Beware! Portfolio Scam Victims On The Rise

Portfolio scam – Newest scam?

A portfolio scam is one of the newest scams that is taking multiple victims' money. It is a type of scam that preys on the gullible and the vulnerable. This scam takes advantage of people's ignorance and/or fear of persecution. It is one of those scams that use smart levels of social engineering to make a victim fork over his or her money.

What is it?

A portfolio scam or as victims know it, a portfolio recovery scam is a brand new scam to look out for. This scam particularly preys on people with an outstanding bank or any other financial institution loan. They will pose as a third-party debt collector or what is in the financial niche colloquially know as non-performing loans acquirer and collector and have you pay your loan or else they would take the matter and file a summons for you in the courts.

I cannot be a victim of that, I have no loan

While it is true that it seems like a weak proposition to bank their whole operations on, knowing that people remember their loans or other money obligations quite intimately, that is not always the case. These scammers often spam call thousands of unwilling victims every day until they land on one potential gullible and forgetful person. Until they find a person who does have an outstanding loan with a bank or any other financial institution, these scammers would keep on spam calling numbers.

People cannot possibly fall for that

While it is still unverified, authorities suspect that these scammers may have illegitimately and illegally procured a list of some sort that bears the names or contact numbers of people with outstanding bank loans from the banks themselves. Acquisition of such a list would make the job of these scammers easier now having the ability to narrow down their search and increasing their chances of finding their next victim.

How do these scammers convince a victim to pay?

Once they have their potential victims on their sight, these scammers employ rather smart social engineering skills specifically crafted for this scam's purpose. They would scare you into paying by saying that failure to secure the payment to your loan; would push their hand to file a civil liability case against you. Once they know you are a potential victim, they would keep harassing you by spam calling you and saying that you can expect a court summon any time soon. If you still would not budge, they would cite possible punishment if ever you are found guilty of deliberate avoidance of your loan.

What happens if a victim gave in?

As with all scams, after payment is made they would often become unreachable. What was once a consistent and annoying call would be gone and you would be hard-pressed to hear another word from them. These scammers would route and reroute their calls through numerous fake IDs and fake names to try and confuse any victim trying to contact them.

What to do to avoid these all?

The number one, true and tested way to not fall for this new portfolio scam is keeping your wits with you if you ever get in a call with one of these scammers.

You can try asking for these questions if you ever get in a call with one

1. What is the name of the original creditor?

2. When was the loan made by you and when was the loan sold to them?

3. How much was the loan?

4. Or you can say that you would want to proceed legally and should wait for the court summons only then shall they get the response from you.

By doing this, the scammers would hopefully quit their ill intentions knowing you know your way around legal procedures and is not afraid to pursue.