Loan scam: what you can do

Why the offer looked so easy

The message or ad promises a loan approved within minutes, with no salary slip, no credit check, and no collateral. For someone who has been rejected by a bank before, this can sound like a genuine second chance.

An agent responds quickly, sends an approval letter or screenshot showing your loan amount, and asks for a small fee to begin processing. Everything about the pace is designed to stop you from pausing to check.

By the time you might normally research the company, you have already paid the first fee and are waiting for the next step.

The fees that come before the loan

The first fee is usually called a processing fee, followed by requests for stamp duty, insurance, or a “guarantee deposit” to release the funds. Each one is described as the last step before payout.

The amounts are often kept individually small so they feel manageable, while the total climbs with each new request. A genuine lender deducts fees from the loan amount itself, it does not ask you to pay separately before you receive anything.

If you are asked to pay again after already paying once, that pattern alone confirms this is not a real loan.

Why the loan never arrives

There is no loan behind these fees, only a collection process disguised as one. Once you stop paying or start asking harder questions, the agent often goes quiet or the number stops responding.

Some victims are told a “technical error” or a “bank hold” is delaying the payout, which is another way of asking for patience while more fees are requested. There is no version of this where paying more eventually releases a real loan.

If this happened a while ago

If weeks or months have passed since you paid, it is still worth reporting. The bank accounts used to collect fees are often reused across many victims, so a late report can still help police build a wider case.

Gather whatever you have: chat messages, transfer receipts, the approval letter, and any phone numbers used, even if the set is incomplete. A police report can still be filed, and it remains useful even without every detail.

What to do next

Report to the police, including the Commercial Crime Investigation Department, and describe every account you paid into. If any part of a payment was recent, call the National Scam Response Centre on 997 and read about the first hour after a scam for immediate steps.

A lawyer can help you understand whether a civil claim is realistic once the pattern of payments and receiving accounts is clear. You can weigh this under whether legal action is worth it. Bring whatever records you have to that first conversation, even if the set feels incomplete.