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Last updated on July 5th, 2024 at 11:40 am
I had the hardship loan phone call again this week. It seems that 2023 is still the year for this scam. For those of you who it’s a robocall stating you have been approved for a loan up to 37 thousand dollars.
Doesn’t that sound odd to anyone else?
I thought so too especially since I haven’t applied for any loans. These calls have been happening since 2022.
You can see previous posts about this topic by visiting the links below.
The scam
The calls have been from various numbers across the US. They all leave different call-back numbers to various numbers in Northern California or most recently they used a 1-800 number.
Today’s call was from the following number:
948-200-9047
upon checking the area code 948 seems to be based in Virginia.
The callback number for today’s call from Natalie is the following:
833-888-0658
As you can see they are back to using a 1-800 number and it includes a 888 as well. So I figured it was a user-generated number.
The message
The messages are all the same. The robocaller (male or in this case female) states you have been approved for a loan of up to 37 thousand dollars. I assume they mean USD.
They then go on to state that your loan will be placed in a pending status. So if you have 5 minutes to talk you can call them back at the stated call back number to discuss your loan.
Here’s today’s audio message that was left as a voicemail.
Take note that the caller never states the name of the hardship loan lender or the company they are calling from. They also never address me by my name.
what’s suspicious
The most suspicious thing about these calls is that they all claim only be available until a certain time Pacific Time. The other thing I find odd is that the call back numbers are from local Northern California area codes to now the 1-800 numbers.
The biggest thing is that they just began as most scams do out of the blue. They also seem to happen repeatedly for a week and then stop before starting up again.
All of the callers have been robocalls.
I also noticed that many of these calls are silent ring calls. My phone may ring once if at all before the voicemail notice pops up.
what you can do
You can report the call to your cell service provider as spam or a scam. If your service has that option. You can also block the number.
These are short-term options but it still helps.
Remember if this sounds too good to be true it is. Don’t call the numbers back or provide them with any important personal information.
