Credit broker fraud in assisting a loan

 A loan broker is a relatively new service in the Russian financial services market. Many citizens mistrust intermediaries in the form of brokerage companies and there are many significant reasons for this. 

Any company that wants to acquire clients for profit must reassure them that it can be trusted. To achieve this, there must be various licenses, certificates — permits for conducting financial activities (both, in general, and throughout the state territory). All leading companies undergo special training without fail, post copies of the received documentation on their portals.

Fraudulent brokers, on the contrary, do not even have a minimum list of such documentation, since they do not even plan any activity — they just want to deceive their clients, take their money. Their portals do not even hint at the presence of certificates, and the images posted are a banal copy of other people's projects. Some scammers post (as a guarantee of transparency) awards from various forums and exhibitions. These awards are given to the best firms in various categories, as well as media partners, as well as those who organized certain events. Fraudsters try to pass off such awards as a criterion for guaranteeing reliability.

The most common way to attract customers in such companies is the so-called "cold calls". For the purchase of telephone bases, special sites are used. Then there is a sequential call to customers. Employees of the companies begin to question the citizen and offer help in acquiring a loan. Typically, these workers are psychologists — professionals who try to touch other people's feelings and the current situation.

With the advancement of technology and the internet, it has become much more difficult to spot the trick and pin down the fraudster. In modern society, a significant number of citizens use the services of these companies and suffer significant losses while remaining in debt.
Today, scammers rarely hide in basements; most of them work even in the city center in full view of everyone. In theory, this can be an individual entrepreneur or LLC operating within the framework of the legal aspect, but provides completely different services that were registered.

With the consent of the citizen for cooperation, an agreement is concluded. However, it should be remembered that it is imperative to clarify the issue of payment for the service before cooperation. He is often left at the last moment, and sometimes the amount of reward is not worth the time spent at all. Today, the law does not establish a specific rate; it can be either 1% from a transaction with a bank, or 10%.

There are several schemes for fraudulent brokerage companies in assisting in obtaining a loan, the most famous:

1. 1When working with a broker, you will have to give your data — a passport, where the place of work is, indicate the average income, bring certificates. This means that no citizen is immune from information leakage. Even if a broker helps to get a loan, very soon a second, third, etc. will be found.
2. Registration of the amount more than necessary. Usually brokers recommend people with a bad history or low income to borrow money from less influential banks or MFIs, they can easily get a loan for an amount more than they should be and take some money for themselves. Moreover, you will have to pay extra for the services of brokers. Usually this is percentage of the total amount issued to your hands.
3. Manipulation of the contract. A broker can cooperate with a one-day firm from the PDA area. The amount may not be very large, but the interest for withdrawal and use can increase the debt several times. An item about the mortgage of an apartment or a car may be included in the loan agreement, if it does not work out to pay off, you will have to give up the property. Thus, fraudsters will receive real estate for almost nothing. Not all citizens will agree to this, but it is worth noting that 7 out of 10 will not read the agreement.
4. A seemingly "white" organization can push a client to violate Article 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. This may be reflected in the offer to order on the black market — a certificate of income, a large family, a workbook. There is only one broker's interest here — the client receives a large amount and pays percentage from it as a reward.
5. Imposing additional services — a broker often cooperates with banks; it can be a legal company. However, after such registration, you will have to pay extra for the same insurance, provide a pledge of property (even if the amount is small), etc.
6. Misleading — very often clients become victims of conditions that can make their hair stand on end. In fact, after registration, this contract falls into the hands, the amount and terms of which are significantly different from those that the client expected to see.
7. Offer services that are not actually provided. For example, a broker may offer to clear your credit history. It is impossible to do this, all data is in the BCI and a limited number of security personnel have access. The only thing is that the data is updated once every 10 years, so the broker can take money simply for the fact that the legal period has passed, which has reset all data.

It is quite difficult to control the activities of brokerage companies, because there is no separate legislation that could regulate the options for cooperation of brokers with banks and their activities in fact.

The problem is that, falling into the hands of a fraudster, clients themselves break the law. It is worth recalling the criminal liability provided for by Article 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. In this case, you can get the maximum punishment in the form of imprisonment for a period of 2 years.

Summing up, the following can be highlighted:

1. The contract with the broker can be terminated even before the remuneration is paid to him based on article 450 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
2. Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation — relevant if the broker took part of the money from the loan for himself or used the data to obtain other loans.