‘Old Mutual’ loans are fake

I WANT to warn readers about an “Old Mutual Loan” scam I stumbled across. I’ve unfortunately given them everything: a copy of my ID, payslip, proof of address, bank statements etc.

I’m such an idiot. What makes me think it’s a scam is the wording of their e-mail (I’m a teacher so I picked up on minor wording/spelling mistakes). Then their e-mail address didn’t seem businesslike and ended with .com. And then finally, when I phoned, as per their request after sending the documents, the woman sounded foreign, didn’t greet with an Old Mutual business greeting, and seemed unsure of what I was saying to her. Which is when I felt sure I’d been scammed. Although I’ve not paid money to them, they have my personal details.

On approaching my bank, and having them check with Old Mutual if my application was on their system, they informed me they had no record of my loan application. They also informed me that the only way to apply for a loan through them was to personally deal with a consultant face-to-face. They do not do e-mail loan applications.

After I sent these people at “Old Mutual” my details, they then sent me another e-mail explaining that I had been granted the loan, but that I needed to fill in another form to finalise repayment details and that I needed to deposit R5 999 into their account to cover legal costs. I did not. They then tried phoning me, obviously in haste to get me to make the deposit. My husband answered the phone and they hung up. I have not heard from them since.

I want these scammers stopped and the public nformed. “Mandy”

Georgie: These are old scams – their e-mails are full of sloppy errors and the email address doesn’t even try to mimic Old Mutual’s. Glad you didn’t pay them a cent.