An email titled “Little Loans” offering cash within 15 minutes.

“Get an instant loan decision today up to £2,500”

This is from uk-prizes.com which is not a money lender.

They are a credit broker meaning they find “victims” willing to pay extortionate interest rates to get quick cash and pass their information onto a lender and they get commission from the lender if a credit agreement is taken out by the “victim”.

The legal status of uk-prizes is spelled out in the message and it is a registered trading name of Digitonomy in Cheshire.

I did say extortionate interest rates.

The message says their representative APR is 278% meaning if you borrow £1,000 for a year then you have to pay back almost £4,000.

Sadly this is quite legal and even if a fair number of people can never pay back their loan, the company still makes huge profits on those who do.

A second email arrived the same day from Cashflex.co.uk which again is a trading name of Digitonomy and offers quick cash. This time they claim their representative APR is only 99.9% but further down in the email does say they charge up to 278% APR

This really should be criminal.

Never take money from these kinds of companies.

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