MCO Capital loan

grahamqat

Please dont patronise me Geomad!

geomacl

grahamqat wrote: »

Please dont patronise me Geomad!

Surely you can observe that I am an obseqious and patronising sycophant grahamqat?:D

grahamqat

Err yes - suppose

grahamqat

Does obseqious really not have a "U" after the q because that's quite unusual. I've only ever experienced that with Qantas and Qango - both of which are acronyms rather than words. We haven't talked about the MCO fraud for a while so I guess we're all feeling a bit more relaxed about it now - probably not a good time to mention the third letter!

geomacl

grahamqat wrote: »

Does obseqious really not have a "U" after the q because that's quite unusual. I've only ever experienced that with Qantas and Qango - both of which are acronyms rather than words. We haven't talked about the MCO fraud for a while so I guess we're all feeling a bit more relaxed about it now - probably not a good time to mention the third letter!

Well done grahamqat - you spotted my test. You forgot to mention Al Qaeda (where's the "u" gone??).
Spoke to 2 (yes TWO) AF agents today and neither was prepared (or able) to add any knowledge to our current mystery - but they were both polite and helpful. I am trying to get my CRN in writing (pdf file) as you have done.

Zinor

I am reading this forum with some interest. I have had two letters from MCO, followed the advice and emailed/written to all the addresses I could find and reported it to AF and got a CRN.

However, if MCO are the fraudster and have never actually supplied any loans to people then this raises a couple of questions.

1) If they are doing a fraud whereby they are ripping off the debt recovery agency by selling them non-existant debtors then why do Experian checks on people? It would serve no practical purpose whatsoever for a fraud like that. Whatever your credit rating, they are just using your details to create a fake debt to sell to bailiffs, if this is the fraud they are supposed to be doing.

2) Why are MCO replying to peoples emails and in some cases letters? If they have sold the debts on to Intrum Justica and such like, then why bother replying to the people you have just used as a means to an end? You already have your money from the debt agency, why not withdraw it and run?

3) Has anyone been told by an 'authority' that MCO are being treated as a suspect in a fraud against Intrum Justica?

The fact that we are being told not to contact MCO may just be because AF know that the situation is going to finish the company off anyway so they won't be replying in any case.

I feel the MCO side of things will be resolved with all the debts being cancelled.

The real questions must be asked of Experian and their ilk.

Following that I would like to know where MCO got my details from.

grahamqat

Al Qaeda is a foreign proper noun short for Alan Qaeda - the guy from Rotheram that started all that terrorist stuff - he's a mate of Bin Liner. So it doesn't count. Just joking about the third letter by the way. Right back to serious things before we completely destroy the functionality of this thread. I spoke with AF yesterday where they allocated my CRN verbally; also a password that was case sensitive and quite long. (Not sure whether the semi-colon was OK there, but I like to use them where I can; they're not used nearly enough these days). I got it in writing today (which is some kind of comfort), as a pdf file, so I'm fairly sure you'll get one tomorrow. I started out being quite sceptical about AF but having spoken with them several times, I think they are quite supportive. They cant decide their own opinion of any fraud apparently. They are there to collect information which is passed to the police. It's then up to the police to form an opinion and communicate this back to AF.

Zinor

Sorry, forgot to ask.

Anyone who has reported their problem via the AF online reporting tool, did you get an email confirmation containing the details of the report you submitted?

I have the CRN but when I log in using the password all I get is a blank report. Not sure if anything was actually sent to AF....

grahamqat

Hi Zinor, yes there are a lot of issues and also theories. For what it's worth, here's mine:

MCO set up a legit company (non-trading) or just hi-jack an existing one. As it can use trading styles (Helploan, Balanceloan etc) it doesn't make a lot of difference. Companies House and DTI Investigations are non-policing Qangos. They dont care, they are just there to collect revenue. There need be no connection between bank account names and company names - making fraud even easier. MCO create the web-sites offering the crazy loans, with a view to Identity Fraud. (Getting name, address, DOB, bank account etc). They may get a mixture of real and ID fraud applicants. The real applicants get scammed for 2 off £3 SMS messages, loss of ID (which is sold on), and an apparent real debt which can be sold on to a debt collector. The ID applicants get scammed for 2 off SMS mesages, but also may impart an ID that can be sold and a debt against that ID that can be sold on. Some phone calls are answered as they may get your telephone number too, you may be a real loan applicant in which case they are ready to take your credit card details. You would never see the loan but would get your bank account hacked. E-mails are answered to extend the illusion that MCO was a victim of ID fraud. This bought them about 3 weeks time with AF. I would now estimate about 10,000 people involved. (There have been 20,000 views of this thread). If most of these were real/ID fraud applicants that's already £60K from the SMS scam. May be £100K to £1M from ID sales plus some peolpe actually repaying the loan they didn't have, out of fear etc. This leaves a residue of false loans that can then be sold on to debt collectors. So the letters are really the fraud (which is why AF can give you the CRN) and is also why the letters contain mistakes and dont look professional. All you can do is contact AF to get your CRN. Further letters may follow, some may be from the scam some from debt collecters who have bought false debts. Just ignore them - your real ID will be reasonably safe unless you completed the web-site loan application or entered into a detailed dialogue with MCO. Take measures to secure your identity (plenty of advice on this forum), probably best not to check credit rating with Expirian. They will want your credit card number (even though it is a free service), and have been involved in customer fraud before in the US where they settled out of court. MCO probably did do some credit checks to increase saleable value of loans, and to try to filter out real applicants from ID fraud applicants. Doubt they ever paid for the searches - they would have used credit card details already stolen and would have presented as free self checks.

Not much bank roll to finance - £5000 for letters and a fiver for some school leaver to do the web-site. (Sorry forgot £15 to Companies House). Hope this answers some questions. May be wrong but AF are going with this at this time. - Good luck!

grahamqat

Just saw your second post Zinor - best to phone them, dont press 1 but wait for answer. They should get PDF file of written CRN to you within a day or two. I thought they were helpful but not to the extent I'm a cycophant (Sorry - ongoing joke)