MCO Capital loan

GomerPyle

From the terms and conditions on the 'balanceloan' website of MCO Capital

For example, if your phone records show a different address than you provide us with, will your application be declined.

Do the maths - the cost and effort invoved in opening 9.000 fraudulent bank accounts (even if possible) and arranging 9.000 verifiable fake phone ID's just isn't worth it at a return of £300 less £6 for each transaction. If you could do that so easily you'd do something much more lucrative for that amount of effort.

If they are claiming to have been outwitted by a criminal mastermind they would have been able to do the maths too.

LoopyJuice

I'd agree GomerPyle...but I would put money on it that MCO are not the only company that have been scammed using these details. I would think that the ID thieves want to maximise the return they get for each ID so use the details and bank accounts set up many times (probably to claim benefits as well!) Also, who is to say the fraudsters are UK based? A few hundred or few thousand quid goes quite a long way in third world countries and can be transferred out of the country using your internet banking! I read somewhere (may have been on here) that someone had their card cloned and it was used in Malasia I think as well as America in the next day. I would think that once they have your details they hammer it until they can't get any more then move on to the next identity they nicked.

Prudence2_2

LoopyJuice wrote: »

About the source of the data. Perhaps the "Government loses personal data on 25m UK citizens" reports in 2007 have something to do with this and the massive increase in identity theft since then...just a thought.

Good point LJ. I was on the child benefit register that was lost, and at one stage HMRC sent letters about my tax return to an incorrect address for several months (I had to call them about this dozens of times - believe it or not, they had entered my address incorrectly into their computer system, and then were completely unable to change it). So my involvement with Government agencies has been a security disaster.

Chris55_2

GomerPyle wrote: »

From the terms and conditions on the 'balanceloan' website of MCO Capital



Do the maths - the cost and effort invoved in opening 9.000 fraudulent bank accounts (even if possible) and arranging 9.000 verifiable fake phone ID's just isn't worth it at a return of £300 less £6 for each transaction. If you could do that so easily you'd do something much more lucrative for that amount of effort.

If they are claiming to have been outwitted by a criminal mastermind they would have been able to do the maths too.

This is the same conclusion I came to. Since the MCO system would need to cross-check the entered information (phone number plus bank account) against existing loans to prevent individuals getting more than one concurrent loan these must have been individual. Normally the problem in on-line fraud is getting the actual money (or "cashing-out" as it's known). They would normally move payments from multiple compromised accounts into a single account of either a confederate or "money-mule" - but in this case there is only one amount per account, and that's only £300.
What would be interesting would be for the police to obtain the list of telephone numbers and bank-accounts then these could be investigated (e.g. when opened, what other transactions have been made, what other numbers have been called etc). However I'll bet that information has never been held in the UK, nor will be provided by MCO.

GomerPyle

Interesting thoughts Chris55 but MCO Capital can't claim that a crime has been committed and then refuse the police access to their records, wherever they are held. That would merely excuse the police from invrstigating their loss, and leave MCO Capital unable to prove that they are victims.

If they had any idea, however implausible, that they could recover the money under some form of credit insurance they would have to co-operate with the police, and organisations are always keen to establish blame. Losses of that magnitude require explanations to those whose pockets have been emptied.

Being unco-operative means them swallowing their loss and still leave the fact that they had initiated debt recovery proceedings against uninvolved and innocent victims without any proof that they had been duped into doing it.

They're between a rock and a hard place.

I imagine that matching the website data file, SMS records and loan payments would be fascinating.

grahamqat

There was and still is no evidence that MCO ever paid a single loan. They probably took the £60K SMS revenue, the £50K 1% loan mis-repayment and £0.5M debt recovery from IJ and bu**ered off somewhere warm. They are 2 clever people who have left a trail of confusion and speculation behind them while they enjoy the spoils.

GomerPyle

Possibly more likely grahamqat is that they employed someone a little bit smarter than themselves, which wouldn't have been difficult.

grahamqat

I know you think this is just incompetence driven Gomer, but I'm really not so sure. Laws and the Fin are still at large. There's a lot of money not accounted for, and all the European web-sites are still up-and-running grabbing revenue. You did the maths, ID fraudsters setting up 10K bank accounts never happened, so there has to be another explanation.

GomerPyle

I can't say that your conclusions are wrong grahamqat, but I'm being cautious and making comments on things that I feel I can be fairly confident about.

Personally I want to avoid being 'slam dunked' by a company telling me to 'put up or shut up'. By avoiding specific accusations I can comment and criticise on the actions of those involved without being silenced. That way I can stay in play that much longer and contine to comment as further revelations are made.

It's a tactic, nothing more.

Robie_Nudd

GomerPyle wrote: »

Interesting thoughts Chris55 but MCO Capital can't claim that a crime has been committed and then refuse the police access to their records, wherever they are held. That would merely excuse the police from invrstigating their loss, and leave MCO Capital unable to prove that they are victims.

If they had any idea, however implausible, that they could recover the money under some form of credit insurance they would have to co-operate with the police, and organisations are always keen to establish blame. Losses of that magnitude require explanations to those whose pockets have been emptied.

Being unco-operative means them swallowing their loss and still leave the fact that they had initiated debt recovery proceedings against uninvolved and innocent victims without any proof that they had been duped into doing it.

They're between a rock and a hard place.

I imagine that matching the website data file, SMS records and loan payments would be fascinating.

Yes all very fascinating. The last statement on the NFIB website is absolutely clear that 9000 bank accounts are being investigated. I know Grahamqat is still subscribing, or appears to be subscribing, to some great conspiracy theory that the money hasn't been paid out at all and some tyro in MCO has absconded with a few £000. When he says "there was and is no evidence that MCO ever paid out a single loan", that is in direct conflict to the NFIB statement above.
The website data file, SMS records and payment data are hardly going to be reproduced on here, are they? When the NFIB statement says 9000 bank accounts - take it that it does mean exactly what it says on the tin - or in this case on the website.