Alerts - Advance Fee Loan Scams

Please be aware that it is illegal in both Canada and the United States to ask for money upfront for a loan. Please do not send in the requsted money as you will receive absolutely nothing in return. If you have sent in money or personal information, please read below for more information. Although these fraudulent companies are asking for upfront money for 'insurance reasons' or 'in order to get the money across the US-Canada border', it is still illegal, and you will not receive your loan. If you have sent in any money or personal information (such as your Social Security Number, Driver's Licence Number, etc.) to any advance fee loan companies, it is vital that you report it.

During the past two years the office of the Canadian Council of Better Business Bureaus in Ottawa, Canada has received between five to ten calls from victims or near victims of the Advance Fee Loan Scam each day.

In all cases, the profile is the identical except for the "name" of the company and "insurance" provider. The companies are all traced to mail box drops.

All United States consumers who contacted the CCBBB provided personal information including:

1. Social Security Numbers
2. Employee pay records complete with confidential tax status and deduction information
3. Driver's licenses complete with photos
4. Bank account numbers
5. Signatures
6. Home ownership and deed information

Advance fee loan "sharks"
An article from the New York state attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, providing some consumer tips to avoid falling victim to advance fee loan scams.
January 24, 2003

Canadian loan scam
Investigative Reporter Deborah Sherman reports that the advanced fee loan scams are being run out of Toronto, Canada. The con men target people through local newspaper advertisements. The Canadian Council of the Better Business Bureau says it's getting 150 to 200 complaints a week from U.S. citizens...
March 1, 2002

Advance fee loan scams
The Utah Division of Consumer Protection often receives complaints from individuals who have lost money, to scam artists promising a "guaranteed" loan in exchange for an up-front processing or application fee. More often than not, by the time a consumer learns they have fallen victim to a scam, their application fee is lost and gone...

Watch out for the advance fee loan danger zone
Among the abusive lending practices in telemarketing and on the Internet, the worse is the advance fee loan scam. The crooks who commit this fraud not only don't deliver what they promise, but they take the consumer's last dime...