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MSE News: Wonga to pay £2.6m after threatening borrowers with fake lawyers
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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.
We all know WHY they got these letters, that is NOT the point, it is how the letters portray themselves IE fake solicitors, that is why they were fined £2.6million by the FCA0 -
Fairly standard tbh, I had a few letters off BT a while back, they used three different supposed law firms, but they are clearly just standard letters off a computer.
As far as the person being chased goes there's really no difference between a computer-generated letter sent out by someone on minimum wage working at a law firm with one solicitor as its nominal head, and what Wonga did, which was to send out computer-generated letters by someone on minimum wage, but with no solicitor at the head of it.
Solicitors cost £200/hour, chasing letters are not done by actual solicitors anyway.
Wonga broke a law intended for the benefit of solicitors, i.e. protecting their fees against competition. The effect on the consumer is nil.
I'm not quite sure why it was national headline news, as it really didn't affect those involved, who had failed to pay their loans, which name appeared on the letterhead.0 -
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Fairly standard tbh, I had a few letters off BT a while back, they used three different supposed law firms, but they are clearly just standard letters off a computer.
As far as the person being chased goes there's really no difference between a computer-generated letter sent out by someone on minimum wage working at a law firm with one solicitor as its nominal head, and what Wonga did, which was to send out computer-generated letters by someone on minimum wage, but with no solicitor at the head of it.
Solicitors cost £200/hour, chasing letters are not done by actual solicitors anyway.
Wonga broke a law intended for the benefit of solicitors, i.e. protecting their fees against competition. The effect on the consumer is nil.
I'm not quite sure why it was national headline news, as it really didn't affect those involved, who had failed to pay their loans, which name appeared on the letterhead.
You know that, many others know that but the majority don't and hence the FCA INTERVENTION
http://www.fca.org.uk/news/wonga-redress-unfair-debt-collection-practices0 -
Wonga broke a law intended for the benefit of solicitors, i.e. protecting their fees against competition. The effect on the consumer is nil.
I'm not quite sure why it was national headline news, as it really didn't affect those involved, who had failed to pay their loans, which name appeared on the letterhead.
Wonga broke the law of harassment and duly threatened people using fake documentation, nothing to do with protecting solicitors as we all know ???
Why did it break national headline news ??? ..... that must be very obvious to everyone, nothing to do with those who failed to pay, they did not harass or fake did they ???0 -
I cannot vouch for the accuracy of this information, but it makes very interesting reading....
Did you know that a bunch of Wonga executives spent £1,250 a head to attend a Conservative party "speed dating" event? An event which was held during the Tory party conference where paying guests (which also included representatives from companies such as Aviva, Barclays and PricewaterhouseCoopers) got to spend 20 minutes apiece "chatting up" high-ranking Tories such as Michael Fallon (the enterprise minister), David Gauke, (the Treasury’s exchequer secretary), and Sajid Javid, (Tory economic secretary).
Did you know that David Cameron's senior digital economy advisor, Jonathan Luff quit and was allowed to go and work for Wonga as a political lobbyist, with immediate effect? A former Cameron advisor as a political lobbyist should be a valuable asset to Wonga, given that they are desperately fighting against mounting pressure for regulation of the predatory loan market and Canadian style caps on APR repayments.
Did you know that the revolving door between the Tory party and Wonga goes the other way too. Adrian Beecroft is the chairman of Dawn Capital, the private equity fund that Wonga.com belongs to. The Tory party invited him to draw up labour reform legislation for them, what he came back with was one of the most absurdly self-interested policy documents ever presented; the Beecroft Report. Aside from recommending a number of labour reforms that would benefit Dawn Capital directly, the report also recommended the introduction of fire-at-will legislation. Similar legislation was just passed in Spain and led to a huge spike in unemployment as companies saw the new legislation as a financial incentive to lay off their long-term staff and replace them with labor-rightless and low wage trainees. That the Wonga.com business model is fundamentally based upon the strategy of making super-high interest loans to desperate people, a large unemployment spike resulting from the introduction of Beecroft's fire-at-will legislation would certainly represent a significant boost for their business.
In March 2012 the Tory party co-treasurer Peter Cruddas was forced to resign after he was caught out offering direct political access to leading Tories including David Cameron and George Osborne for donations of £250,000 and making claims that donor's "issues" could be discussed at the Number 10 policy unit given a large enough donation, however the Beecroft affair (£537,000 in donations to the party followed by an invitation to actually draw up their economic strategy for them) and the Wonga revolving door are far more serious, but the mainstream media refuse to treat these issues as such.
It is bad enough that the Tory party allowed one of their wealthy donors to draw up party policy for them, but that some of the most obvious beneficiaries from the implementation of such policies would be the man who wrote it, his venture capital company and their Wonga.com operation. Now the revolving door is going the other way with one of David Cameron's senior adviser going to work as a political lobbyist for Wonga.
Given this revolving door between Wonga and the Tories it is completely unsurprising that the Tory leadership are obstructing every effort to regulate or restrain the activities of predatory lenders.
It is also to be expected that the SRA has no interest in investigating Wonga for holding themselves out to be solicitors in breach of s.21 - no point in prosecuting your friends now is there?
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OnanTheBarbarian wrote: »I cannot vouch for the accuracy of this information, but it makes very interesting reading....
Did you know that a bunch of Wonga executives spent £1,250 a head to attend a Conservative party "speed dating" event? An event which was held during the Tory party conference where paying guests (which also included representatives from companies such as Aviva, Barclays and PricewaterhouseCoopers) got to spend 20 minutes apiece "chatting up" high-ranking Tories such as Michael Fallon (the enterprise minister), David Gauke, (the Treasury’s exchequer secretary), and Sajid Javid, (Tory economic secretary).
Did you know that David Cameron's senior digital economy advisor, Jonathan Luff quit and was allowed to go and work for Wonga as a political lobbyist, with immediate effect? A former Cameron advisor as a political lobbyist should be a valuable asset to Wonga, given that they are desperately fighting against mounting pressure for regulation of the predatory loan market and Canadian style caps on APR repayments.
Did you know that the revolving door between the Tory party and Wonga goes the other way too. Adrian Beecroft is the chairman of Dawn Capital, the private equity fund that Wonga.com belongs to. The Tory party invited him to draw up labour reform legislation for them, what he came back with was one of the most absurdly self-interested policy documents ever presented; the Beecroft Report. Aside from recommending a number of labour reforms that would benefit Dawn Capital directly, the report also recommended the introduction of fire-at-will legislation. Similar legislation was just passed in Spain and led to a huge spike in unemployment as companies saw the new legislation as a financial incentive to lay off their long-term staff and replace them with labor-rightless and low wage trainees. That the Wonga.com business model is fundamentally based upon the strategy of making super-high interest loans to desperate people, a large unemployment spike resulting from the introduction of Beecroft's fire-at-will legislation would certainly represent a significant boost for their business.
In March 2012 the Tory party co-treasurer Peter Cruddas was forced to resign after he was caught out offering direct political access to leading Tories including David Cameron and George Osborne for donations of £250,000 and making claims that donor's "issues" could be discussed at the Number 10 policy unit given a large enough donation, however the Beecroft affair (£537,000 in donations to the party followed by an invitation to actually draw up their economic strategy for them) and the Wonga revolving door are far more serious, but the mainstream media refuse to treat these issues as such.
It is bad enough that the Tory party allowed one of their wealthy donors to draw up party policy for them, but that some of the most obvious beneficiaries from the implementation of such policies would be the man who wrote it, his venture capital company and their Wonga.com operation. Now the revolving door is going the other way with one of David Cameron's senior adviser going to work as a political lobbyist for Wonga.
Given this revolving door between Wonga and the Tories it is completely unsurprising that the Tory leadership are obstructing every effort to regulate or restrain the activities of predatory lenders.
It is also to be expected that the SRA has no interest in investigating Wonga for holding themselves out to be solicitors in breach of s.21 - no point in prosecuting your friends now is there?
Interesting reading !!!
Where did you get this information from ? This would BE corruption
I think most of us smell corruption in the Wonga issue as the authorities are not prosecuting them. If it was a normal person, we would be prosecuted without further thought.
The question is WHY the authorities are not prosecuting ???
Whatever their reasons, the very same reasons could become a precedent when others break the same law which also means normal people or companies would not be prosecuted either.
Whatever way and whatever happens, there should be a full enquiry as the whole thing STINKS0 -
Interesting reading !!!
Where did you get this information from ?
http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/practice/wonga-threatened-customers-with-fake-law-firms/5041843.article0 -
OnanTheBarbarian wrote: »
BUT there is nothing on that link that refers to anything you have said0
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