Better Business Bureau warns customers of advanced payday loan scams

CHICAGO (WLS) -- With inflation raising prices, families experiencing financial hardship may be looking for ways to tide them over, which leads to scammers pretending to be payday loan employees, the Better Business Bureau warned.

BBB CEO Steve Bernas said payday loan scammers will pretend to be an employee of a legal payday loan company and steal important information, offer fake payday loans or pressure consumers into believing they owe money on debts.

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The goal in debt collection scams is largely the same as payday loan and advance fee scams, which is to convince unsuspecting people to hand over cash.

The BBB Scam Tracker has found 7,834 reports about loan and debt collection scams with losses of $4,145,810, according to the BBB. Consumers can protect themselves by asking for upfront fee payments on new loans and looking up complaints and reports on the bureau's website.