CONSUMER ADVISORY
Advance Fee Loan Scams
This type of scam is all about trying to get people to pay an advance fee at the time of loan approval.
Consumers have been receiving calls that look like they are from 36MonthLoans.com confirming that the recipient has been approved for a loan amount between $2,500 and $10,000. The condition for the loan deposit was to buy one or more pre-paid cards, Apple iTunes, and call back to provide the Verification codes that are on the back of each card. Once the pre-paid cards are received, the alleged employees present some reasons for not approving the loan yet (lower credit score, wiring charges …), pretexts for asking more pre-paid cards, this time representing a bigger amount of money. And this continues as long as the client is ready to pay additional amounts. Unfortunately, the loan is never funded.
36MonthLoans.com is not associated with this fraud in any way. These persons are using 36MonthLoans brand name to scam people.
What you need to know
36MonthLoans.com is not a direct lender but an online loan matching service trying to find for each client best option in its panel of lenders. It will never neither charge any fee from the customers nor send text messages or call them in order to intermediate a loan. All the clients are coming through the website 36MonthLoans.com and the application process is entirely online. 36Monthloans.com services are free to consumers.
Avoid becoming a victim of fraud by going to the official 36MonthLoans web site. Be especially wary of unsolicited calls, e-mails or letters offering you a loan.Requests for money to be sent in advance to cover “processing”, “application”, “insurance”, or the “first month’s payment” are a red flag of loan scams. Legitimate lenders NEVER ask for these things to be paid before a loan is disbursed.
Have you have been scammed?
- Report it to the Federal Trade Commission
- Also, report it to the Internet Crime Complaint Center
- Contact your local police (but don’t automatically assume the company name and address on your documents are legitimate. Remember, the scammers use fake addresses, those of REAL companies, or random residential addresses far away, in order to hide their operation)
- File fraud alerts with each of the three credit bureaus. This is necessary because the scammers typically obtain your sensitive information, such as your Social Security Number and information on your driver’s license. They can use this to obtain credit in your name. Visit TransUnion.com, Experian.com, and Equifax.com to begin this process.
You can find more information about Advance Fee Loan Scams on the Federal Trade Commission' website, with details about how the advance-fee loan scam works:
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0078-advance-fee-loans.
