Hoaxes result in plague of unwanted calls

HOAX online loan applications are resulting in many unwanted calls, reports a credit company.
Abbi Rouse, credit verification officer for Allaboutloans, said: “We receive a good dozen hoax applications a day.”
Allababoutloans is part of Interfinancial, based in Guernsey, and does not itself offer loans.  Applicants’ details are passed to the call centres of licensed and qualified brokerages.
Typically, an application for a secured loan will be passed to two companies.
Ms Rouse explained: “If one call centre fails to contact the clients, it leaves another as a fall back.  Otherwise the customer is left with the frustration of applying again.”
She added: “I find myself promising to remove hoax details from the system.  But, in reality, by the time I’m the one calling, it’s too late.
“I do feel for these people who have strangers ringing offering them credit, but there will always be people – either bored pranksters or malicious time-wasters – who get a kick out of filling in someone else’s details on an application form.
“They think they’re wasting our time, but it’s the victim they really upset.”
Ms Rouse said that hoaxes seem to rise during school holidays and pointed out that the hoaxers must know their victims, because applications would only be passed on if details such as name, phone number and postcode were correct.