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A payday loan covers expenses until payday.
Payday Loan Scams
01/14/2011Ms. Halpern: You’re listening to “FBI, This Week.” Payday loan scams—crime reported in high numbers to the Bureau’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. A payday loan covers expenses until payday. Those in need of fast cash [typing sounds] can search the Internet for a company that offers the loans, but as Supervisory Special Agent Charles Pavelites explains…
Mr. Pavelites: “There are a lot of fake websites out there picking up your information.”
Ms. Halpern: The scammers collect all they need to make it appear you got a loan—even if you did not. Then, their harassment begins.
Mr. Pavelites: “They’re now calling you up and they say, ‘You took a payday loan out with us, you’re behind paying us.’ And these fraudsters keep the pressure up: [phone rings] they will call your home, they will call your cell phone, they will call your place of employment.”
Ms. Halpern: Victims have recourse.
Mr. Pavelites: “Contact your banking institution, contact your credit agency, the credit bureaus.”
Ms. Halpern: I’m Mollie Halpern of the FBI, and that’s what’s happening at the “FBI, This Week.”
