Targeting unlicensed money lenders
What is a loan shark?
A ‘loan shark’ is anyone who is lending money without having a licence to do that from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).
These unlicensed money-lenders are working illegally – they are ‘loan sharks’.
How loan sharks work
Loan sharks all tend to work in similar ways:
- they rarely give any paperwork to the people they've loaned money to - making it very difficult to keep track of how much is owed
- if payments are missed, they often use threats and violence to get more money
- they charge extremely high rates of interest and also add other 'charges' to loans whenever they want
- they take away people's bank cards as 'security'
People involved in illegal money-lending tend to be part of other criminal activities, too. This can include gun and knife crime, counterfeiting and drug-dealing.
What to do if you've borrowed from an unlicensed money-lender
If you have borrowed money from someone who doesn't have a licence, you haven't broken the law - they have.
You can report them in confidence, by:
- Calling 0300 555 2222, or
- Texting loan shark and the details you want to pass on to 60003, or
- Sending us an email
