{"id":25505,"date":"2012-06-15T05:49:04","date_gmt":"2012-06-15T10:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/?p=25505"},"modified":"2012-06-15T05:49:04","modified_gmt":"2012-06-15T10:49:04","slug":"state-agency-issues-loan-scam-warning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2012\/06\/15\/state-agency-issues-loan-scam-warning\/","title":{"rendered":"State agency issues loan scam warning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Information submitted<\/em><\/p>\n<p>COLUMBUS &#8212; The Ohio Department of Commerce warns Ohioans to be on guard against online companies pretending to offer loans, but who require up-front fees before the \u201cloan\u201d can be made.<\/p>\n<p>These \u201ccompanies\u201d, which typically solicit customers on websites using ever-changing fictitious names, may purport to have business addresses in Ohio, which often are fictitious.\u00a0The businesses are not registered with the Ohio Secretary of State\u2019s Office and not licensed by the Department of Commerce\u2019s Division of Financial Institutions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf a loan company demands money before you receive a loan, don\u2019t even think about it,\u201d said David Goodman, Director of the Ohio Department of Commerce.\u00a0\u201cNever send money with the promise that you\u2019ll obtain a loan.\u00a0 If you do, you\u2019ll lose your money and there will be no loan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Goodman offers the following tips to Ohioans:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Always check to see if the financial service entity is licensed by the Division of Financial Institutions. (Go to <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.com.ohio.gov\/fiin\/elicense.aspx\">www.com.ohio.gov\/fiin\/elicense.aspx<\/a><\/span> to learn if it is licensed or call the Consumer Affairs Hotline at 866.278.0003).<\/li>\n<li>Never provide personal or financial information to a company that is not properly licensed, particularly your Social Security number or bank account information.<\/li>\n<li>Never send money in advance of receiving a loan (other than for an appraisal report or possibly a credit report).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These companies operate under a variety of names, but the loan documents look virtually the same as similar companies.\u00a0 Their websites may push consumers to call a toll-free number.\u00a0 Often it traces back to Canada.<\/p>\n<p>Some companies tell consumers they are not eligible for a traditional loan, and a third-party investor will finance it.\u00a0Before the loan can be processed, they say, the consumer needs to make a down payment or purchase special loan insurance.<\/p>\n<p>The consumer is instructed to send money out-of-state or to Canada to cover those costs.\u00a0 A consumer was recently instructed to send money to Jamaica.\u00a0After they receive payment, the companies may tell consumers that a complication has developed and another payment is needed before the loan can be approved.\u00a0Unfortunately, some consumers have sent multiple payments and still didn\u2019t obtain a loan.<\/p>\n<p>If Ohioans suspect unlicensed lending activity, they should report it to the department\u2019s Consumer Affairs Hotline at <a href=\"mailto:webdfi-cf@com.state.oh.us\">webdfi-cf@com.state.oh.us<\/a> or by calling the above telephone number.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Information submitted COLUMBUS &#8212; The Ohio Department of Commerce warns Ohioans to be on guard against online companies pretending to offer loans, but who require up-front fees before the \u201cloan\u201d can be made. These \u201ccompanies\u201d, which typically solicit customers on websites using ever-changing fictitious names, may purport to have business addresses in Ohio, which often [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 08:29:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25505\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}