Fraudulent website - beware!

Captain_Sensible

Apologies if this is posted in wrong area but I do not know where else to put it (can I suggest a forum dedicated to fake/fraud websites?)...
Please, under all circumstances, avoid the following loans website:
bloomingfinance co uk
...at first glance it looks like a slick website but dig deeper and you will spot a whole bunch of problems such as grammatical errors, no information at all regards the company details such as registered address or a correspondence address, the landline number shown (a Bradford telephone number) is permanently engaged, the application form appears to expect you to fill out all your financial details on an INSECURE web page... I could go on. I know, through my place of work, of one person who has fallen victim to these criminals and apparently was asked to pay 2 mths repayments "upfront" via Western Union money transfer... needless to say they did this and never received their loan. (I can confirm that the money turned up in a bank account in Mumbai...).
We NEED a government driven agency in this country that is tasked to deal with these fraudulent websites but all we have is ActionFraud.org.uk who seem only to be interested in taking reports of fraud from victims AFTER they have been defrauded and do not seem to have any powers to persue the originators of these websites. Meanwhile these websites continue to draw in victims. All we seem to have in the UK are agencies that offer a virtual hankerchief for victims to cry into after they have been exploited. This is a very sorry (and inexcusable) state of affairs in this broadband era we now live in...

ILW

It's a world wide web, no single country can control the whole world of the net. Just warn people not to be stupid. If a normal lender will not give you any money, just accept it and go without.

Captain_Sensible

ILW wrote: »

It's a world wide web, no single country can control the whole world of the net. Just warn people not to be stupid. If a normal lender will not give you any money, just accept it and go without.

...obviously I am not expecting the whole net to be "controlled". Give me some credit. I would, however, suggest that criminals representing themselves as UK.coms would be worthy of pursuing - in fact we as consumers should be expecting our government to be taking more of a proactive role than they are at present. The technology to shut down/block these websites is not that sophisticated. This attitude that people who are scammed are therefore "stupid" is appalling - you sound pretty sure of yourself and your web awareness. Fake website design is getting more and more sophisticated - I fear that within the next 5 years some of the biggest, most respected corporations will have to radically rethink they way they do business on the web as the current "security" processes are not really fit for purpose and we will run out of tools to determine whether we are viewing a genuine retailers website compared to a fake.
The other effect of this apathy towards this type of criminality is that it encourages more of the same. We are telling the world "come and rip us off and make yourselves rich"...

priorslee

Sorry, not a direct reply to the original post, but what I believe is similar problem ...

Got a phone call yesterday from what a caller claiming to be from a govt agency called the Financial Assistance Bureau. I was immediately suspicious so asked a few questions. He was probing to find out if I had any loans over £2000 and if I had he was going to offer a way of reducing the repayments to 30-40% of the o/s loan. I asked for his name and phone number - a very bogus-sounding name and a phone no. which he struggled to read off turned out to be unobtainable. Number withheld on 1471.

I did a quick search but couldn't see anywhere obvious to report this sort of scam.

Clearly some sort of scam, so if you get a similar call, my advice is hang up.

CHR15

Captain_Sensible wrote: »

The technology to shut down/block these websites is not that sophisticated.

So is the ability to create a new website, in fact, I'd suggest it was much simpler.
Spend £000's rooting them out and closing them down, an hour later the same scam springs up under a different name.
Who is going to fund this "Task Force"?

You are suggesting a complete lockdown of the Internet and introducing strict vetting procedures prior to a website going live, who is going to fund this?

If this were at all feasible, don't you think they would have done this for the Peado sites instead of using Credit Card payments to track the sicko's down?
I would be happy for some of my Tax to go toward closing them all down but it simply is not feasible.

Captain_Sensible wrote: »

The other effect of this apathy towards this type of criminality is that it encourages more of the same. We are telling the world "come and rip us off and make yourselves rich"...

Apathy is the correct term. Apathy of users throwing all their bank details out to any scumbag who rings out of the blue or has a pretty website.

There is a fundamental problem with having Website Forums dedicated to outing Fraud companies, that is that they get infiltrated but the crooks. You only have to look at places like Reviewcentre to see a host of spam posts. We get them on MSE regularly too where one post wonders start spamming the virtues of a scam site.


People have been scammed since the dawn of time, most people fall victim at an early age (e.g dinner money nicked by the school bully).
From that innocent age we start to become aware the World isn't what it is supposed to be.

the Internet age is simply another variant of a long running system of crookery.

If you keep your guard up, they won't get you. There is no threat of physical violence, anyone can do it.


I'm intrigued as to why you attempted to ring the phone number of the scam site in the original post!

ashleypride

I agree with everything above, I've assisted in attempts to take websites down (successfully, and unsuccessfully) the amount of time it takes is unbelievable, and then they just spring back up.

Given the issues, innocent until proven guilty, multiple legal jurisdictions, and the fact that the internet was never designed to be policed, law enforcement will always be reactive.
Personally, I like the internet the way it is and it's openness has a lot of advantages, it's very easy (if you know what to look for of course), to not get scammed.
People need to protect themselves.

KingElvis

I could knock together a better website than that in a few hours, have it hosted too in jiff if you control some dns records

andy.m_2

Captain_Sensible wrote: »

Give me some credit. .

You will fit in round here :rotfl:
only joking and keep fighting the good fight

meer53

If people were a bit more sensible when using the web and did a bit more research they wouldn't get conned. The websites wouldn't get any more customers and they'd go away. You have to look after yourself, and not expect people to do this for you. People are always going to be taken in by something thats "too good to be true" doesn't have to be on t'internet !

KingElvis

meer53 wrote: »

If people were a bit more sensible when using the web and did a bit more research they wouldn't get conned. The websites wouldn't get any more customers and they'd go away. You have to look after yourself, and not expect people to do this for you. People are always going to be taken in by something thats "too good to be true" doesn't have to be on t'internet !

Good point well made but fact is, most of these sites look like they were banged out using Family Tree Maker or something :rotfl:

I would rather glue my face to the carpet than input my bank details into one of them.

jon_boy75

the site is called bloomingfinance, right?

just checking