As more customers become aware of the dangers of phishing (extortionists taking personal data), some crooks pick another kind of scheme: loan payment scams. These criminals hoodwink their victims into entrusting them with their loan installments for loan payment scams to work.
The scammer first says to the victim that they are an associated bank partner (or another lending organization) and want to help people get their loans arranged rapidly and efficiently. When they gain the victim’s trust, they find excuses to take payments from the victim while promising them that the cash will be used for “processing” the loans. These installments obviously go to the scammer—not to the bank or lender!
You can out-trick these tricksters with these straightforward yet cunning methods:
Pay for your loan-related payments and various other transactions through trusted and genuine bank channels always. These channels have over the counter at your bank branch or through automatic debit arrangements. Do this for your car loans, home loans, and business loans.
Increase payments are made through auto-debit. Get info about this from your bank; it is the more secure and easy choice. For example, BDO has an Automatic Debit Arrangement (ADA) that moves different amortizations from the assigned BDO Savings or Checking accounts every month.
Check with your bank or other lenders whenever someone offers to help with your loan payment or help your loan application get done quicker. And don’t say yes right away. Whether or not the individual is a friend or a relative, don’t be compelled into saying yes. Be more cautious if the individual is a stranger.
Rather, call up or go to your bank branch or the loaning company. Check if the individual is endorsed in the assistance of customers with loan payments and uses. Then, at that point, ask whether the loan payment or application process is authentic and endorsed by the bank/lender. Assuming positives with all these, you can go ahead and say yes.
Be very cautious when someone asks that you move money to a personal account, especially if it is for taking care of a loan application or before releasing loan proceeds.
Take care to remember phishing scams in conjunction with these. Phishing is done mainly through trickery: the con artist sends a text, an email, a private message, or a link that will make the victim give personal information.
When the scammer gets data on the victim, the trouble of taking a person’s money through online hacking generally vanishes.
You can outsmart these crooks and guarantee your data’s security by knowing what their means to trick you are. Here are the warning signs:
1. The caller or message sender asks for the username and password of your online banking account. They may moreover ask your One-Time-PIN or OTP. Your bank will not at any point demand such information.
2. The caller or message sender gives you email or text links that lead to sites that ask for your own information, including your online banking account credentials. Your bank will not at any point send you links to these kinds of websites. Rather, your bank will send links to share information, for example, card promotions.
3. The caller or message sender asks for the verification of your account through a call, text, direct message, or email. Always be careful about these things whenever they ask for account confirmation via sharing your own information: your name, birthday, mother’s original surname, etc. Such information may be used to get to your account. Your bank will not look at any point to demand this sort of data.
4. The caller or message sender asks for information through a call, direct message, email, or text of the following: your credit card number; your card expiry date; your card CVV (or Card Verification Value, which can be found at the back of your card); your OTP to confirm online shopping transactions. Your bank will not work at any point demand that.
Scammers are constantly on the loose, looking for victims; remember these tips to keep yourself and your money safeguarded from their plans.