Works, and it is not authorised in any way. It is a scam! This is reported on the FCA’s website, but at time of writing the Soft Loans website (softloan.online) is still live, meaning that they can continue stealing money from unsuspecting victims.
They are also known to be using the email address info@softloan.online, as well as these telephone numbers:
We at Cashfloat hope that by reporting this, we are saving potential victims from losing their hard-earned cash to these scammers.
Fraudsters are claiming to be from FCA authorised firm GB Loan, in an attempt to earn money from unsuspecting individuals.
Real Company Name: GB Loan, trading name of Pervasive Web Solutions.
Clone Company Name: Great Britain loans PVT loan Limited
GB Loan is a trading name of FCA authorised firm Pervasive Web Solutions. They are a payday loan broker based in Uxbridge, Middlesex, and their website is www.gbloan.co.uk. The scam claims to be calling from Great Britain Loans, giving out real details such as the same website and an almost identical address. However, the contact details are different.
If you were called from or told to call one of the following numbers, it is a scam!
They are also using the following email address: loanapprovalcustomerhelpline@gmail.com. As a rule, always be suspicious when you see a business using Gmail or other free email accounts.
The scammers are hoping you will pay the application fees, origination fees, transfer fees and anything else they can think of in order to receive your loan. However, they have no intention of giving you any money whatsoever.
This case has been successfully reported to the FCA.
Funding Circle Loans is a clone company of FCA authorised Funding Circle Ltd, set up by criminals as a way of obtaining money.
Real Company Name: Funding Circle Ltd
Clone Company Name: Funding Circle Loans
Although Funding Circle Loans may sound very similar to Funding Circle Ltd, they are two very different companies. Funding Circle Ltd is the one of the largest peer-to-peer companies in the UK. They offer businesses unsecured loans of up to £1 million, using money from people who choose to invest their money into this platform. For a deeper understanding of how this works, read our peer to peer guide.
Funding Circle Loans, on the other hand, is a fake company owned by criminals. They are giving out the email addresses fundingloanplc@yahoo.com and fundingcircleplc@gmail.com and may be using other false details too. They’ve even set up a false website, http://fundingcircle.bravesites.com/, which appears very similar to the real one but with some fundamental changes. For example, say you want to invest in the company. You transfer a large sum of money, hoping for some decent returns, but the money ends up landing in their bank account, never to be seen again.
Fraudsters are contacting people claiming to be from FCA authorised broker Lily Loans in an attempt to make money off them.
Real Company Name: Lily Loans, a trading name of Season Marketing Limited
Clone Company Name: Lily Loans
Lily Loans is the trading name of Season Marketing Limited, a company who have been authorised to offer brokerage services in the UK. UK citizens can apply for short term loans of up to £2,000, with repayment terms of 1-6 months. However, scammers have been cold-calling people claiming to be from Lily Loans. The scammer informs the victim that they have been approved for a loan and only need to send a small fee in order to receive the money.
They are known to have been using the email address lilyloans.info@gmail.com as well as the following phone numbers:
Remember, always be suspicious if a company is using a Gmail or other free email account, and FCA authorised companies will never require you to pay a fee in order to receive your loan.
This case has been successfully reported to the FCA.
Scammers are posing as authorised credit broker Bee Loans to try and cheat victims out of their money.
Real Company Name: Bee Loans, a trading name of Munee Hut LLP
Clone Company Name: Bee Loans
Munee Hut LLP are an FCA authorised credit broker operating with the trading names of Moolr and Bee Loans. Citizens of the UK can apply via either website for loans of up to £5,000 with repayment terms of up to 5 years, and as a broker, Munee Hut LLP will try to get their application approved by a direct lender.
However, many people have been contacted by criminals pretending to be employees of Bee Loans, offering them a loan if they pay a fee. These criminals are hoping that enough victims will fall for the scam and pay the fee for them to make a tidy profit. Remember that no FCA authorised lender or broker should be asking for a fee in order for you to receive a loan.
They have been known to use this phone number:
This case has been successfully reported to the FCA.
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Loan scammers may cold-call you or may send you unsolicited emails. In most instances, they will impersonate a legitimate company in order for the scam to seem more realistic.
Warning signs of loan scams on the phone:
If you are suspicious, do not go ahead with the call! Say you will call back, and look up the real number for that lender online. If you have caller ID, enter the number they called you from on this phone number checker to see if anyone has reported it as a scam.
When you go onto a lender's website, how can you know if it is a scam?
Warning signs of loan scams online:
However, sometimes a website will look the same as a real one. Scammers sometimes set up clone websites that are an exact copy of an actual lender's site, often with only minute differences in the URL and contact details. It can be nearly impossible to discover that it's a fake.
That's why we recommend checking this fraud centre every time you want to take out a loan, as we will list every case of a cloned loan company that we hear of. You can also sign up to receive email alerts about every new loan scam we hear about. Bookmark this page now for easy reference and empower yourself to avoid becoming a victim of these cloning scams.
Our experts are happy to look into the matter for you to prevent you from becoming another victim of loan fraud. We aim to help everyone in the UK, which is why we are offering this service for free to everyone who needs it, not just our customers. Call us free on 0800-470-1076 or fill out the form below and we’ll get back to you right away.
If you have identified a loan scam, don’t just leave it and move on. Spread the word! Just fill out the form below and leave the rest to us. We’ll publicise it and tell as many people as possible. Let’s put those scammers out of business!
