Beware of Loan Sharks
LMH are supporting the government initiative to warn people against the use of loan sharks.
What is a loan shark?
A 'loan shark' is anyone who is lending money without having a licence to do that from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).
These unlicensed money-lenders are working illegally – they are 'loan sharks'.
How loan sharks work
Loan sharks all tend to work in similar ways:
· They rarely give any paperwork to the people they've loaned money to - making it very difficult to keep track of how much is owed
· If payments are missed, they often use threats and violence to get more money
· They charge extremely high rates of interest and also add other 'charges' to loans whenever they want
· They take away people's bank cards as 'security'
People involved in illegal money-lending tend to be part of other criminal activities, too. This can include gun and knife crime, counterfeiting and drug-dealing.
What to do if you've borrowed from an unlicensed money-lender
If you have borrowed money from someone who doesn't have a licence, you haven't broken the law - they have.
You can report them in confidence, by:
Calling the 24/7 confidential hotline 0300 555 2222
Text 'Loan Shark + your message to 60003
E-mail: reportaloanshark@stoploansharks.gov.uk
Log on to: www.direct.gov.uk/loansharks
You can check out a fantastic recent theatre production highlighting the issue of Loan Sharks here on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNYE5mFbmzw
You can read the latest issue of Loan Shark News here
Download the free Acrobat PDF reader
