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West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw is warning consumers of fraudulent Internet loan collectors posing as law-enforcement officers. The scammers threaten consumers with the consequences of allowing Internet payday loans to go unpaid. However, the consumers they threaten never obtained such a loan or paid it off years ago, according to an advisory issued yesterday by the attorney general. Internet payday loans are short-term loans or cash advances consumers make over the Internet and are secured by an agreement authorizing debits of the loan and all fees owed from their checking accounts. The loans are illegal in West Virginia. The scammers typically pose as law- enforcement officers, lawyers and bankers, sometimes identifying themselves as "U.S. National Bank," "Federal Investigation Bureau" or "United Legal Processing," and threaten consumers with arrest for bank fraud unless they wire the funds immediately. The fraudsters, according to McGraw, try to scare consumers by telling them "we are downloading warrants against you" or "we are filing an affidavit against you." When consumers do not fall for the scam immediately, the crooks warn that "only God can help you now." Law-enforcement officials believe the scammers may operate from foreign countries, including India. The scammers nearly always call consumers at work several times a day, and they tell their marks' supervisors that their employee has committed fraud and is about to be arrested.
