Getting back at spammers...with an alarming twist

moxter

It's amazing how a little digging can unearth all sorts of dodgy practices, but also reveal just how few checks there are in the loan industry.

This morning I received a spam text. Irritated, I did the usual things (report to ICO, forward to 7726) but also had a look at the website the spam text was encouraging me to visit - a site called wise-cash.com which purportedly offered payday loans. Needless to say, there was no company information or contact details involved, so I smelled a scam.

After doing a WHOIS search the site was registered by a domain cloaking company in Canada called "Silent Register" whose abuse email, rather predictably, didn't work. Now more annoyed than ever I started to plug in any old random details into the application form on wise-cash (using the name and email address of the CEO of Silent Register, so with any luck he'll get spam from his own client). I plugged in any old random numbers for phone and bank account details and pressed submit, expecting there to be some sort of error message as this was just a scam site, right?

To my astonishment, I was taken to the website of what appears to be a genuine payday loan provider, WageDayAdvance, with a notice telling me that my application had been approved - all that was needed was a PIN which had been sent to my mobile (obviously not, as the number I gave was fake) after which the money would presumably have been sent to my (fake) bank account.

Forget spam, I found this pretty staggering. Just by throwing some random details together without an ounce of truth to them it's possible to get a payday loan? Is that the state of affairs we live in, even after regulation?

I now don't know who to speak to. It's not the ICO who should be taking care of this, but the FCA. I note that WageDayAdvance are in hot water already (as a new user I can't post links, but there's a document on the FCA register stating that "Information provided by WDA to the FCA has given rise to serious concerns in relation to WDA's and STL's compliance oversight. In particular, WDA and STL appear to lack sufficient resources to ensure that they treat customers fairly, including (i) a lack of a compliance monitoring strategy; (ii) no coherent quality assurance programme; and (iii) inadequate call monitoring. These failings give rise to an ongoing risk to WDA's and STL's customers.") but the fact that (1) they are relying on third party spammers for their business and (2) that they are apparently giving loans with no checks whatsoever, is a rather damning indictment of whatever the government and FCA are supposed to have been doing to clean up these companies' acts.

thebritishbloke

It appears they're a broker, if you look at the network connections it's making when it's checking your application, it seems to be querying a load of different companies.

Regardless, I put in completely bogus and made up details, and got approved for a £1000 loan from 121money. I think it should be accepted that pay day lenders just don't check anything.

SeanG79

WDA send out the text requiring code. only if you log in do they proceed to do credit checks, etc. So in reality there is no money going to any bank...if it were that easy, they would be scammed to the point of bankruptcy and that's not the case.

WDA for example in their last filed accounts 31/12/12 made £19,805,832 pre tax profit, and paid £9,488,150 in dividends...

moxter

SeanG79 wrote: »

WDA for example in their last filed accounts 31/12/12 made £19,805,832 pre tax profit, and paid £9,488,150 in dividends...

I thought I might be a bit harsh going directly to the FCA as I assumed they'd be a struggling fledgling company, but (1) in the light of your post and (2) given that their complaints email address bounced back (amusingly, telling me that I had spammed them) I'll go straight to the FCA.

SeanG79

by WDA I mean Wage Day Advance Limited, I know nothing about wise-cash.com...but good luck at the FCA

CJS23

These texts from "BeWise" linking to Wise-Cash are driving me texts, I receive them daily. I have emailed the silentregister DOTcom admin email address with the following:-

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Hi

I constantly receives texts from "BeWise" linking to wise-cash web site

As these texts are illegal in the UK and as you are the Registrant of the Domain, I believe that you are legally liable.

Please give me the Contact Details for "Wise Cash" in order that I may send them a Prohibition Notice.

Alternatively, I will be contacting the UK Government's Information Commissioner's Office with a view to taking Legal Action against yourselves.

I await your reply.


Let's see if I can't rattle some cages. These bottom-feeding scum are the bane of my life. I can't really change my phone number. I've been plagued by these sort of texts for years but these BeWise ones have nudged me over the edge! Grrr

I'll post any replies I receive.