MCO Capital loan

grahamqat

Sorry that should have been sycophant - getting a bit late now. No real reason for the smile guy following except that everybody else is using them, and I didn't want to be left out.:rotfl:

davidbuk

grahamqat wrote: »

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!

Experian will send you a copy of your credit report for £2.00 you don't have to register for the trial period of the id protection scheme. I think you're being rather harsh about Experian. I was a victim of ID theft and had some money nicked from my current account (£350). I got my credit report for £2 from Experian and found the MCO search on there. They were nothing less than excellent and even got MCO to agree to remove the search entry and have also contacted another credit scoring agency (CallCredit) to advise them of my fraud and that has led to Callcredit contacting me and offering their services for free as well to make sure my credit rating has not been compromised.

There is a huge amount of general Bitc***ness and snidey comments on this forum about Action Fraud and Experian and others involved here. They are trying to help people sort this mess out so try and notice the good things they are doing rather than just trying to point out every little error.

grahamqat

Hi Davidbuk, thanks for input. You wont find anything negative about AF here from me. I've said once before and I'll say again they are supportive and are now heading in the right direction. They are generating CRN's for this scam (weren't doing this earlier) and this is the easiest way to get one, plus it doesn't cost anything. Experian have cost you £2 why? I dont know. Credit ratings aren't legal entities. There are many of them all different. Experian have charged you to look at information they shouldn't have in the first place. They have violated the data protection act and can do this because they are US based. If you feel comfortable about paying them, well fine - that's how they work and probably make big bucks. I'll feel happy when they have no info on me at all.

grahamqat

Just another thought, this thread hasn't got 20,000 views by being bi***y - I suspect it's because it has offered support and useful views between otherwise isolated victims of a fraud.

grahamqat

If you suspect MCO has taken money from your account please contact AF for a CRN and give them all the details. When you phone, ignore option 1 just wait for someone to pick up.

geomacl

grahamqat wrote: »

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.

I knew that guy from Rotheram as well; what a co-incidence. In the past 2 days I've had 2 callbacks from AF - it seems that they are catching up on a huge backlog. They did also say that there was a backlog in sending out written confirmation of CRN etc - I've had my verbal CRN for over a week now, including by case sensitive password. Anyway, agent promised to follow up on getting my email confirmation sent out.
Your mastery of the use of semicolons is a true marvel - must have been Eton educated??:rotfl:

geomacl

grahamqat wrote: »

Hi Davidbuk, thanks for input. You wont find anything negative about AF here from me. I've said once before and I'll say again they are supportive and are now heading in the right direction. They are generating CRN's for this scam (weren't doing this earlier) and this is the easiest way to get one, plus it doesn't cost anything. Experian have cost you £2 why? I dont know. Credit ratings aren't legal entities. There are many of them all different. Experian have charged you to look at information they shouldn't have in the first place. They have violated the data protection act and can do this because they are US based. If you feel comfortable about paying them, well fine - that's how they work and probably make big bucks. I'll feel happy when they have no info on me at all.

As a sycophant, let me add my tuppence worth;; I too believe that AF have done an excellent job for us all under the circumstances;; (don't you just love these semis?) However, I have a lingering doubt about Experian and their mode of operating; my main questions are; "What gives them the right to manage people's credit ratings?; by what authority are they allowed to collate financial data about me?; and by what authority are they enabled to provide this data to third parties? :eek:

grahamqat

Yes agreed Geomad, they seem to be self-appointed. I'm fairly sure that gathering personal information on someone, then making it available to third parties is in breach of the Data Protection Act. I dont really want a good credit rating with them or anyone-else; I dont want to be on their database at all. As their database has been horribly corrupted by all the fraudulent MCO checks and entries it may be that finance companies stop using them. Also, as more competitive credit checking agencies spring up (all with their own and probably different data) the whole industry will probably tend to burn itself out

geomacl

grahamqat wrote: »

Yes agreed Geomad, they seem to be self-appointed. I'm fairly sure that gathering personal information on someone, then making it available to third parties is in breach of the Data Protection Act. I dont really want a good credit rating with them or anyone-else; I dont want to be on their database at all. As their database has been horribly corrupted by all the fraudulent MCO checks and entries it may be that finance companies stop using them. Also, as more competitive credit checking agencies spring up (all with their own and probably different data) the whole industry will probably tend to burn itself out

How about starting a new forum to deal with credit agencies; or maybe we could morph this one into such a forum??:eek:

grahamqat

Sorry for delay in replying Geomad - but I was doing a bit of digging and head scratching over this; even did a bit of work! My first thoughts are probably to leave this thread focussed on the MCO/Helploan/Balancelone subject as no doubt lots of people involved are coming to the forum and hopefully finding support and advice.

Credit agencies though are worrying stuff. They gather financial info on people without their consent. They use an unknown methodoloy to create a credit rating. They then control the apparent credit worthiness of people with this rating. Finanlly they create a climate of fear to induce peole to pay money to access their own data. Wish I'd thought of it. If it didn't somehow have this aura of respectability, it would be called a scam.

Something else came to light which is the existance of so-called secret credit agencies. I understand one is based in Stoke-on-Trent. These operate like the others, but do not allow access of people to their own data. It seems the secret agencies are being increasingly used by financial companies to check on people. Due to the existance of these, it probably makes checking your own rating with the accessible agencies irrelevant. You will never be able to check the data held by the secret agencies and never be able to correct any mistakes.

What then is the answer to all this? Easier said than done but it is to pay off all your credit cards and mortgage and get to a situation where you wont need credit. Alternatively go working for a credit agency where you will be able to keep an eye on and adjust your rating (and any anybody else who pays you enough).