Highly
sensitive financial details from loan applications are being sold to
scammers and cold-calling firms, the Mail can reveal.
Details
of how much money applicants asked for, why the cash was needed and why
the application was rejected are all being stored on lists and traded.
Vulnerable
people desperate for cash are then bombarded up to 60 times a day by
cold callers and targeted by scammers who have apparently obtained
access to the data. The loan records of more than 3,000 applicants were
passed to undercover Mail reporters by one data firm.
When
the Mail contacted people on the spreadsheet, they said their lives had
been made a misery since they applied for the loans. Some said they
have been targeted by scammers because their bank details had been made
widely available.
Policeman’s
wife Debra Winch, 44, receives up to 60 spam text messages every day
after she had an application for a £600 payday loan declined. The mother
of three has since been conned out of £360 by two companies which knew
her bank account details and removed the money without her knowledge.
Afterwards,
one of the scammers spoke to her on the phone and said ‘Catch me if you
can’ before hanging up. Mrs Winch said: ‘Having a policeman husband and
a son who works in security, I try to be careful giving my information,
so am upset my information has got into the hands of the wrong people.
‘I
haven’t signed any forms and wouldn’t because I don’t know who I’m
dealing with. I feel completely violated. It is amazing how much they
know about you.’
The loan records were passed to the Mail’s undercover reporters by Birmingham-based firm Targeted Response Direct.
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