MSE News: Wonga to pay £2.6m after threatening borrowers with fake lawyers

minislim

and why are they still able to trade now?

such practices like this should result in them being shut down and never allowed to trade again.

ashleyriot

If anyone here is affected by any of this I would not take for granted for a second that Wonga will sort everything out and you have nothing to worry about.

It has taken four years to arrive here and they are going to string this out as long as they can accruing more and more interest on this themselves.

I would be on their backs week after week chasing about where the compensation is.

You had no reason to trust them in the past and you have even less reason now.

Sinhanada

I agree Ashley - certainly a company not to trust. I'd also go as far as to say that apart from the compensation of £50 per letter they should also be adding interest on - even at a fraction of their advertised APR would be a welcome boost.

As for investigating those who take out the loans and "lose" their jobs just before it's due - I do have to add that yes there is fraud by people looking for a quick buck, but how can you tell that this is the majority of people who default? Why tar everyone who has used a PDL with the same brush?

Aquamania

"Using lawyers as fake as its puppets, then having the stomach to charge people for it is a thuggish tactic, aimed at scaring and intimidating people who are already struggling.

"I'm glad to see the FCA taking action. I hope this is just the first move against a dirty, dangerous industry. Wonga may have used 'Chainey, D'Amato & Shannon' as the name of its false lawyers, but 'Shyster, Shyster & Shyster' would've been more appropriate.

As I understand it, it is illegal to impersonate a solicitor, barrister, etc.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3400309/Man-facing-jail-after-admitting-he-impersonated-a-barrister.html

Therefore, one would expect that if such action had occurred, then those responsible would be up before the beak.

So why hasn't this occurred?
Is it perhaps as reported on ITV news that no impersonation has occurred, just that debt collection letters purporting to be from what turned out to be fake debt collectors were sent out? (although the debt itself was genuine)

The City of London Police said that they have decided not to proceed with a case, because while the letters clearly implied they were from law firms, they made no such direct claim.

http://www.itv.com/news/2014-06-25/wonga-to-pay-2-6-million-compensation-to-customers-sent-fake-legal-letters/

I wonder if Wonga will now be employing the services of genuine legal advisors over the possible libellous comments made by Martin S. Lewis and published on this site?

fermi

Worth a listen

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b047c9xm

Starting at 6 mins in.

WillyWonga

Fake firms is nothing new. I used to work for a debt collection agency. We sent the usual 3 or 4 letters and phone calls before passing onto the head office if we felt was possible court action could take place. At this stage a new letter got sent out under a different name, I vaguely remember it being sounding like a solicitors with a diff phone number at a different address to try and prompt a response.

haggis71

Student Loans Company did this as well.. there's a thread on here about it..

fermi

Also see Martin on this this morning

http://www.itv.com/thismorning/hot-topics/martin-lewis-explains-wonga-letters

Wants copies of the old original letters if you have them?

And reports of other "fake" law firms being used by other companies.

If you have either, then I think can email [EMAIL="news@moneysavingexpert.com"]news@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL] and/or tweet Martin or his team.

beamerguy

Wonga must be prosecuted for this criminal act. If you or I did the same guess where we would end up ?

It is being said that the Tories accept monies from Wonga ???

One comment made in the Daily Mail

""Ripped off borrowers will get around £55 each over the scam" - (Rising to £17,912 if it is not paid to them by the end of July I hope)"

The simple fact is that Wonga were fraudulent and at the same time harassed and distressed people, regardless of what you think of the borrowers, Wonga has committed a criminal offence which demands they must be punished. The meager £2.6million is just a tiny rap of their knuckles. We shall see but this country uses two seperate rules when it comes to the law, for the ordinary folk we are dished the jail card out, for those insiders, they get a "get out of jail " free card.

Until the government gets it act together, we will see more of these fraudulent activites and they will get brushed under the carpet. Right now, there should be many bankers who should be in prison ....... they have just had a rap on knuckles.

Then the government wonders why people avoid taxes ??? I mean what planet are they are on

Wonga Directors should be jailed and a fine of £50 million which is still just half of the Wonga assets

JohnRo

hanlou007 wrote: »

maybe these people that borrow off of a payday lender and dont pay it back deserve threatening ??:cool:

If the righteous crusaders against payday lenders get their way that's exactly what'll happen, with menaces, because the banks have washed their hands of them.

I'm not apologizing for the tactic used, it is puzzling though, how few seem to have any problem with the people receiving the letters, and why they're getting them in the first place.