Stay alert to the loan sharks

Loan sharks will make your life hell by adding huge amounts of interest

Mum-of-three warns: Loan shark ordeal wrecked my family’s life

A MUM-of-three has spoken to CommunityWatch magazine about her terrifying ordeal of being trapped by a loan shark who drove her to the brink of suicide and made her family homeless at Christmas.

Michelle, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, had recently moved to a new area in the North East after escaping an abusive relationship.

When her hours were cut at work, money became tight and with her son ’ s birthday approaching, she needed emergency cash to get through the month.

Michelle accepted help from a mum she had befriended at her son ' s school. The woman offered to help Michelle out with a loan, said she knew what it was like to need a few extra quid, and that she could pay her back next month.

Michelle thought her new friend was just helping her out. She didn ’t realise she was about to fall into a dangerous trap with a ruthless, intimidating lender who would put her family through a horrific ordeal.

In a video describing her experiences, Michelle said: "I got to the point of wanting to end everything. I was very suicidal and didn ’t know who to go to. continued on page 17

I got to the point of wanting to end everything. I was very suicidal and didn’t know who to go to after threats on my life MUM-OF-THREE MICHELLE

from page 16 “There were threats on my life and on my home. I had windows smashed and I would get messages off people bullying me because she had sent them to my door, she even used local youths in the area as a campaign of terror. "

It all started with a small loan for £50, but then the loan shark offered to lend Michelle larger sums of money with interest.The most she borrowed at one time was £350, and she repaid nearly £2,500.

The debt quickly spiralled out of control with double interest piled on.When Michelle struggled to keep up with the repayments, the loan shark resorted to intimidation and violence, making her life a misery.

Watch Michelle’s Story on YouTube

She was sent threatening messages, people threw things at her house, left unwanted items on her doorstep, and smashed the windows at night. Michelle was petrified to leave the house in case something bad happened to her family.

She was worried about their safety, so made the decision to leave in a hurry. She fled the family home with her three children and left all her possessions behind.

The ordeal didn ’t end there for Michelle and she continued to receive abuse online and cruel comments were posted on social media by the loan shark and the loan shark’ s associates. The shaming post went viral and many of her close friends and family also saw it. Michelle ' s family became homeless just before Christmas 2019. They were given temporary accommodation by the council, but they had no possessions. Michelle knew something had to be done and searched online for agencies that could help.That’ s where she found the helpline number for Stop Loan Sharks and the support changed her life.

The Illegal Money Lending Service has teamed up with the Vulnerability Registration Service (VRS), a not-for-profit organisation providing a central, independent register of vulnerable people, helping companies to identify vulnerability and keep people safe.

It is free to use, entirely voluntary, and users can remove themselves from it whenever their circumstances have sufficiently improved.

By giving vulnerable consumers a single place to register their status, theVRS helps them avoid having to repeat the same difficult conversations every time they engage with organisations like lenders and creditors.

This database is a central, independent register that helps organisations to identify vulnerability and treat their customers fairly.

Service providers using theVRS database will be alerted if their customers are victims of loan sharks through a ‘ risk of coercion ’ flag.

Not easily available to service providers anywhere else, this information will give them the ability to adjust their approach and take more appropriate steps with those customers.

It will enable them to focus their resources effectively, such as assigning a trained advisor, adjusting their collections strategy or applying a fairer lending criteria. https://www.vulnerabilityregistrationservice.co.uk/

Fraudsters are clever and manipulative. If anyone claims to be from your bank, HMRC or any trusted organisation, even the police, and calls to tell you to move your money, stop.

Be alert to the online fraudsters

SANTANDER is writing to all its customers to make sure they do not fall for scams and frauds at a time when fraudsters are looking for vulnerable and gullible victim.

The bank is asking:If you received a call from someone you 'd never spoken to before,telling you to transfer the entire contents of your account to them straightaway,you probably wouldn 't do it. And you 'd almost certainly hang up.

But what if you receive a text message about a current event,for example, COVID-19? It warns you that you ’ ve been in close contact with someone who has been isolating and includes a link to order a free test kit.What if you click on the link,put in your details to order one and add your card details to pay a small delivery fee?

In a couple of almost unnoticeable steps,you would have become a victim of fraud.Criminals would have your card details and personal information to use again or sell.

Other examples could be text messages supposedly from Royal Mail,a parcel delivery company or any trusted organisation,encouraging you to click a link.

Once they ' ve got your details,fraudsters can go a step further and sometime later you might receive a call from someone claiming to be your bank. 1. They tell you,you ' ve been a victim of fraud,and you need to move your money out of your account quickly before it' s stolen. 2. They seem convincing because they already know some of your information. That' s the information you shared when you clicked the link in the text message. 3. You ’ re scared,stressed,and confused about the situation but pressured to act quickly. 4. What if,acting in fear,you transferred your money to new account details?The account wasn 't in your name,but the fraudsters,posing as your bank,gave you convincing reasons to do so. You would now have become a victim of impersonation fraud.

Fraudsters are clever and manipulative. If anyone claims to be from your bank,HMRC or any trusted organisation, even the police,and calls to tell you to move your money,stop.

End the call straight away and call your bank using the number on the back of your card.

While fraud and scams are not new, advances in technology give criminals more ways to attempt to access your money.Knowing the techniques they use can help you protect yourself and your money. Tips for spotting fraud and scams Always think carefully before making a payment,especially if it’ s a lot of money for you.Speak to someone you trust first,like a friend or family member,before making payments. Pay extra attention to the warnings we provide when making a payment. They ’ re in place to help you bank safely and avoid being scammed. Anyone can be easily impersonated, and criminals can make the caller ID, email address or name look exactly like the genuine caller.So,if you receive an email,text or call,verify it’ s genuine by phoning them back on a known and trusted number. When making a payment,always take the time to complete extra checks to make sure the payee and the payment is genuine.This includes reading reviews, researching companies or websites,and verifying the person or company are who they say they are. Don ’t allow anyone to access your computer or devices remotely.This is because criminals can ask you to click on a link or download an app.

Remember,your bank,the police or any trusted organisation will never ask you to withdraw,transfer or send back money from your account.If you ’ re asked to do this,it’ s a scam.

If you ' re concerned or think you ' ve responded to a scam email or text or given your details out to the wrong people, you should contact your bank first on 0800 9 123 123 and report it toAction Fraud on 0300 123 2040

We see fakes booming when the economy does badly. The cheap lira has made exporting counterfeits even more profitable. ZEYNEP SEDA ALHAS Gun & Partners

Turkey’s fake empire booms

THE value ofTurkey ’ s fake goods tripled from 2019 to 2020 as it became main source of counterfeit designer clothes stopped at EU borders

Photos of fake Gucci bags, LouisVuitton sweatpants and Nike sneakers are flaunted on the social media accounts of aTurkish store with more than 155,000 followers onTikTok.

Turkey is the third biggest exporter of counterfeit products to the EU after China and Hong Kong, according to data on the value of goods seized.

Falls in the value of theTurkish lira and the deterioration of theTurkish economy are further fuelling demand as such items become cheaper to traders buying in euros.

A December 2021 report published by the EU’ s intellectual property office (EUIPO) also points to the trend.

The value of counterfeits fromTurkey more than tripled from 2019 to 2020, reaching nearly €134m (£111m), and Turkey became the main source of fake designer clothing and medicine stopped at EU borders, surpassing China in these categories.

“We see fakes booming when the economy does badly, ” said Zeynep Seda Alhas, who specialises in intellectual property rights at Gün + Partners, a law firm in Istanbul representing some of the world’ s most famous brands. “The cheap lira has made exporting counterfeits even more profitable. ”

She said the number of court-approved raids by the firm on counterfeit producers doubled in 2021 and the number of items it seized almost tripled.

In January, it conducted what Alhas called “the biggest raid inTurkey ’ s history ” , confiscating more than 350,000 pairs of fake designer trainers in three Istanbul workshops, some half-finished and all destined to be eventually sent abroad.

“Profits are much higher in counterfeit goods, ” Alhas said, explaining that even factories that produce legally for big brands could “turn bad” during times of economic trouble, working extra shifts to produce fakes.

Turkey ’ s legal exports have also surged during the currency crisis, increasing 33% over the year and reaching $225bn (£171bn), according to the government-runTurkish Statistical Institute.

Lost sales cost the EU €83bn a year, according to EUIPO and zmen says working conditions at underground production facilities are less likely to comply with laws on wages, child labour and health and safety.

Law firms such as Alhas ’ s usually hear about big shipments caught by customs officers – mostly in Germany,Austria and the Netherlands – and then try to find the production site inTurkey.

The website of neighbouring Bulgaria ’ s customs authority is packed with reports of vehicles fromTurkey caught with counterfeit goods. In February 2021, hundreds of bottles of counterfeit perfume were found tucked under a passenger seat in a bus, apparently hidden by the driver.

But much gets through.A producer of fake Dsquared2 jeans said there were freight companies in Istanbul that focused on counterfeit exports, filling trucks with fakes surrounded by originals.

“They charge extra to transport fakes, they know people at customs, ” he said.

“They have built a spider web of networks all over the border. ”

A 2020 report by Europol said a criminal group regularly transported large quantities of fake designer clothes from Istanbul to Greece with the help of three customs officers recruited to “facilitate ” their activity for years before getting caught.

20 CITY COPS CELEBRATE Celebrating 10 years of catching the bad boys

CRACKING insurance fraud takes a dedicated professional team and an equally professional strategy and is not something that is solved overnight.

It takes many man hours trying to prove fraud especially at a time when it cost the country £1.2billion last year alone.

The task of bringing fraudsters to justice falls on the City of London Police ’ s Insurance Fraud Enforcement Department (IFED) now celebrating its 10th anniversary.

They may be based in London,but criminals in Lancashire,Yorkshire,Kent,Norfolk, ThamesValley,Cheshire,Surrey or even Sussex are their targets.

In 2019 there were an astonishing 107,000 fraudulent insurance claims and although this was down a year later,there were still 96,000 bogus claims.

The City of London Police,quite rightly,is proud of its record of success right from their first conviction three months after being formed. 2012 IFED secured its first conviction just three months after launching,for a case involving a bogus whiplash claim.A man from Leeds called his insurer to report an accident, claiming that he reversed into a lamppost while he had passengers in his vehicle and that they had suffered whiplash as a result.

Stupidly the fraudster ’ s call was still being recorded when he boasted to friends how his bogus claim was going to make him ‘ a rich man ’ . 2013 The unit tackled what was believed to be the UK’ s biggest fake car insurance scam, which saw 600 drivers lose around £550,000 in just 11 months by buying worthless policies.

Two ‘ ghost brokers ’ were jailed for a combined total of four years as a result of the investigation including the mastermind who created four websites offering cheap car insurance and used paid-for advertising to ensure his enterprises appeared at the top of internet searches. 2014 A husband and wife duo were sentenced after faking the former ’ s death to collect over £1.1 million from life insurance policies and investments.The wife contacted five insurance companies to inform them of her husband’ s death from ‘brain fever ’ while abroad.However,the story fell apart when the death certificate was found to be fake.

IFED discovered that the husband was in fact alive and well and had flown back to the UK eight months after his alleged death. 2016 An aircraft engineer who claimed that £189,000 worth of luggage was lost on a flight received two years in prison,after images of the scanned cases showed they were empty.

Airports and airlines gave detectives access to images of the bags as they were scanned through security.These images clearly showed that the four bags checked in were all empty. 2017 Six men were jailed for a total of 13 and a half years after abusing their professional roles,some as solicitors,to commit insurance fraud,defrauding victims out of £426,000.This was IFED’ s first prosecution involving solicitors. 2018 Two unconnected cases shocked the unit, as the team brought two women who shamelessly exploited the Manchester Arena terror attack to justice.In September, an insurance company employee received a two-year custodial sentence for 31 fraudulent medical claims worth over £142,000,using the names of her friends, family and herself.One of the claims saw the woman allege loss of earnings due to her daughter sustaining multiple serious injuries in the terror attack.In reality,the woman did not have any children. 2019 An IFED investigation led to the sentencing of a 16-person strong ‘ crash for cash’ ring, which conned insurance companies out of almost £1.2 million.The group received a combined total of nearly 33 years in prison. 2020 An audacious fraudster was jailed for five years and seven months after he impersonated his female partner to try fake his own death for a £1 million life insurance pay out.

The initial email correspondence with the insurer stated that the man had died of a heart attack in Pakistan.

However,the criminal’ s guise was foiled when he attempted to continue impersonating his partner over the phone. 2021

A trio of fraudsters were sentenced for their involvement in a number of insurance fraud plots valued at £245,000,orchestrated by a previous IFED convict.

The ringleader cloned a genuine claims management company in order to obtain referral fees from solicitors,as well as being behind more than 60 fraudulent motor insurance claims.