31
2012
Payday Loan King Wonga Taking Fraudulent Funds from Random Victims
Posted by Rachel S. with 31 Comments
Image source: Guardian.co.uk
It’s bad enough that if you take a payday loan from Wonga you’re hit with exorbitant interest of over 4000%, but what if you’re hit with payments for a payday loan you never took? Once again Wonga is taking from people who don’t owe them – allowing fraud to blossom – and then refusing to sort out the victims they’ve taken from! A This Is Money investigation has been launched after repeated complaints have reached the Daily Mail about Wonga’s antics.
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
And the banks are not behaving any better. Rather than refunding money from the fraud – as they would do in any other similar circumstance – the banks refer them to the payday lender. When victims contact Wonga, they refer them to the police rather than putting a stop to the theft. This circle of incompetence leaves payday loan fraud victims without the money that was stolen and vulnerable to further improper takings from Wonga.
Fraud protocol for banks is to refund the money to the victimised customer and then launch an investigation into how the money was stolen. But perhaps banks don’t want to sully themselves by dealing with Wonga and the dirty business of a payday loan, but fraud is fraud and treating their customers differently because it was Wonga that stole from them is wrong full stop.
Image source: Guardian.co.uk
What’s particularly troubling about Wonga and other payday loan providers is that they are not regulated – not at all – not by any agency! They must have a Consumer Credit Licence (CCL) issued by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), but after that, they’re free to misbehave with no regulator looking over their shoulders. And that seems to be exactly what Wonga is doing again and again with no reprisals to date…
Wonga says the fraud has been occurring via identity theft – when people get a loan using someone else’s credentials – or by entering someones else’s credit card or bank information on a loan they’ve taken out. But that’s not the extent of how the payday loan provider is taking advantage.
Image source: Belfasttelegraph.co.uk
Here are some recent abuses by Wonga where they stole payday loan payments from innocent consumers:
#1 Katie, who had had a payday loan from Wonga years before that had been paid off, was shocked to see deductions from her Barclays account by Wonga. She called them and they agreed that they were in the wrong and promised to return the stolen funds. When she went to close her account to prevent further theft by Wonga, she found they’d taken a further £370 after she notified them of the fraud!
#2 Jonathon saw an £1,800 pending deduction from his Barclays account – he called the bank as he had never taken a payday loan and they were able to block the theft. He reported the attempted fraud and cancelled the card that had been used. Then three weeks later Wonga succeeded in stealing the £1,800 which they took nearly 10 days to return.
#3 Piper had £521 stolen from the payday loan firm yet she’d never had a loan so there was no reason for her account or card information to be in their system. Wonga promised to return her calls but never did. Piper found that you cannot contact Wonga fraud directly – but when she finally got in touch with them, they told her they are “experiencing a huge amount of fraud at the moment.”
#4 Collette had £715 stolen from Wonga – she had no previous loans with them, so they should never have had any of her account information. Wonga emptied her account and exceeded her overdraft as well. Her bank referred her to Wonga (improperly) to get it sorted. Wonga referred her to the police who referred her back to her unhelpful bank. It took her involving This is Money investigators to get it righted.
#5 Paul had £750 stolen by Wonga – again this was someone who’d never transacted with the payday loan vendor – and his bank referred him to Wonga to try to get his cash back. He also had to get This is Money involved to get back what was stolen.
Image source: Independent.co.uk
Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy says she’s gotten 20 similar complaints against Wonga recently and is pushing for official action against the payday loan provider, but so far help is not forthcoming. A rep from the UK Payments Association said, “Those affected by fraud should contact their bank to report the fraud, who then should deal with the issue. Victims should not have to approach the business concerned to recover the money.”
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I’ve been visiting your blog for a while now and I always find a gem in your new posts. Thanks for sharing.
Last month LendingStream.com took £742.50 from my bank account, in total there were 15 payment of £49.50 taken. I have never taken a loan out with them. Luckily my bank were very helpful and refunded it all and I closed the account. Yesterday Wonga.com took £768.87 out my OTHER account and again I have never taken a loan out with them. My question is are these both linked? Is it really loan companies taking the money or is there a criminal gang out there doing this and covering themseles by pretnending to be loan companies? We need to get more press coverage on this to find out the truth and get it stopped!
i have had the same problem….ive had 1600 pounds taken out of my account by wonga…ive never had a wonga loan and they basicaly cleaned out my bank account…i agree with you and do belive this is a criminaly run company….how in this day and age can a company just raid your account and empty it is beyond me…im so disgusted as i work damn hard for my money
I believe Wonga is being run poorly at best, and at worst they are lying about their system and control process, and the best way to prove this is to provide evidence and discredit them, then pass this to the FSO and the OFT as they will close them down. The more evidence we amass the better chance we have (see below for suggestions).
I have been a victim of Wonga Fraud also but my case is different because they credit checked me and then loaned to the criminal (with a different name and address!) – This means that their systems are not what they say. The more people we can find with a similar experience the better chance we have of proving this.
I have started a Twitter page http://twitter.com/aloadofwonga . I feel that this is the best way to locate people who have suffered because of Wonga. Any help I can get to bring these criminals to justice would be appreciated
You’re doing a good thing – hopefully you’ll draw additional attention to Wonga’s fraud!
Never used Wonga as they are ripoff merchants but today I find they have taken just short of £800 from my account!!
I received a letter yesterday 18th September saying i have an overdue account with Wonga, I supposedly owe them £239.15 I have rang my banks and have nothing relating to Wonga. How can someone take out a loan in my name through Wonga without the appropiate account details to refund the loan?
I’ve no idea. Wonga’s fraud prevention measures don’t seem to be adequate. Hope it gets sorted!
I have had nothing to do with Wonga at all. Looking at their dreadful advert that’s enough to put anyone off.
My card was suspended and found that Wonga has stolen money from my bank account. Wonga management should all be put in prison. Vistaprint are just as bad. Run by a bunch of Israeli scam artists no doubt.
I haven’t heard anything about Vistaprint – I’ll have to give that a look-see. Thanks! Hope your Wonga troubles have been righted!
Wonga.com have attempted to steal more than £300 from my bank account yesterday/today, fortunately my bank eventually agreed to launch a fraud investigation and refunded the money to my account. I have never used wonga.com
Wonga.com should be closed down! Someone needs to put a stop to this!
Hi, I’ve just been reading the articles about wonga taking money from people’s accounts after I was hit this morning at 5am for £500.39 and never had anything to do with wonga or any other payday loan company, I realised when I tried to book a holiday over the phone where they booked my hotels first and then when they tried to book flights my card was declined, I had to borrow the money to pay for the flights or I would have lost hotel money, by the time I got the money for flights they had went up in price by nearly £50 each and there were 2 of us so £100, do u think wonga should refund this? And I’ve had to cancel bank card etc when I reported it to fraud from my bank and police. Also I have to wait 3 days because the transaction is pending so do u think wonga should pay back with the same amount of interest as what they would charge for borrowing it from them? Thanks Ali gowland.
I doubt Wonga will voluntarily hand over damages, but it’s worth a call to them. I would also file a fraud report with the police and tell them you want to prosecute for fraud if possible. A criminal charge may be the best way to shut this down. To my thinking, it’s theft. A long shot is to try a solicitor and see if they want to launch the first fraud case against Wonga – someone’s got to be the first.
We were hit (or attempted) by Wonga yesterday and today, 5 times in total, 5am and 8am for £238 yesterday, and today 3 times for £500.39 5am 8am 8.45am. Tried calling Wonga and they wouldn’t discuss it with me, but could take my money, until I had a crime report reference, so I’ve since done that and will be following this up on Monday, Thankfully my bank Santander recognised it as unusual behaviour and declined all 5 transactions, my card is now cancelled and a replacement being sent, a slight inconvenience but better than being ripped off by this company.
This is totally reprehensible – I’ve had so many comments from people getting robbed by Wonga. It seems like you should be able to press criminal charges.
Wonga.com have attempted to take the following sums of money from our bank account, Santander called to say they had been declined by they are still attempting to take the monies from our account.
We had ‘allegedly’ applied for an account on 3.10.2012, and the following times and dates tried to take monies from our bank account
3/10/2012 5am Registered with company
5/10/2012 5am £258.02
5/10/2012 8am £258.02
6/10/2012 5am £500.39
6/10/2012 8am £500.39
6/10/2012 8.45am £500.39
Thankfully our Santander bank put a stop to my card and all payments were declined, I have tried speaking to Wonga.com and they won’t do anything without a police crime record number, have now reported this online and am waiting for a crime report number, Wonga will then be getting a nice call from me on Monday!! Never borrowed money from them in our lives, especially with their disgusting interest rates, we’ve not had a loan now for over 12 years!! from anybody.
So sorry you’ve had these troubles. I would ask the police if you can press criminal charges against Wonga. Since they tried to steal from you, it seems like they’re guilty of something criminal.
The worst thing is, because I can’t give them an account number they won’t discuss the account with me because of ‘data protection’
I’ve had to write to them giving times, dates, amounts that they tried to take and have to wait to hear back!
It truly is criminal. OFT is reported to be launching a huge investigation into payday lenders – they’re going and sifting their files. Perhaps a call to OFT is in order since they seem to be interested in action! Here is their contact info for phone and email to complain against a trader – if you have the time, you should reach out to them – we can’t let them continue to prosper off of fraud!
For consumer advice, information on specific consumer rights and to make a consumer complaint against a trader please contact the Citizens Advice consumer helpline on 08454 04 05 06.
For consumer advice, information on specific consumer rights or to make a consumer complaint against a trader please visit the Citizens Advice consumer service on http://www.adviceguide.org.uk.
Had a call back today from Wonga to say my bank card had now been black listed so wouldn’t be able to register with them again – big deal, it’s cancelled anyway, they said there is no account in my name or address, but the fraudulent case would continue until they got some answers, but as for me and my bank, I’m in the clear, they said the account was set up online, money borrowed online, bank card registered online – and their automated service attempts to take the money – I asked them what security checks had been made to ensure the correct bank card details were registered and the same as the account the money was paid in to – he fell silent!!!!!
Astonishing – and yet sadly, not really. I expect little of Wonga. I just wrote another blog yesterday about Wonga and their ilk – OFT is trying to crack down but they’ve less than 150 staffers, so it’ll be a miracle if they can accomplish anything – seems like a criminal probe is long overdue…
Wonga.com stole almost £800 from my and my husband’s RBS bank account in two payments before we realised what was happening and called our bank’s fraud department. We have never taken out a loan with Wonga.com nor any other payday loan organisation.
Our bank revealed to us that my debit card details had been used to make the payments, but no one seems to have any idea of how my debit card details were compromised in the first place. Without knowing how it happened, how can we prevent it from happening again? No one seems to be able to tell us.
RBS paid the money back into our account today, but we are still absolutely livid. I can’t understand why Wonga.com is getting away with this. Their “security” and “anti-fraud” processes are OBVIOUSLY not working, and every single one of us is paying the price for their negligence. Why are they not being prosecuted? Why is Wonga.com even allowed to do business? It’s a travesty!
Below is contact info for the OFT to make a complaint against a trader. Payday lenders fall under OFT and they are currently going after them for fair trade violations. If you have time, please contact them so we can try to get them shut down! Probably someone snagged your card details when you got takeaway or something like – but Wonga should require entry of the security code and the pin number as a fraud precaution – it’s hard for scammers to have all of that info on hand!
For consumer advice, information on specific consumer rights and to make a consumer complaint against a trader please contact the Citizens Advice consumer helpline on 08454 04 05 06.
For consumer advice, information on specific consumer rights or to make a consumer complaint against a trader please visit the Citizens Advice consumer service on http://www.adviceguide.org.uk.
Let me know if you have any luck with OFT please!
Best – Rachel
Citizens Advice are fantastic for impartial advice. Sorry to hear that happened to you Maria, you must be incredibly upset!
It never ceases to amaze me how emotive the topic of fraud is and the level of hatred directed at banks and lenders.
(I should point out I don’t work for a bank or pay day company!)
Not one post above directs any level of blame at the actual perpatrator, the fraudster.
Wonga aren’t commiting fraud….think about it…what is the definition of fraud? It is intentional misrepresentation of facts to obtain goods or service (or something similar). Wonga aren’t intentionally taking money from your bank account…..in the same way your bank isn’t intentionally letting it leave your bank account to somewhere you don’t actually want it to go. In both cases they are acting on the information being presented to them. I’m sure fraud causes these companies a big headache sorting out the mess left by fraudster and in many cases they lose the money…..so I bet they aren’t over the moon either.
Banks could make it much harder for criminals to commit fraud, let’s say every time you wanted to make a payment somewhere from your account, the bank made you come into a branch and took a DNA sample from you before they allow the payment to go out……you’d get a lot less fraud committed against you….however you wouldn’t stay with the bank and move to one that can give you what you want….let’s face it when you select a bank or lender you’re looking at interest rates and not how likely they are to protect me from fraud.
In many of these cases it won’t be Wonga or your bank who’s systems are inadequate, it will be that website you bought that handbag from 6 months ago who don’t meet industry PCI DSS standards and have been hacked……..remember Sony getting names, addresses, card details hacked last year? If Sony can fall victim, what makes you think wherever you shop on-line keep your details safe?
So Consumer demands go some way to contributing to these modern day issues…we demand instant, we demand convenience, we demand things to just work….much like humans (who in fact are the cause of the frauds in the first place), things sometimes go wrong.
So what can we do? Well you could stop using on-line services, take all your money out of your accounts and stick it under a mattress……or accept that by demanding convenience that comes with banking and on-line services, you may become a victim of fraud, if that happens channel your energy into getting your money back, in many cases the bank or lender will do the right thing by you, take the learning and make steps to improve your security going forward.
BTW – I am totally sympathetic with everyone who has been a victim of fraud, I have myself on a few occaisions….I just think a lot of the comments on here seem to indicate it’s the banks/lenders committing fraud rather then the fraudsters who are the lowest of the low.
Hi, few months back someone stole my id to get loan from my account from wonga. I found that and repaid them and closed the account. But again I started getting letter from wonga that I still owe them. Should I need to worry about this? Please reply.
Thanks.
You should not have repaid them at all and could likely get a refund if you can prove the loan was fraud to begin with. I would contact them and ask for a refund and if they refuse, contact the Office of Fair Trading. They are conducting a big investigation and may be able to help you.
December 10th – its still going on – just spotted 10 transactions between 7th and 10th December debiting my account for various amounts for Wonga.com totalling £835. Took about an hour to get through to Lloyds Security Section (wonder why?) but they were good as gold refunding the total immediately and cancelling my card. Downside is new card won’t be here till 17th December. Thanks to all who are reporting Wonga problems: maybe someone that can stop this fraud will eventually take notice. John
£1045 was taken from my account in four payments from wonga. I had never heard of them until today. its cost me a fortune in international phone calls (as working abroad at the moment) to my bank and now I have to fly to the uk to fill in and submit fraud claim forms. I have 10 days to do this in or thay will pay the money back to wonga (outrage). When I arrive in the uk at the airport I have no way of paying for anything as my card has been stopped and a newone sent to my uk home address. this has cost me a fortune. cerca £450 and whats more all just before xmas. I will try contacting wonga when back in uk as there phone number just cuts off when ringing from abroad. wonga I hate them fraudsters hope ceo ends up in prison for fraud for life.