Wonga to help scam victims

Have you fallen prey to a scam linked to online credit provider Wonga.com? If so, there's light at the end of the tunnel.

Consumers done out of thousands of rands thinking they were dealing with the legitimate loans company will be assisted to clear their names and restore access to credit. They won't, unfortunately, get their money back.

The fraudsters, by sending phoney e-mails or SMSes in Wonga's name, have induced scores of unsuspecting consumers not only to part with personal information (leading to risk of identity theft) but to deposit money, supposedly for "advance fees", into the criminals' bank accounts.

In one case, a victim was duped into paying R40 000 in the belief he would get it back once the "loan" was paid.

A fraud hotline set up by Wonga will help victims fix bad payment records at credit bureaux and banks.

The hotline will also record details of the fraud to aid in the police investigation.

Wonga, which provides short-term loans via its website, does not send unsolicited direct marketing through SMS or e-mail, and it never requests any upfront payment for a loan.

The highest loan it offers to first-time customers is R2 500.

Wonga's head of customer operations, Justin Taylor, said it received about 300 complaints weekly about the unsolicited notifications and that even the company's CEO and "high-ranking parliamentarians" had received the scam messages.

"We will supply affected consumers with affidavits and any other supporting documentation showing this was not a legitimate Wonga transaction ... we want to do the right thing.

"In terms of getting money back, we are unfortunately unable to assist, but will do what we can in sharing information with the police to help track down the perpetrators," Taylor said.

The investigation, involving the Hawks, was "sensitive" but Wonga was confident of "some success soon".

Wonga's fraud hotline is 086-196-6424 or za.fraud@wonga.com