Loan Fraud and Scams In South Africa: Protect Yourself From Scammers
Fraudsters and scammers are constantly innovating new ways to scam you out of your money. Please read this article with tips and fraud examples to keep yourself safe.
Scammers & their Tactics
Scammers use various tactics to make their victims believe they are from an authentic or legitimate organisation. To add legitimacy to the offers, the scammers will include business names and branding of established loan providers. To help protect yourself from scams, watch out for the following:
- People you don’t know or any person asking you for money.
- People ask you for advance fees to receive a loan, prize or other winnings.
- People asking you to move your conversation off Facebook to other platforms such as email, SMS, or WhatsApp.
- Messages or posts with poor spelling and grammatical mistakes.
- People or Pages claiming to represent large companies or organisations, particularly those who are not verified.
- People who message you after hours are usually scammers.
Scammers Pretending to be Atlas Finance
Loan scammers are pretending to be from Atlas Finance, sending messages and leaving posts offering instant loans at low interest rates for a small advance fee.
They try to legitimise their activity by using our logo to make documents look like official Atlas Finance paperwork. Please be cautious to whom you give your details and if you are ever uncertain, rather call our customer service to verify first. If you have not applied for a loan through Atlas Finance and someone contacts you saying they are from Atlas Finance, then this is fraud.
Please contact our call centre on 0800 204 679 if you have any fraud concerns.
What to look out for
Atlas Finance is a registered credit provider and trusted business for almost 30 years. There are things that scammers are doing that we, as a legitimate business, will NEVER do. These are:
- Ask for an upfront fee for your loan to be paid to you, or to increase the amount of your loan.
- Offering a loan for a much higher amount than usual. We offer loans up to the value of R14,000 over a maximum term of 6 months; any message or advert offering you a loan for more money is a scam.
- Send an email with a @gmail address. Any person associated with Atlas Finance will have an email address with the “@atcorp” domain and never a @gmail or other address.
For more tips, call us on 0800204679 or complete the form on our contact page and we will call you back.
How to Report Fraudulent Scams & Scammers:
Atlas Finance is a responsible registered credit provider. To report any fraudulent activity, please click here. Alternatively, you can report suspicious behaviour on social platforms they occur on.
How to report a post on Facebook/Meta:
- Click in the top right of the post
- Click Report post or Report photo
- Select the option that best describes the issue and follow the on-screen instructions
How to report a post on WhatsApp:
- Click on the sender’s “Contact Info”
- Scroll to the bottom and click “Report Contact”
EXAMPLES OF FRAUDULENT ADVERTISEMENTS
We’ve shared some examples of fraudulent adverts that you can click on to enlarge. They are, in order from left to right:
- Facebook/Meta Messenger Example
- Facebook/Meta Group Message Example
- WhatsApp Messanger Conversation Example
- Phishing Email from a fraudster pretending to be “Atlas Finance Limited”
We hope that these tips, tricks and fraud examples have helped you understand the types of innovative tactics that scammers are using. Stay safe and if you are ever concerned or worried about a request, use these official lines of Atlas Finance communication before sharing any sensitive information.
