09
2012
Wonga Acting Wronga – Payday Loans Payment Fraud Has Consumers Furious
Posted by Rachel S. with 23 Comments
Image source: Guardian.co.uk
Wonga’s light-hearted adverts may have you thinking they’re a fun and easy place to borrow from, but fact is, they’re frightfully aggressive in getting payback. There have been a number of complaints by people who have never had Wonga payday loans, yet the fast-cash lender took funds from their bank account or credit card.
Consider these cases of people done wrong by Wonga:
1) Katie was out shopping when her debit card was declined and she wasn’t sure why. She phoned her bank and was told that Wonga had taken five debits against her account even though she did not have any payday loans with them. She contacted Wonga and they agreed the taking was improper and told her to work with her bank for a refund.
When she went into her bank to close the account to prevent further fraud, Katie found that Wonga had cleaned her out – taking a total of £370. They had even taken out five more payments after she had called them to report the fraud!
Image source: Youngmoneyblog.co.uk
Katie said, “I really started to panic about getting my money back at this point. Wonga was just no help and it was a struggle to get to even speak to someone. I didn’t know how long it would take.” She had taken out a loan with them a long time prior, but that wasn’t the problem. Someone else’s loan had her credit card details attached and Wonga accepted it without seeing if use of her card was authorised.
2) Jonathon was checking his account online and was shocked to see three pending deductions from Wonga totalling £1,800 even though he had no account or payday loans with them. He contacted his bank – Barclays – and they were able to block the transactions. He reported the fraud and cancelled the card that had been used.
Then three weeks later, Wonga tried again and this time was successful in stealing £1,800 from his account with three £600 transactions. Barclays told Jonathon it would take 5-10 days to get his money back which left him frantic over his mortgage payment. Barclays advised him to “speak to your lender and ask for an extension.”
Image source: Independent.co.uk
Wonga refused to comment on how Jonathon’s card information ended up attached to one of their payday loans and said simply “We’re sorry he has been the victim of fraud and we have frozen the accounts related to his cloned debit card.”
3) Piper had £521.29 taken from her account by Wonga despite her never having had a loan with the payday shark. She contacted the police, got a crime number and made repeated calls to Wonga which promised call backs that never happened and refunds that never carried through.
Wonga’s fraud department has no direct phone number or extension that customer service can patch through – the only way to speak to their fraud department, Piper found, was to wait for a call back that never came.
Image source: Webgorlovka.com.ua
Piper said, “I am told by [Wonga] that they are experiencing a huge amount of fraud at the moment so it appears you do not need to be a customer of theirs in order for them to take money from your bank account.”
4) Sammi saw two hits from Wonga on her Tesco charge account for £518.40 and £513.43. She said, “We never have and never would use Wonga.” She contacted Wonga and found the same thing as Piper – there is no direct line to their fraud office. Even Wonga customer service can’t contact them – they can only email messages and ask them to call people reporting fraud on payday loans.
Sammi also contacted the police and got a crime number but had to work through Tesco for a chargeback as she was not getting return calls from Wonga about their fraudulent taking.
Image source: SFexaminer.com
5) Stella had made a one-time payment on her son’s Wonga loan several months prior when she received her credit card statement showing Wonga had hit her with two unauthorised charges of £197 and £98 for payday loans that were not hers.
Wonga habitually saves credit card information from anyone making a payment and attaches it to the same or other payday loans without your consent. It is said there is a verbal warning on their phone system, but this is not adequate.
Image source: Focusvita.it
When a debtor misses a payment, Wonga immediately starts trying to hit any account or card that’s been associated with the account to recover its funds, including ones that were used for one-time payments only!
6) Sally-Ann paid off her sister’s Wonga loan as a favor a couple of months prior. At the petrol station one day her card was refused and she found that Wonga had hit her account with 26 separate unauthorised charges totalling £632. The payday loans firm had completely drained the single-mum’s account and left her desperate.
Sally-Ann said, “I am a single parent with tight finances. Luckily my employer has advanced me some of my wages.” She is still fighting with Wonga who insists she provided her credit card information online and acknowledged she might be hit for ongoing payments. She disagrees saying she provided her number over the phone once and never online.
On Sally-Ann’s case, a Wonga spokesman said, “This is a rare example of our payment systems not operating effectively.”
Image source: Mylegal.proboards.com
These cases all required intervention from a consumer advocate before Wonga did the right thing. Also, there is no knowing how many other times Wonga has fraudulently taken funds that were not reported to a media outlet.
Wonga has been hand-slapped for sending out threatening letters to debtors and these are just further examples of the lengths this company will go to in order to get funds it wants. If Wonga continues to hit people’s accounts where the charges aren’t unauthorised, they should be shut down.
Using people’s cards again and again who are not signed debtors is fraud and theft! Just because I have my credit card info on Amazon doesn’t mean it’s okay for them to charge it for other people’s orders, even people I’ve bought gifts for prior. That’s exactly what Wonga is doing when they take from random people to cover payday loans.
OFT needs to clamp down on them and require an authorisation verification before they run any card or debit any account not in the name of the debtor. If you or anyone you know has been hit by Wonga’s fraudulent activities, please alert OFT and the police. We have to work together to push for more reform in this industry to protect ourselves, our friends, family, neighbours and community. Together we have power. As keynote speaker Evan Bailyn says, “When we have a common purpose, we will inevitably find solutions.”
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My cousin paid an installment on his son’s Wonga loan and three months later they hit him with £700 using a bunch of £20 mini-charges. They siphoned his account dry without permission. Took him almost 4 weeks to get the £ back, ran his mortgage payment late so then he was hit with late fees. It was a bloody disaster.
I like this site – it’s a master piece! Glad I found this on google.
Love your writing – a lot!
This is a real problem- it made it into the Times newspaper yesterday (page 33) a similar case where a pretty wealthy bloke found someone had taken a Wonga loan in his name for £400 and the company were now chasing him for it, plus charges!
http://www.understand-credit.co.uk/index.php/2012/08/13/where-did-the-wonga-go-fraudsters-target-payday-lenders/
[...] I wrote last month about Wonga taking from consumers fraudulently – taking from people who had never had a payday loan and from people who had long since paid off their payday loan. Despite the outcry, the theft of funds continued – and that is what it is full stop – if someone takes money from you they’re not entitled to, it’s theft. If Wonga continues like this, I believe their executives should face criminal charges. Image source: Tedworks.co.uk [...]
Only wanna tell that this is invaluable , Thanks for taking your time to write this.
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I have had nothing to do with this company, never even visited their website yet i suffered this THEFT two weeks ago luckily i tried to buy something online so i noticed it, was minus £290 in my account. I called the bank there and then, sod wonga, and the bank put my account back to normal within minutes and card was cancelled. I have now filled in the banks fraud form and an investigation is underway. BBC Watchdog featured then the same week ! Been watching my account ever since though
I am still in shock that Wonga hasn’t tightened their security AND that some regulator hasn’t launched an investigation yet! Sorry for your troubles.
we too have been a victim of wonga having never had a payday loan but over 2 days and 4 transactions later they took 1,600.00 pounds putting us over drawn they too should be done for theft it is just so wrong they better not take any more our bank has refunded the money and have reported it to the police, and it took 4 a temps to get through to wonga and not the fraud team they just said they will raise the problem with the fraud team and they will ring me back ha ha
They need to be shut down – I don’t see how they’re allowed to continue stealing from innocent people. Glad you got you money back though!
I read your site all the time, seriously i love it.
Thanks! Cheers!
I have never had or even applied for any Payday type loan, I have a Mortgage and my Car Finance through a Car Finance supplier. I haven’t even paid anyone else’s debts so how I managed to get my Account cleaned out by WONGA*COM could only be by having my card “skimmed” at a Shop, I only shop at major supermarkets and am weary of ATM’s and always check them for tampering. The only other way is I did pay a top up on my mortgage over the phone this month as I had some excess funds. So it could be a Dodgy Mortgage Lender Employee or a very professional ATM Skimmer
15 hours later and Nationwide/VISA refunded my account, Wonga needed Crime Ref No., Police Station/department reported to, Police Badge number of person dealing with report and also asked for my Bank statement(not available yet) before they could look into it at their end.
TO DO LIST IS:
1: Cancel Card/Contact Bank
2: Report Fraud to Police
3: Contact Wonga on 0207 138 8338 Opt;2
Now I have to find out who is responsible for my Direct Debit charges as they couldn’t be paid due to lack of funds (They cleaned me out on the Wrong day)
I continue to be amazed at the sheer amount of fraud by Wonga that nothing’s been done about. For all the people that are commenting to me, there must be thousands more that are silent. Can you ask police if you press on with criminal charges against Wonga – they are the ones committing the fraud – they took the money – not whoever has stolen your identity, so seems they’re still culpable for failing to prevent the theft… OFT is trying to crack down (I wrote about it yesterday) but they are under-budgeted and under-staffed. I say make a hue and cry to the cops to try to press charges against Wonga… Something must be done!
Sorry you were hit to start with though – this is horrifying full stop!
this has happened to me today and they have tried to take several paymants from my account leaving me with no money. I have contacted my bank and the funds are apparently in a holding account and will be returned to me. I have never paid any payment to Wonga nor have i ever applied or had a account with them. Its worrying as to how my details have been used and to where Wonga have got them from.
Call the police ASAP! Push hard for fraud charges against Wonga. The only way to stop them from these actions is to make it a criminal offence!
Hi again, just a follow up, Firstly Wonga can be contacted on the number 02071388331 which does not cost £1.20 per min. I have contacted the police who are supoposed to be getting back to me but have not up until now. I am about to contact the financial ombudsman service to find out what to do next. Wonga have not answered there calls from me and have also ignored my email. Not sure what the correct way to go is but once i have spoken with the ombudsman i will post my findings. Thanks.
I too have been hit by the scam. I checked m account this morning to find that I had been wiped out. Two transactions to Wonga on 16th and 17th amounting to £760 have been debited from my account. I have never had anything to do with WONGA. I contacted my bank who have marked the payments as fraudulent and will be refunding me. They stated that m card details had been used to make the two payments. Is this WONGA or is it frauds terms?
It’s probably that someone got hold of your card and gave the info to Wonga, but then Wonga didn’t do proper fraud checks before accepting it. The names on the cards wouldn’t have matched, they probably didn’t have the security code – - I don’t understand how Wonga can allow random cards accepted on loans! I’ve been advising everyone to report it to the police and ask if you can press criminal charges against Wonga. They have to be stopped!
hi, apparantly this is happening to people who have previously had a payday loan with wonga, paid it back on the agreed repayment date only to get an email to say they owe them more money.
i got an email and a text saying thanks for making payment on time on 1st november my agreement date to pay it back, then today i got an email saying i still owe them 205 pounds!
logged into my account, i have no outstanding balance and no live loans,
what does this mean do you think, someone else has used my card details and im being chased for payment or a fault on there payment system??
i will call them tomorrow to see what they say.
Not sure. This is a new one for me. Please let me know what they say in case I’ve got other readers that get similar! Thanks.