Credit fraud

Dubious loan offers can be found again and again on Facebook. We warn: This is expensive credit fraud, hands off. Credit scams can be found on Facebook in groups, on-pages, in the comments: Fake accounts with a bogus seriousness offer cheap loans at good conditions. The hurdles are very simple: You just have to send an e-mail.

Unfortunately, here scammers take advantage of people’s financial need, because these loans do not exist. Basically, there is purely nothing that is claimed in this credit scam. What exactly happens there, we describe here.

What is the same in every credit scam: you are supposed to pay a certain amount upfront in order for the credit to be activated. This is then some processing fee, notary fees or special tax. In any case, a fantasy amount. As soon as this “fee” has been paid (mostly via Western Union), the contact breaks off. The scammers have achieved what they wanted: They collected a few hundred euros. For those affected, the money is gone. Therefore, fingers away from loan offers on Facebook!

When is it credit fraud?

Suppose a small, medium-sized company urgently needs a loan, but does not have a current balance sheet to show as proof. Without a balance sheet and a current profit and loss statement, however, a loan will be very unlikely to be granted, so the owner simply decides to falsify the balance sheets and submits his loan application including the balance sheet. of the falsified balance sheets to his bank. Already at this moment the credit fraud is completed.

Even if the bank detects the fraud and the loan is not granted, i.e. the bank has not suffered any damage, it is still a case of loan fraud under criminal law. On the other hand, the potential borrower is able to avert this by preventing the performance from occurring after the fact.

To stay with the assumed example: An entrepreneur has submitted a loan application with falsified balance sheets and falsified profit and loss statement, the bank has processed the application and approved the loan and announces the disbursement. At that moment, the potential borrower realizes what he is doing and is plagued by a guilty conscience.

What to do if I have fallen for a credit scam?

In most cases, the contracts drawn up by the scammers are excellently drafted and put the victim in a hopeless situation. At least that’s how it seems at first. Most people who have fallen for such a criminal act do not dare to take the step and go to the police. However, an advertisement is the first step in the right direction.

It is also essential to take action quickly and efficiently, even before the perpetrators have moved abroad or are already there. We obtain the right evidence for you via the digital world and, together with our partner network of lawyers, we prepare the entire facts for you in a way that can be used in court.