Central Bank must commence full investigation on fraudulent lenders – McGrath

Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Finance Michael McGrath TD has called on the Central Bank of Ireland to commence a full investigation into fraudulent websites offering unsecured loans. His comments come after warnings were raised by the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau on the practice.

Deputy McGrath commented, “This is a very serious development. These websites are preying on people who may be seeking loans for a wide variety of reasons. According to the National Economic Crime Bureau, these websites look very sleek and professional. The victim, after applying for a loan, must provide a fee in advance of the loan being provided. This “fee” ends up in the perpetrators bank account and obviously no loan is advanced.

“The priority for An Garda Síochána is to find those responsible for this type of fraud and bring them to justice. However, I believe in the interest of consumer protection, the Central Bank has a very important role to play. The Central Bank should immediately commence an investigation into this issue. We do not know at this stage how many people have been impacted, the cost to those people and the number of websites out there that are fraudulent.

“Ongoing efforts must be raised also to tackle this emerging issue as it seems clear that the practice will continue, and new websites will emerge to commit this type of fraud. There is obviously an international aspect to this as well as many of these sites are operated from outside Ireland. It is critical that Interpol and the relevant arms of the European Union raise their efforts to stamp this fraudulent behaviour out.

“It is a criminal offence for an unauthorised firm to provide financial services in Ireland without appropriate Central Bank authorisations and people should check the Central Bank register on its website before handing any money over to supposed lenders.

“The Central Bank must get out ahead of this. The people most likely to be caught out by this fraud are people already struggling to get by and need credit to pay rent or other bills. This fraud could push people further into financial difficulty and cause untold stress and suffering.

“I welcome the fact that An Garda Síochána has raised this issue and it is incumbent on the Gardaí and the Central Bank to make sure that people are protected from all types of financial fraud. Last year the Central Statistics Office reported an 18% increase in instances of fraud. It is clear that it is a major issue and it must be tackled by the relevant arms of the State to ensure that people are protected”, concluded Deputy McGrath.