IT’S SWINDLE! Don’t lap up loans offering negligible rate of interest

AMRESH PARAB | NT
PANAJI
If someone offers you a loan at a very low rate of interest and without any surety, think twice as according to the police there have been incidents wherein people have been cheated by fraudsters.
The cyber crime police say that fraudsters send an email or an SMS or put advertisements offering loan/finance at a very low rate of interest for which there is no requirement of a surety. A contact number or email address is given. Once contacted the fraudster offers a very attractive loan/finance of huge amount for a very minimal rate of interest and with no surety. Once the confidence is won by the fraudster, the interested person is asked to deposit certain amount of money in a particular bank as processing charges. The fraudster keeps on demanding money on various pretexts like charges for agreement drafting, stamp papers etc till the borrower realises that it is a fraud and that he/she is cheated.
Referring to a case, the police said that there was a finance/loan scheme to prospective businessman for 2 per cent rate of interest with no surety. A person contacted the scheme promoter on the number provided and expressed interest in obtaining loan. The borrower was asked by the fraudster to deposit certain amount of money in a particular bank account as processing charges. At first the amount could range between Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000. Once the money was deposited the fraudster kept on asking for more money. When more and more money was demanded then it downed upon the borrower that he was being swindled.
The police said that tracing unknown accused becomes difficult as the bank accounts in which loanees are asked to deposit money are opened using forged documents. Even the mobile SIM cards are also obtained on forged documents.
One needs to be very careful while dealing with such offers of loan/finance schemes, the police said adding that lack of awareness as well as greed makes people fall prey to various tricks of the fraudsters.