Did you pay for a loan or credit card in advance?

It is illegal for a lender or creditor to ask you to pay in advance for a loan or credit.  Unfortunately many consumers who are desperate for financial assistance fall prey to this illegal scheme every year.  If you are a victim of this type of scam, don't be embarrassed -- you are NOT alone. Here are some important tips.

• Did you give the lender any personally identifiable information such as your date of birth, Social Security number, bank account numbers, credit card number – anything that is susceptible to being used to steal your identity? If so follow these instructions:

1. Report this to the FTC ID Theft hotline at 1.877.438.4338 OR register a complaint on the website. Go to the FTC ID Theft site and learn more about what to do.
2. Place a fraud alert on your credit report.
3. Look into a security freeze to freeze your credit. Some states will allow you to freeze your credit and others will not. To see if you can freeze your credit go here or contact your state Attorney General.
4. Close any and all credit and bank accounts connected to the information you provided the scam -lender. Open new ones.

• If your case involves sending money to Canada, file a complaint with PhoneBusters at 1.888.495.8501. You should call Phone busters because they need to collect your story with all of the details -- They want to hear your story. Please do this quickly. The sooner you file a complaint the easier it is for them to track and find the scam-lenders.

• Contact your state Attorney General. If the scam-lenders are caught the authorities can extradite them to the states where the illegal activities were perpetrated, if the Attorney General has the information early enough.

• Spread the word everywhere and to anyone you can. The name of the company is not important. The type of crime is.  Learn more about this type of crime here and here.

• Never send money by Western Union or Money Gram money to a company. Use this service ONLY for friends and family members. The money will be gone within 30 minutes in most cases and there is little hope of recovering it.

• Help others from becoming a victim of this crime by telling as many people as you can.