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The Directorate of Priority Crime Investigation's (DPCI/HAWKS) George commercial branch is currently investigating cases which urge us to caution the public about the following scam.
An e-mail is sent out to e-mail users informing them that they could qualify for a loan at Wonga Finance SA (Pty), which is a registered credit provider. The terms and conditions are very favourable, with a loan interest rate of 3.5%. This would mean that a personal loan of R60 000-00 over a 5 year term only has a monthly repayment of R1, 091-51 with the total interest the amount of R5, 490-26 over 60 payments. (Three cases have already been reported by members of the public who applied for loans on the email they had received, one in Oudtshoorn and two in Danabaai.)
Upon receiving a confirmation email that their application had been approved, the applicants were requested to make a payment for an administration fee, that is supposedly in accordance with the financial monetary policy regulations. After making this payment, they were all again requested to make an additional payment for an attorney fee before the loan could be approved. Thereafter they were requested to make a payment for a local agent transfer cost. One of the complainants had made a total of R24 000-00 without receiving the 'approved loan'.
In the terms and conditions of the loan application, is a paragraph stating " Note: We do not deduct the loan administration fee from Principal Loan amount as this is against our working policy, because our company attorney must prepare and sign the loan agreement between the borrower and Wonga Loans, before approved loan funds can be disbursed to clients whose loans are approved. So do not ask for any deduction please as our response may offend you,…"
Wonga Loans also request the applicant to provide them with the detail of their personal bank account in order to transfer the loan amount directly into their said bank account.
This is an urgent request to all email users to not fall prey of this scam.
The email is being sent from Wonga Loans with email wongaloans_s.a@admin.in.th
The address given is 298 Moore Street Cnr Valley Road, East London, RSA 5201 with tel 012-7435280, cell 071 0999051 and fax 086 618 4101. Needless to say it is only the cellular number that works.
