Likely Loans

Likely Loans are a payday loan operation – part of Oakbrook Finance Ltd.

They typically charge 59.99% APR and to get people who will pay that they target those with poor credit ratings unable to get cheaper loans.

Internet reviews of Likely Loans seem split between those who love the quick access to funds e.g.

“Excellent service. Money within 24hrs and payments taken on regular dates”

and those who think the company are scammers and liars e.g.

“CON AVOID. WORST LOAN COMPANY EVER. RUINED MY CREDIT SCORE EVEN AFTER BEING A LOYAL PAY EXTRA CUSTOMER. HISTORY MEANS NOTHING ..AVOID”

Trustpilot shows 78% excellent reviews so they are pleasing some people.

Manoj Kumar Badale Is the longest serving director of Oakwood and is listed on 76 companies at Companies House – either active or dissolved companies. That’s quite a record and would worry some people.

Pay day loans may be a necessary evil for some people, but are better avoided if at all possible.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.

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Data Breaches Facts

Hackers break into company computer systems and steal confidential information. i.e. they make copies of it for their own purposes.

The hackers might then ransom the data back to the owner or sell it to a competitor or sell it to other scammers or  might make us of it in phishing scams i.e. to get more confidential information which they can then sell to fraudsters.

This is big business and usually it’s the customers of the hacked business that suffer.

We give our private and financial information to companies to do business with them but we expect they will do everything necessary to keep that data secure.

Many companies do have excellent data security but some fall short.

The cost to a company of a data breach can include:-

  1. Creation of contact databases
  2. Regulatory requirements
  3. External experts
  4. Postal costs
  5. Communications set-ups
  6. Audit services
  7. Helpdesk
  8. Legal expenditures
  9. Reimbursement for customers
  10. Cost of cleaning up data

Besides the material costs, there may be reputation damage.

Recent research shows:-

  • The average cost of a data breach is $3.86 million
  • The average global total cost per record stolen is $141 but there is huge variance across incidents.
  • Companies in South Africa and India have the highest chance of data breaches whereas companies in Germany and Canada have the lowest.
  • The mean time to identify and contain a breach is 280 days
  • The faster the breach is recognised, then generally the lower the total cost
  • The increasing use of mobile platforms is increasing the chances of data breaches.

For information on how to recognise a cyber-attack see

https://fightbackonline.org/index.php/business/102-do-you-know-if-your-business-has-been-cyber-attacked

[facts taken from 2020 Cost of Data Breach Study]

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Inflammation Belly Scam

The email title is ‘Flatten Your Inflammation Belly’ which is interesting as there is a lot of recent research suggesting that inflammation plays an important part in how quickly we age.  Also that diet and exercise can lead to increases in inflammation which can be damaging.

This interest is why the scammer picked the subject.

However, the email is just a typical scam.

It says “80% of men and women over 40 suffer from this problem”.

“Do this one simple trick to flatten your inflammation belly”.

There’s lots of pointless detail and it ends up with

“Do this one trick to wake-up 1 pound lighter tomorrow”

So, where does the one pound go – does it de-materialise or does a chunk of flesh simply fall off.

There’s an unpleasant thought.

No thanks

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Stupidest Scam or Spam of the Week Heart Tar

Scammers have pounced on another ancient medicine and claim magical effects for it from curing almost any disease to removing all plaque from your arteries instantly.

The ancient Indian Ayurvedic holistic system of medicine uses many ingredients as supplements and medicines that are little known to Western medicine.

One such ingredient is Shilajit which is a black substance found  in some rocky areas in the Himalayas and is thought to be largely decomposed plant remains.

It does contain a lot of chemicals and has been used for centuries in Ayurveda but there have been very few scientific studies of its effects so it’s largely a case of some people claiming various properties for the substance and as yet there isn’t the evidence to prove or disprove them.

The scammers claim that within days “your heart will be pumping like it did when you were 20 years old!”

There is no evidence for this and it is clearly impossible – just a claim from a scammer.

The scammers also claim there are no side effects whereas the limited studies carried out have identified many side effects known to have happened to takers of the substance, including  hormone imbalance.

It is likely the substance has some beneficial effects on health when correctly prescribed, but as with all such medicine there will be problems and it is not a magic pill.

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