Hoax Loan Applications Causing Misery

Spiteful targetting or random joke? No one knows for sure what inspires hoaxers to input false details online applying for loans and credit, but it only causes consumer misery.

[ClickPress, Thu Jun 14 2007] Consumers in their hundreds are being plagued every day by unwanted calls after hoaxers have input their details on fraudulent loan applications. Many report receiving six or seven calls in a morning from well-meaning companies looking to sell them cheap loans and other credit.

"We receive a good dozen hoax applications a day," says Abbi Rouse, Credit Verification Officer for allaboutloans.co.uk. "It's unfortunate for the victim because our system is set up to offer our customers a choice of quotes from our agents. So when a hoax number is input, it is sent to more than one call centre."

Whilst allaboutloans.co.uk have valid reasons for offering their customers a choice of loan quotes, the victims of fraud are being driven mad by a constantly ringing phone and there's nothing that the innocent callers can do.

"We always apologise profusely to people who we've troubled with calls, but sometimes people lose their rag," says Rouse. "One lady shouted that she was in South Africa with her mobile and that unwanted calls were costing her a fortune."

So what are the hoaxed companies and victims to do? Unfortunately there is very little that can be done on either side. As soon as a hoaxer applies for credit, the wheels are set in motion for lenders to call back. Because no applicant - genuine or hoax - is available every time an agent calls, many numbers get dropped off the list after a few failures to contact.

"This is why it's so important for our genuine customers that we have more than one agent ringing," says Rouse. "If one call centre fails to contact the client, it leaves another as a fall back. Otherwise the customer is left with the frustration of applying again. Unfortunately this system works against the poor victim of a hoax, as our South African traveller found."

Where an agent reports a failure to contact the client, Interfinancial's credit verification officer steps in to follow up the call.

"I find myself promising to 'remove hoax details from the system'," says Rouse. "But in reality, by the time I'm the one calling, it's too late. I do feel for these people who have strangers ringing offering them credit, but there will always be people - either bored pranksters or malicious time-wasters - who get a kick out of filling in someone else's details on an application form. They think they're wasting our time, but it's the victim they really upset."

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