MCO Capital loan

cornwall84london

That's funny I posted here earlier but it hasnt shown up.
I got a reply to my e mail from mco today, they advised me to get in touch with a company called cifas, does anyone know of them.

Slip_de_Garcon

Yep, I got a letter today from MCO saying more or less the same as before but mentioning joining cifas.

Can't link to it but google cifas, you'll see what's involved.

CHR15

cornwall84london wrote: »

That's funny I posted here earlier but it hasnt shown up.
I got a reply to my e mail from mco today, they advised me to get in touch with a company called cifas, does anyone know of them.

http://www.cifas.org.uk/

cornwall84london

Looks like I have to fork out another £15.00.

johnnyno5

I've spent some time talking to the Office of Fair Trading and my local police about this and I've come to the conclusion that rather than being the 'victims' of this fraud, that MCO Capital are in fact the one's who should be investigated. I believe that this is one big extortion racket that's been dressed up to make it look respectable.

Where is the proof that there were ever any loans in the first place and even if there were, why are MCO Capital being allowed to hound innocent members of the public without a shred of evidence against them?

Why don't MCO Capital just find out who owns the bank acounts they allegedly paid the loans into instead of chasing us?

The information that MCO Capital have which has linked me to this so called fraud is tenuous to say the least.

Let's look at this in depth for a moment...

When they offered loans, MCO Capital, under the name Help Loans, only required five pieces of information before handing out the cash, as follows...

* A name

* An address

* An email address

* A mobile phone number

* A bank account number to pay the loan into

I believe that the way it worked was that help loan would send the customer a text message and that the customer would then have to reply to the message to prove they were in possession of the phone. The text messages also cost £3 each. That check did not prove identity because anyone can buy a pay as you go mobile in the local supermarket.

In my case, I discovered that MCO Capital did not have my mobile phone number at all because that was the first question I was asked when I initially called the debt collectors, so they could find me on their computer, and they didn't have it.

Secondly, MCO Capital may have required customers to click a link in an email sent to the address the customer provided. Again, that does not prove identity as anyone can start a Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail account in seconds, using a false name.

In any case, I'm fairly sure that my correct email address was not used by the alleged fraudster because that check could never have been carried out on my account as it's super secure (I run a web hosting company) and also because MCO Capital had supposedly tried to contact me via email but I have never received a thing from them by email. So, in all likelihood, a free, Hotmail type of address was probably used.

The postal address the alleged fraudster supplied in my case was wrong... simply wrong! It was an address I had lived at but had moved away from almost a full year before the date the alleged loan was taken out. The reason I received the letter from the debt collectors at all was because the new occupiers actually brought it round to my new address.

I would guess therefore, that the address was gleaned from an old electoral register or from an out of date phone book.

Once again, no proper checks were carried out or MCO Capital would have known there and then that they were being taken for a ride.

Then there's my name. The letter I received from the debt collectors shows a small but important error in my name. It makes it look like the first letter of my surname is actually a middle initial and that changes my surname completely. If you saw it and you knew me already, you'd put two and two together and realise that the letter is for me. However, if you are a credit reference agency like Experian and you are asked to do a check on the name which is spelt wrong, that would tell you immediately that there’s is a problem.

However, I already know that MCO Capital did not check with Experian or Equifax or Call Credit, the main three credit reference agencies, because I have joined all three and discovered that no credit checks have been made on me in the last year.

Therefore, having supposedly handed over the cash on the strength of this completely wrong information, MCO Capital are surely guilty of "Irresponsible Lending"...aren't they?

Well apparently not. In the course of my lengthy call with the Office Of Fair Trading, I discovered that if one little person complains about something like this, then there's exactly no hope at all of anyone taking a blind bit of notice. Seems like A LOT of people have to complain about the same scam before they’ll lift a finger. When they do, the worst that could happen is that the bad, irresponsible company’s licence may be revoked, preventing them from lending again legally.

I asked the woman at the OFT if I could legally send out nearly twenty thousand letters demanding repayment of loans which may or may not be genuine to people whose names and addresses I’d got from the phone book. Surely that would be illegal, wouldn’t it? Surely I’d get arrested and banged up in jail with all the other scroats, wouldn’t I? Well, apparently not. Once again, she reiterated that if I did do something as heinous as that, I would be in danger of losing my OFT licence. If it was found that I did not have a license, that would be an offence and I’d be in trouble but hounding people for money as MCO Capital have done, is not a problem as far as the OFT is concerned.

I put it to you then, that there were no loans in the first place and that this is not about fraud. I believe that this is extortion, plain and simple, which has been dressed up to make it look like MCO Capital are the poor victims. I called my local police and asked if they would start an investigation into MCO Capital. There are so many unanswered questions here and so many points which point towards this being a protection racket rather than fraud.

Perhaps MCO Capital hope that if they send out 20,000 threatening letters, that a percentage of recipients will pay up, even though they’re innocent, just to get the debt collectors off their backs. Elderly and vulnerable people might pay up to avoid the stress involved in fighting their corner.

Reading though this huge thread, I see that many posters were under the impression that the Office Of Fair Trading were already looking into MCO Capital last year. Well you may be angry to hear all these months later that according to the woman I spoke to, no such investigation has ever taken place and in fact, the OFT has never looked at MCO Capital’s behaviour.

This is a national scandal and what makes it worse is that the police and the OFT, who I always believed were supposed to be there to protect the public from sharp practice and even full on, out and proud extortion like this, do not seem to be interested in helping at all. Who on earth is protecting this company and allowing them to hurt nearly 20,000 innocent members of the public. Why have they not been shut down and why are they still being allowed to send out nasty letters and even follow them up with phone threats?

I propose that anyone who has had a similar problem should lodge an official complaint with the OFT on this number - 0845 722 4499. Don’t bother calling their advice line. They’re very nice but of little help. However, if enough victims of this racket complain then maybe the OFT will do something about it.

The same goes for the police I fear. They’ll do nothing unless A LOT of people complain. Maybe contact your local police and ask them to start an enquiry into MCO Capital. Certainly, “Operation Galloway”, the City of London Police team investigating this issue, appear to be doing so only from the point of view that MCO Capital are the victims of a huge fraud. They don’t appear to have even thought for a second that MCO Capital themselves may be the bad guys. “Operation Galloway” also appears understaffed and overwhelmed. You can’t speak to them directly and their phone number will only give you a voicemail message. Even emails I’ve sent them were replied to with canned responses.

Please let us all know how you do and maybe we can make some headway. If not, then perhaps in 2011 Britain, demanding money in this way is now a legitimate career choice?

John

geomacl

This nonsense is still going on :mad: - see the Action fraud reference to Experian report (posted 13 April 2011)
http://www.actionfraud.org.uk/fraud-rates-up-10%25-april11
Here's a quote from the web page
"Key findings from the Experian report include:Fraud rates up 11%

• A 25% increase in fraudulent current account applications – half of these down to identity fraudsters
• 7 in every 10,000 loan applications were found to be fraudulent, with identity fraudsters responsible for 60% of these cases
• Young single people living in shared and rented accommodation from all sections of society are amongst those most targeted."

Good advert for Experian which now touts for insurance, mortgages etc business!!!
One big happy family - and meanwhile we're all fuming at the lack of action on improving regulation of the likes of MCO Capital.
Beggars belief!!

Also noted an 11 April 2011 update on Action Fraud web site:
http://www.actionfraud.org.uk/mco-capital-limited-april11
Here's part of the update (my highlights)
"City of London Police detectives investigating the MCO Capital loans repayment fraud have travelled to Finland to meet with company directors and receive key evidence.
MCO Capital LimitedWhile in Helsinki, officers expressed their concerns at reports of people still being sent demand letters from debt agencies for loans they never took out.

City of London Police’s Det Insp Perry Stokes said: “It is unacceptable that innocent people continue to be contacted by various credit collection companies asking them to pay back money they never borrowed.
“Company officials have assured us there will be no further recovery action unless there is clear supporting evidence to indicate that a legitimate loan has been taken out.”

Personal details used fraudulently

MCO Capital has fallen victim to an organised loan fraud that used individual’s personal details to make thousands of false loan applications.

Since launching its investigation before Christmas, detectives have arrested five suspects and written to more than 7,000 people whose personal details were compromised by the fraudsters."


Whoop de doo!! At last a visit by the polis to Finland - just took 6 months or so - I would have thought that they'd be crawling all over MCO's Finnish office - and still MCO are apparently the innocent party?????:eek::eek:
I tend to agree with johnnyno5 above - the recent statements on the AF web site would support John in that little progress is being made and MCO still being held as an innocent party!!!!!

Slip_de_Garcon

Interestingly, my letter to Northern Debt Recovery - which I'd sent recorded delivery - was returned to me yesterday by Royal Mail, as no one at their supposed postal address was available to sign for it on all the occasions RM had tried to deliver it.

Funny that...

catherine12345_2

Hi guys. I was one of the first wave of victims of this scam and still come on here occasionally just to see what is going on. Back in August 2010 when I received my first letter demanding money, I was advised by Action Fraud to consider a CIFAS registration. It seemed like a good idea back then when I was stressed and it still does now. I shall definitely renew it when my first year is up.....I felt so vulnerable and unsafe at first so I consider it a small price to pay for feeling a lot safer in the long term. Plus, I felt that if my personal details were in the hands of fraudsters once, they may still be out there.

Good luck to you all.

Catherine

alan_se

After a very quiet period I thought I'd check back here just to make sure nothing was happening and ... I really can't believe this is still going on. I've not had a repeat ... yet.

As us oldies have said many times in this forum, MCO are not the innocent parties here and they are probably p''ing their Finnish/Latvian pants laughing at our official quaint attempts to get to the bottom of this scam.

As regards CIFAS, I'd like to re-iterate (see previous posts somewhere) that I had their protective registration in place when I got my letters last year - it made no difference as MCO are not CIFAS members, so the protective registration is simply not relevant to them. CIFAS registration thus only works with legitimate, CIFAS-member organisations, who will presumably behave themselves anyway. Still it's probably worth the 15 quid (I kept mine going just in case).

I'm not sure I've got the stamina if this kicks off again. Alan

Eaglemar

This scam still going on but under a different guise?! I only checked back today out of interest and to find threads on the Playstation Network!
As one of the originals from last year I guess I am lucky in that so far I have had no further issues since contacting MCO and the authorities. But judging from these latest posts it seems I will still have to be vigilent. Damn scammers!