Typical loan scam targets are single, female renters with full-time jobs, living in London or the West Midlands

Financial Experts have analysed recent data to uncover who is most likely to be targeted by a loan scam, conning victims out of hundreds of pounds.

The scam, known as cloning, sees the scammers pretending to be representatives from legitimate loan lenders and credit brokers to con unsuspecting customers out of their money.

Over the past year, fraudsters have posed as representatives from Little-Loans.com & CashFlex.co.uk, legitimate Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) authorised and regulated Credit broker websites, to try and dupe victims out of money. Recently, the company has seen another influx of enquiries from those who have been contacted by scammers and, as such, are aiming to raise awareness of the scam and the typical victim.

Analysing data from a four-month period (May to August) when there were a consistent number of reports of customers being targeted by scammers, Financial Experts Little-Loans.com were able to find patterns in who is being targeted.

Out of the dataset of those who had been contacted by scammers, and subsequently notified Little-Loans.com:

Just over half were female

There were more renters than those in any other living situation

The majority had full-time jobs

Most were single

They were commonly based in London, followed by the West Midlands

There was a relatively equal split between men and women who had been targeted by the scam, though there were slightly more females – 52% of the dataset.

With regards to living status, the most common target appears to be renters (or private tenants), making up 39% of those who contacted Little-Loans.com about the scam. Following that were council tenants, making up 23% of the potential victims in question, whereas 18% were living with their parents at the time they were contacted by the fraudsters.

Around two-thirds (63%) were full-time employees in comparison to 13% who receive benefits and 9% who are self-employed. Almost half (48%) were single, a quarter (24%) were married, and 15% were living with a partner.

Potential victims got in touch from all over the country, but around one in ten were from London, followed by 6% from the West Midlands, and 5% from Greater Manchester.

It is worth noting that these figures represent those who were contacted by scammers impersonating Little-Loans.com specifically AND who got in touch with the legitimate company following the attempted fraud to question the legitimacy of the emails they were receiving. There will be countless other victims.

Alex Kosuth-Phillips, Customer Services Manager at Little-Loans.com explained the rise in victims of the scam.

“The increase in scam reports seems to coincide with the emergence of the cost of living crisis, so we suspect that the scammers have sensed an opportunity to scale up their efforts at a time when a far greater number of people may be feeling the pinch and needing quick access to credit.”

What should I do if I have been scammed?

Alex suggests that if you are unsure about any communications received from a lender or credit broker, the best thing to do is to get in touch via their official website.

“Sometimes victims will contact us to verify that the offer is legitimate, which is great as we can then immediately let them know it is a scam and that they should not continue their contact with the supposed representative.”

However, sadly it’s often too late once the money has left the victim’s account.

“We will have victims get in touch with us asking where their funds are, at which point it is probably too late and their money has already been transferred to the scammer and there is nothing they, or we, can do about it – short of reporting the scam to the FCA and ActionFraud. If you have paid a fee, you can visit Citizens Advice’s scam information hub to see what your options may be and what routes you can take to try and get your money back.”

“We would like to increase awareness of this scam to minimise the number of people that fall foul of these tactics and end up out of pocket, sometimes significantly so.”