urgent help: identity fraud, quick loans

[network_engineer]

Hi all,

Asking on behalf of a friend (non-Finn), married to a Finn.

It apparently seems that her husband misused her identity (SSN) to obtain quite a number of quick loans, I am told perhaps to solve a gambling problem. She did not know about the misuse of her ID or these loans in her name.

The fraud amount could total to a few thousands, exact figure is being investigated! She is planning on filing a complaint (police complaint?). However, apart from an obvious possibility of the relationship itself going sour, she is very concerned:

- what kind of protection exists against the use of her identity fraudulently
- is there any place to figure out how much and which companies have issued loans on her name/id?
- any mechanisms to protect her husband from using her identity again, e.g. is there a do-not-deal-on-her-ID kind of possibility?

Thanks.

Kind regards.

[network_engineer]

Yes!

Sad situation, I see it a bit differently! Gambling, and now stealing! Two vices, third one ...? I am not going to jump the gun. I recommended her to use the credit block facility, and that should stop most of the loan services in their tracks. But she is wondering, how to manage the already taken loans. The guy (her husband) has a bad credit + some ulos otta (recovery?), so well, he is unable to pay back!

She is hoping that she does not have to pay all this back!!! After all she did not use it!

[DMC]

I also have nothing constructive to offer, but perhaps you can educate me.
How did the loan company identify the applicant as being the wife? Aren't the loan companies a little lax, to put it politely, and responsible for their own problem of a bad loan? If they had taken sensible precautions they would never had made the loan. It is a regular topic on this forum that we need some form of photo ID to buy groceries with a credit card, so how come it is possible to take out loans for thousands without the same checks?
The other question is whether it makes any legal difference that it was the lady's husband rather than a stranger that used her identity. If a complete stranger carried out a fraud that way I don't see how she could be liable for the debt, but is there any kind of joint responsibility for a couple? If the husband had used a stranger's details for the loans would the wife be in any way responsible for the debt?
Sorry, more questions than answers.

[Upphew]

Yes!

Sad situation, I see it a bit differently! Gambling, and now stealing! Two vices, third one ...? I am not going to jump the gun. I recommended her to use the credit block facility, and that should stop most of the loan services in their tracks. But she is wondering, how to manage the already taken loans. The guy (her husband) has a bad credit + some ulos otta (recovery?), so well, he is unable to pay back!

She is hoping that she does not have to pay all this back!!! After all she did not use it!

I have hard time imagining how to not pay them without reporting the crime.

[cors187]

Hi all,

Asking on behalf of a friend (non-Finn), married to a Finn.

It apparently seems that her husband misused her identity (SSN) to obtain quite a number of quick loans, I am told perhaps to solve a gambling problem. She did not know about the misuse of her ID or these loans in her name.

The fraud amount could total to a few thousands, exact figure is being investigated! She is planning on filing a complaint (police complaint?). However, apart from an obvious possibility of the relationship itself going sour, she is very concerned:

- what kind of protection exists against the use of her identity fraudulently
- is there any place to figure out how much and which companies have issued loans on her name/id?
- any mechanisms to protect her husband from using her identity again, e.g. is there a do-not-deal-on-her-ID kind of possibility?

Thanks.

Kind regards.

How did she recieve knowledge of said fraud?letters from the lender companies?

[betelgeuse]

"A new personal identity code can only be issued when this is vital in order to provide protection to a person in circumstances where the health or safety of that person is under obvious and permanent threat, or when the original code has been repeatedly abused by a person other than to whom it was issued (Act on the Population Information System and the Certificate Services of the Population Register Centre, Act 661/2009)."

http://www.vrk.fi/default.aspx?id=45

It is illegal in Finland to have a positive credit registry so there is no way to know which companies have issued loans on her name. She should report to all the lenders that the loans were taken fraudulently and also make a crime report to the police. I assume the payments were done something like a phone number or bank account belonging only to the husband so it this will hopefully provide proof that he did it in her name. If the sum was larger, I would advice to consult a lawyer.

[Keravalainen]

Hi!
It would be a good idea now to obtain a voluntary own credit stop = "Oma-aloitteinen luottokieltomerkintä". There's a minor fee for that.
That says to creditors that no loans are allowed to this person. However, by presenting your specific cerificatre, you'll be able to get credits for yourself if needed.
The credit stop will be in effect for 2 years, if not discontinued prematurely.

This credit stop is recommended for everyone whose id card (or passport or driving licence) gets stolen.

https://www.omatieto.fi/luottotiedot/ac ... d=adwords1

[buffalo_soldier]

Hello all,

The situation is exactly the same as I'm in right now. My ex-girlfriend has stolen my social security number, bank ID/password in order to obtain quick loans. Damn all of those evil companies with their such blood-sucking services. They can avoid all of these disasters from beginning easily by matching receiver's bank account and official registered bank account of the person whose identity has been used to apply. All they want is gaining profit even in such unethical way! I wished all of them would be shut down right away. Credit card debt is nasty, but this kind of %/¤&# loan is even 10 times worse.

She was trying to cover the scheme up for more than a year, and before the grand reveal she got herself multiple bad credit marks already with debt up to almost 10k euro (original loan amount was about 6k, all crazy fees and interests added-up the final sum to 10k). In fact, I accidentally found out part of the whole scheme about six months ago. Back then I didn't realize the whole magnitude of the case, so I forgave her and asked nothing back but honesty. Guess what her reaction after that? She continued to lie about everything is over and she will fix/payback everything. Eventually, I learned the bitter truth few weeks ago in another embarrassing occasion. Yeah, it was all about gambling or that's what she admitted. But I don't believe what she said so much nowadays anymore.

I don't know how all this thing is possible. If gambling is really what behind like she said, I guess it has unbelievable power to change a person that I have known for 6 years into a cash-thirsty lair. She has betrayed all my trust and sincerely intention to help her last time. Gambling is an incurable disease that is spreading around society.

[network_engineer]

Hi!

Did some checks, these quick loan companies check ONLY the SSN and that the credit history is clean. Seems only basic credential evaluation (give us your full name, your DOB, your address, etc.) After that they will transfer to any given account number! Weird!

Long story short, she found discrepancies why she was getting bills, she had no idea about. Not knowing much Finnish also did not help!

Already advised her to block the credit facilities. No idea if it makes any difference if the fraud is committed by the spouse, things are being checked.

Kind regards.

[buffalo_soldier]

It's worse than credit card theft, I think. We usually have few-thousands euro security limit for credit card which the thief can not get more than that amount even in the worst scenario. But in this quick loan case, the thief can use stolen identity to apply for loans from various different companies as long as bad credit marks have not appear on victim's record yet (so the total "stolen" sum can be easily up to 20k). Yet, you only have to deal with your bank in case of stolen credit card, which I think it's much easier than facing multiple quick loan companies. Actually, in my situation only God knows how many companies she has turned in for loans. And those companies always try to dodge the ball of responsibility through bureaucracy and their crap.

[cors187]

So the loan company gets a name,address,bank account and Personal Identity code http://www.vrk.fi/default.aspx?id=45, which almost everyone gets if they work here for more than 3 months.
Then checks the credit rating for the PIC provided?
Then submits the loan into a bank account number provided?
Conflicting data doesn't get screened?
Loan repayments are sent by letter to the name and address?

It seems like the bulk of the responsibility rests on the loan company, but they have a way to always collect an increase in profit.
So to my thinking the wife pays or the wife takes action which causes the husband to receive the responsibility of the fraud, by doing so the husband generates the paperwork that allows the loan company to change the wife's responsibility of said case.

[Rick1]

In other civilized countries every loan or large obligation you take as a married couple, you need two signatures, men/wife or men/men women/women (any other tastes already? men/dog, wife/cat? not that there is anything wrong with that) So if on the contract stands a false signature, contract is not valid. Unfortanetly the Finnish government still lives in the 50's but wants to play in the real world. Who let it happen that you can take a loan with your mobile phone? They have done a halve measure by limiting the intrest on these loans but the availabilty is still huge and now they just use the term costs. Ofcourse us tax payers will clean up the mess again but before that we put many people in large debt and make these loansharks more rich.

[buffalo_soldier]

I am curious to know, what loan company is that? usually the process is pretty much same as I said, they don't pay money to other bank accounts just the bank account that is used to verify. So, if the amount came in her account and he used her Debit/Credit card or transfer it to his account via online transfer then she will pay the price for stupidity by not securing her card pins, bank codes, etc.

I think it depends on company's policy, some send money to bank account which was used to verify, others send to different specified account. These are some of those evil ones: Ok Money Oy / iKassa Oy, Ok Perintä Oy, Svea Perintä, Svea Inkasso Ab, Euronic Oy, Kontano Oy, Netforce Capital Oy.
The names doesn't seem familiar or well-known to ordinary consumers like us.Because one company usually runs multiple different quick loan services with different commercial names. But in the end, when dealing with unpaid debt, they reveal themselves as one.