MCO Capital loan

geomacl

davidbuk wrote: »

I don't beleive they are regulated by the FSA. But then they aren't providing any financial services just information.

People spend a lot of time on here complaing about them but you will always be advised when applying for credit that the company concerned will use a CRA to check your credit worthiness. If you don't want them to hold any info about you read the smallprint and don't apply for a mortgage etc. It's never been a secret that they are out there.

I'm not sure that I suscribe to the concept of not being able to get a loan without some third party in between providing what is private data - bring back the days when you were known to your bank manager and there was no need for any other involvement!
Surely they are covered by the Data Protection Act - which covers all databases held on computers?

Rouncy

grahamqat wrote: »

Hi Rouncy, I posted my theory in an earlier post, for what it's worth as follows:

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!

Thanks for this, Grahamqat - maybe you've hit the nail on the head ? Only time will tell.

I tried the 30-day trial with Experian & rang them on Saturday to cancel (well within the free period) - I've had an acknowledgement by email that they'll cancel the account once the free period is up-so that's one less thing to think about !

grahamqat

Cheers Rouncy - I came up with that a little while ago but nothing since has happened to change my view. AF were advising not to contact MCO from 1st October and they dont seem to have revised this view on their web-site. Only time will tell, I just hope it comes out in the open at some stage. Geomacl - think you posted same time I did. Perhaps we're being nostalgic but I'm sure there were things that worked better in years gone by.

geomacl

grahamqat wrote: »

Cheers Rouncy - I came up with that a little while ago but nothing since has happened to change my view. AF were advising not to contact MCO from 1st October and they dont seem to have revised this view on their web-site. Only time will tell, I just hope it comes out in the open at some stage. Geomacl - think you posted same time I did. Perhaps we're being nostalgic but I'm sure there were things that worked better in years gone by.

I don't think that it was "nostalgia" Grahamqat, just a better and more pragmatic era. It seems to me that the whole world of finance is becoming ever more complex - and is doing so at the behest of those in whose financial interests it is? I really don't believe that it is better or more desirable that the personal finance market is served by yet another layer of, what are essentially bureaucrats (CRAs) - they have no personal knowledge of the individual other than that provided by other anonymous and remote providers. End of rant!!

grahamqat

Hi geomacl - Agree completely. There were things we could do back then we cant do now: Travel supersonically (Concorde), put man on the moon, get decent TV (only 4 channels but quality TV), use Space Shuttle (think it's nearly flown it's last mission), buy a train ticket simply, have an alternative to the Internet (Micronet for all those who remember). The use of CRA's falls into this category. We didn't need them before, so why do we need them now? While people keep feeling the need to pay them £2 to access their own information that the CRA shouldn't have in the first place, they will be there. Easy money. It's what parasites have always fed on. Rest my case.

davidbuk

grahamqat wrote: »

From what I can remember, when you took out a mortage way back (mine was 1981) the building society checked wth your ability to pay (joint income etc) and I think, asked about other out-goings etc. This was normally conducted in a personal face-to-face interview. With credit cards (I first had one in 1971) You would get a small amount of credit which would slowly be increased as your repayment record with them remained good. These systems worked. Repossessions and debt problems were very low compared with today, and you didn't get credit crunches and the sort of scam MCO has tried to pull. I also think it was easier to get a morgage then than it is now. If you had never experienced this era it is understandable you might think the CRA's do a good job. In my opinion it was done much better before.

I completely agree that things sound like they were easier and better then but times change and you can't stop that. There's too many transactions and people for everyone to get to know their bank manager these days. I haven't a clue who mine is and have no way of phoning my local bank (Lloyds) and haven't been able to for a number of years now. But everyone is having a go at the CRAs for compiling data. There are plenty of other companies doing it as well. Tescos don't give you Clubcard points for nothing. They use the data to build up very accurate pictures of your lifestyle (how much you drink, what over the counter medicines you take etc etc) and then sell your details on to other marketing companies as well as targeting you themselves according to what your buy each week. Even your local council sells the Electoral Register on.

Just my 2 pennies while we wait for some news on MCO.

geomacl

davidbuk - your 2 pennies very welcome.
I don't believe that bank managers should be as remote as they presently are - they played the role that CRAs play today. I wonder if we are where we are because of technology - computers, internet etc. Instead of making life easier, these developments have made it far more complex.

caverncaperer

CRAs are pure and simply commercial organizations with business drivers that have nothing to do with resepcting consumer rights.

They have aggregated huge amounts of information on individuals and therefore should be able to correlate this data in order to identify simple anomalies - In the MCO scam case, most of those affected will see a credit search in their name with a totally random period of residency at the current address. This could be spotted by automation with no trouble or effort whatsoever, the search refused and the requesting organization flagged as suspect. Once a certain number of repetitions of this have been seen they could then be referred automatically to the CRA fraud department for investigation. However doing this would be in the interest of the consumer which is not the market the CRAs are interested in.

All they want it is as many searches of their data as possible and anything that gets in the way of this, e.g. fraud and illegal activity, is not their concern.

The CRAs role in consumer finance needs a major overhaul and perhaps now they no longer have a nice and cosy relationship with the FSA, we will see some action on regulating their dubious practises.

piglets3_2

Hi Guys, Thank you for your reply's to my post last week. I read this forum daily & I know things seem to have gone a bit quiet until I received a letter in the post this morning which is quite concerning. In brief I received a letter from Helploan in Sept which I have followed advice & contacted AF got CRN etc. I have not contacted any CRA because you cannot speak to them unless you are registered & I do not want to give anyone any further info on myself - Credit/debit card info etc. Today I received a letter fropm Payday UK - more professional looking letter. MEM Consumer Finance for a seperate Loan which I have not taken. Has anyone else received similar?

davidbuk

caverncaperer wrote: »

. However doing this would be in the interest of the consumer which is not the market the CRAs are interested in.

All they want it is as many searches of their data as possible and anything that gets in the way of this, e.g. fraud and illegal activity, is not their concern.

Well Experian contacted the other two CRAs and advised them of the fraud on my account and both of those agencies have now contacted me to offer my credit report for free so I can check there are no fraudulent entried on them. (Callcredit even assigned a caseworker for free). All seemed very helpful to me and I'm not registered for Experian's credit report protection.