Loan Credit: A New Fraud in Town?

Scammers in Nigeria are some of the most ingenious on the planet. Too bad that this talent is not put to positive use.

According to a report by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS), fraud incidents in Nigeria are expected to keep rising.

Loan credit scam

Some fraudsters have come up with a new way to swindle unsuspecting Nigerians of their money using a loan credit technique.

There are chances that you or someone you know have received a message or a call from a supposed organization that claims someone on your contact list borrowed money and is refusing to pay it back.

The call which is usually automated tells you that the alleged defaulter dropped your phone number as an emergency contact.

While this method is usually used by loan companies to recover money from defaulters. Scammers have figured out how to capitalize on it and rip off unsuspecting people.

The scam can also start with a text message in the manner of:

“FINAL WARNING!!!Good day,be informed that [Insert name]
with phone number  080******** is a defaulter who took loan and has vehemently  refused to pay.hence his action has proven to be suspecious.kindly reach his and compel his to pay up his loan as the company is taking unfriendly & drfastic measures including reporting his debt to  CREDIT BUREAU as this is an ALLEDGEDLY FRAUDULENT ACT. NOTE: You are getiing this because he gave us your number as EMERGENCY CONTACT,Thank u as u pass the information.”

The idea of this loan credit scam is to compel the unsuspecting victim to call back and possibly pay for the “defaulted loan”.

When victims call back they are usually convinced to pay the money on behalf of the person owing, especially if it’s a close relative or friend.

Only after confirming will you realize that the fraudsters have pulled a fast one on you.

As seen in the sample of the loan credit scam above, the message contains a lot of grammatical errors. It is unlikely that any properly run business organization will send you a message that has that many errors.

The prey of such scams is usually the elderly who have less access to information about these techniques.

According to NIBSS, people over 40-years of age are the victims of most Nigerian scams taking a 33.97% percentage out of 48,767  cases examined.

The fraudsters are usually able to pull off these loan credit scams by sourcing names and contact details that are left recklessly online.

Other times they convince people to drop their contact details by luring them in with a promo.

Read also: Fact Check- Is WhatsApp Ending Tomorrow?

Other common scams in Nigeria

The loan credit scam is just one of many methods that fraudsters have devised to rip off people in the country.

Other common methods are the bank debit card scam and social media hack.

This one usually involves the fraudster calling ad pretending to be an operative in your bank.

They try to convince victims that there is a problem with their account and ask for the details of their debit card for it to be rectified.

With such details, they can easily clear the account of a victim, causing great financial loss.

For social media, the scammers take the form of an online philanthropist who is doing airtime or cash giveaway.

They ask users to drop their numbers and end up calling them to demand a code before they send the money.

The code which is usually sent to your mobile phone is from the social media company and disclosing it automatically grants them access to your account.

Sometimes, such accounts are sold while at other times, they are used to scam your relatives and friends online.

The country is not in the best of situations and everyone will like to do their best to avoid financial losses.

One common rule for avoiding these scams is to avoid giving out your details to strangers online.

If something seems fishy, it usually is because you’re about to get played. Stay vigilant!