Loan sharks are increasingly using social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and Snapchat to find, threaten, and control victims, according to England’s Illegal Money Lending Team (IMLT). The IMLT’s 2020 victim statistics report reveals that one in ten victims first encountered their illegal lender through social media or dating websites.
Tony Quigley, head of the IMLT, explained that criminals create fake local community groups on WhatsApp and Facebook to lure victims. These groups appear benign but are used to apply pressure, with lenders publicly shaming those who fail to repay. “The illegal moneylender uses the group to apply pressure to the individual,” Quigley said, citing examples of lenders posting messages like “I can’t give out loans this week, because Doris still owes me money.”
The economic impact of the pandemic has heightened concerns about a rise in loan-shark victims. Quigley noted that illegal lenders exploit financial hardship, but victims often take up to two years to seek help. In one case, a lender allegedly paid a Snapchat influencer to promote loans, while another victim was targeted on a dating site, tricked into a £3,000 loan that the lender later demanded £10,000 and sexual favours to repay.
Victims from the LGBTQ community have also been blackmailed on social sites, with loan sharks threatening to share private photographs. Additionally, those who introduce loan sharks to others risk having debts transferred to them if the original borrower defaults.
Charities warn that gangs are using family debt to coerce children into county lines drug dealing. Bali Rodgers, founder of the Safer Communities Alliance, described a 17-year-old who took on his mother’s £3,000 debt by dealing drugs. “For the gangs it is all about power and control,” she said, adding that the pandemic has worsened the situation for women.
Quigley praised soap operas like EastEnders for raising awareness of loan sharks, saying, “It’s a real issue that anyone could be affected by.”
