MCO Capital loan

alan_se

Robie_Nudd wrote: »

Alan, I assure you it was that simple. I am aware of the timeframe that the fraudsters operated in which I can't disclose. MCO offered an unsecured loan (maximum of £300) at an exhorbitant interest rate. The hit they took on amounts of £300 was massive. The firm has come in for immense criticism on here when essentially they have been naive and had a hole in their business model. Whilst the fraud has caused a huge upsurge of anger, angst and hostility on the part of the righteous, they will have in the end, lost nothing. MCO have taken the hit and trying to get rid of them will not solve the problems outlined in my opening post. There are plenty of other companies that deal in "pay-day" loans. The persons that received dozens of these loans through accounts are the bad guys here.

Can I briefly deal with a further point; the money was transferred from MCO via credit transfer into the suspect accts where the sort code and account number were given on the application. This is standard practice in all credit transfers; the name on the bank account is not normally known to the sender of any monies.

Hi Robie Nudd,

I can accept how a pitifully inept business model would allow a loan fraud to take place in this way, it's the apparent naivety I find difficult to believe. These days most ordinary people are at least aware of the threat of identity fraud. But if you have the wherewithall to set up a company, establish a reasonably sophisticated website, get a credit licence, open a business bank account and a membership account with Experian how come you didn't realise that some bright spark is going to work your system so easily and take your money? And then do it again, and again, and again for months ...

You're right though, at the end of the day anyone affected by this hasn't lost anything - financially that is. What we have all lost though is a significant amount of time being forced to deal with a situation caused entirely by the actions of others. Seriously, maybe we should invoice and/or sue MCO for the time and costs involved in phoning and writing to them, Gothia, Intrum Justitia, Action Fraud, the NFIB, Consumer Direct etc etc? On top of that add correspondence with Experian and now Equifax and CallCredit (triggered by the Experian contact). It's taken hours. You might say that's being unfair to MCO, but in my opinion, for whatever reason, they are the root cause of all of this.

It is also very stressful - this particular fraud has carried with it a clear threat of debt collection activities. I know the advice is 'don't worry, you haven't actually borrowed the money so they can't do anything' but as far as I'm concerned I've had letters from professional debt collectors who have on record only my name and address set against a rocketing debt. I can't sit back and do nothing about that, however much I'd like to. Fortunately I can handle this, but there will be a lot of people out there who can't and this whole sorry business is especially unfair on them.

By the way, how/where are you getting your inside info from ?

Alan

piglets3_2

Just an update in case any one was wondering. I contacted police - re IJ telling me the bank account was in my name & feel ok about it now. Did I read some where that MCO have paid dozens of these loans? I thought it was 1000's. Perhaps some merry men may know otherwise.

grahamqat

Hi Alan, your post echoes my feelings precisely. Whilst we shouldn't discourage Robie or anyone else from trying to shed light on this scam from a different direction, we should also be aware that perhaps MCO is much cleverer than anyone thinks. Not only have they made a lot of money from all this but they've managed to convince everyone (including Robie) that they're innocent victims who have made a loss. Problem is we dont know, there may be just one person: Tuomo Kari Kustaa Mäki who knows the truth. It would be useful if you could answer Alan's question Robie; you may also want to consider whether you have just been fed misinformation.

Whilst we can speculate on all of this, one indesputable fact for sure is that MCO triggered all this and without them it would not have happened. They have arguably created ID fraudsters from peole who may not have done it had it not been so easy. For these reasons it is vital they have their Consumer Credit Licence cancelled along with all other companies operating on the same lines. As the OFT have rules of competence which clearly such companies have violated. OFT will not be doing their job properly until these CCL's are gone. Letter to the HO later today - will use your good pro-forma Macs.

piglets3_2

Hi, Did anyone else just listen to Money Matters Radio 4 at 12.00 noon. If you've missed it you can listen to it online I believe.

Prudence2_2

piglets3 wrote: »

Hi, Did anyone else just listen to Money Matters Radio 4 at 12.00 noon. If you've missed it you can listen to it online I believe.

Hi piglets, yes I heard it and I would urge anyone who didn't to listen to it on iPlayer because there was good news in that IJ will definitely not be sending out any more letters. An IJ spokesman said they are going to 'review their relationship' with MCO. Hopefully that means they won't have anything to do with MCO, or any other company like them, ever again. Anyone who gets further letters from IJ is urged to contact MoneyBox.

There was also a spokesman on from Helploan saying 'we are the victims here'. What he did not say was that they had wilfully and negligently ignored mismatches in credit reference search data in their mad scramble to give out loans in the hope of recouping massive amounts of interest. Apparently Helploan is in trouble with the OFT - not for their abominably lax business practices, but for advertising an incorrect APR on their website.

Prudence2_2

Here is the letter I e-mailed to the Home Office today (sorry it's rather long!). If you feel the same way, please feel free to edit it and use it yourself.

Prudence

---

Dear Sir or Madam

At the end of September I received a letter from a company called Helploan requesting re-payment of a short-term 'payday' loan which I had not applied for. (I have never, and would never, take out a loan of this kind). I phoned the number on the letter and I reached a debt collection agency called Intrum Justitia. I explained that I had not applied for the loan and the advisor blocked the account. She also told me that Helploan was the trading name of Mobile Credit Online Capital Ltd (MCO Capital). I understand that the parent company is based in Finland and that they have only been trading in the UK for a few months.

I phoned Action Fraud to report the incident. The Action Fraud advisor told me that they had been inundated with similar calls. Apparently criminals have used the personal details of many thousands of UK citizens to apply for loans, systematically defrauding MCO Capital of millions of pounds. The scam has affected so many people that it was featured on Radio 4's MoneyBox programme on 23rd and 30th October. Action Fraud gave me a Crime Reference Number and they told me that the incident was being investigated by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau. They said that I should check my Experian credit report as this was the credit reference agency that MCO Capital used. Since my personal details are clearly in the hands of criminals, I also decided to pay for CIFAS Protective Registration to try and prevent this type of thing happening to me again.

I got a copy of my credit report from Experian and it showed that MCO Capital made two searches in early September using the information supplied by the fraudsters, one a generic check and one a personal loan check. MCO Capital had given my correct name, address and date of birth but the 'time at current address' was given as 3 months when in reality it is several years. Despite this clear error in my personal details, Experian permitted the searches to go ahead, and MCO Capital then made a loan to the fraudsters.

I can only assume that MCO Capital’s actions were motivated by the thought of recouping the astronomical amount of interest on the loan. Whatever the reason, MCO Capital’s reckless and negligent behaviour has caused a huge amount of inconvenience, misery and fear to me and thousands of other people who have received letters from debt collectors about loans they have not applied for.

To my very great surprise, I learned in the last few days that CIFAS Protective Registration only applies to companies who are voluntary members of CIFAS. MCO Capital is not a member of CIFAS and therefore CIFAS registration would have been completely useless in preventing this crime. My CIFAS registration will not protect me if fraudsters decide to use my details to rip off another non-CIFAS member company in the future.

I would like answers to the following questions:

(1) Why is it acceptable for MCO Capital to provide a loan in my name when the information used to apply for that loan does not match the data held by the credit reference agencies?

(2) Why is it acceptable for the credit reference agencies to sell my credit information to loan companies for financial gain, but not to have any responsibility in blocking or querying the search when the search information clearly does not match the data in their own records?

(3) Why is CIFAS registration optional? This is advertised widely (including on the Action Fraud web site) to victims of ID fraud as a major form of protection and yet it only applies to companies who choose to become CIFAS members. The reality is that individuals who had paid good money for CIFAS Protective Registration would have had no protection whatsoever from this fraud, and will have no protection in the future from a similar crime.

In short, it appears that there is nothing to stop this kind of large-scale fraud happening again. As a victim of ID fraud I feel helpless and extremely vulnerable. How does the current law protect me?

I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

fermi

piglets3 wrote: »

Hi, Did anyone else just listen to Money Matters Radio 4 at 12.00 noon. If you've missed it you can listen to it online I believe.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00vklh3/Money_Box_30_10_2010/

alan_se

Just spotted this update on the Action Fraud website :-

Latest on MCO Capital - 28 October 2010
The City of London Police is continuing its investigation into a suspected loan fraud, following a complaint from MCO Capital Ltd relating to over 9,000 alleged fraudulent loan applications.

Fraudsters are suspected of using people’s personal details to obtain fraudulent loans. The police investigation concerns both the loss incurred to MCO Capital as well as taking action to reassure members of the public whose details have been used.

Detectives from City of London Police, which is the National Lead Force for fraud, are working closely with MCO Capital, which also trades under the names Help Loans and Balance Loans.

Det Insp Perry Stokes, of City of London Police, said: “We are progressing with our investigation. I know it will have been a very worrying time for anyone receiving a letter asking them to repay a loan they didn’t take out, and we’re committed to identifying those behind this alleged fraud.

“In the coming days I will be writing to everyone who has reported their concerns, to reassure them that we are aware of the case, and to update them on our investigation.”

I hope the "following a complaint from MCO Capital Ltd " in the first sentence is just a typo ... but maybe not. Looks like they are going to get support from the authorities (after all they have been defrauded big time) and we are going to get .... what ?

Alan

Prudence2_2

alan_se wrote: »

Looks like they are going to get support from the authorities (after all they have been defrauded big time) and we are going to get .... what ?[/COLOR]

Alan

My feeling exactly - that's why we need as many of us as possible to write to the Home Office and put forward the case of the individual. Our personal details are in the hands of criminals and there is NOTHING in place to stop this happening again. The laws concerning provision of credit need to be changed.t protect victims of ID fraud.

grahamqat

Hi alan just checked the AF site and maybe it's not a typo. Also Pru, what you say about the law is right although MCO have been breaking OFT law since they started this scam. Their licence is for:

"Nature of Business:

Cheque Cashing Services"


I think the problem is less about law and more about the motivation and ability to apply and police it. As MCO has been trading well outside the scope of their licence, the OFT has acted illegally in allowing this to take place. As each day passes the OFT position is becoming more undefendable and I will be asking the Home Office why they are not doing their job or to add them to the list of Qangos being wound up.

Nice letter by the way Pru, covers some good points, but I'll maybe make mine a little shorter. I'm not sure how many people the HO has got to read potentially 10,000 letters; I rather suspect we'll get a generic rather than individual reply.