ONLINE LENDING: HOW FASTMONEY KILLS CUSTOMERS, ROB ACCOUNTS

By  Murtala Maikano Bilbis

The attention of the Nigerian Force and other relevant agencies have been
Called by the victims of a trending online lending company known as Fastmoney in Nigeria with contact address: Venia Business Hub, Plot, 8providence street, Lekki Phase 1 Lagos, Nigeria.
Contact no:08067437749
Samuel Brown, businesseman based in Lagos told  desert Herald Newspaper that Fastmoney a subsidiary of the Sokoloan company, that pretend to be an online lending company but scamming innocent and helpless Nigerians in the name of offering loan services to Nigerians. Brown said the company has ruined his marriage, said Mr Brown "I have been trying to pay back my loan with the application but it was not working then, though I later paid after the second day that it was overdue. Fastmoney had got Access  to my privacy and sent irrelevant messages carrying my picture on social media and also sent it to all my contacts including my inlaws that I am a criminal and I was on the run Just because of N7000, now, I have paid the money but I have lost my marriage and good reputation  to the general public. Therefore, Mr Samuel call to Nigerian government, Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN), Economic and Financial Crimine Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and Other related Offenses Commission ( ICPC), Police Service Commission and National Rights commission to investigate the activities of Fastmoney and Soko lending company as the duo disguise in online lending and rob innocent citizens Bank accounts and exposed them to danger.

Similarly, Yusuf Idris, a Student of Kwata State polytechnic interviewed by Desert Herald Newspaper, said the economic crisis in the country has left a lot of Nigerians frustrated, hopeless and helpless. As a result, Fastmoney lending firm has emerged to take advantage of the situation. While some of them offer genuine financial assistance with considerable interest rates and repayment methods, others are just like preys that milk their ‘victims’ dry. One of such lending company currently operating in Nigeria is Fastmoney Loan (a subsidiary of Soko Lending Company Limited), a money lending company that has been scamming millions of Nigerians to make a fortune for itself.

Firstly, exclusive investigation revealed that Fastmoney Loan offers the worst loan package to customers, compared to its contemporaries. The company would not only give you a maximum of 7 days to repay its loan, after which an arbitrary daily interest of about N200 will be added for late repayment.

For a loan of N5,000 for instance, which is to be paid back within 10days, Fastmoney charges N2,102 as interest (for just 10 days), meaning that the customer will repay the sum of N7,102. And from the 11th day, additional daily interest of about N200 is added to the fee until the customer pays back as other online money lending firms offer far better and reasonable packages.
And as if that is not enough, Fastmoney will still go ahead to threaten defaulters with defamation of character, exposing customers to danger by exposing their privacy including phone contacts, pictures BVN and addresses, and also send stinker messages to the phone contacts of the defaulter, as a scam company the mobile application of Fastmoney is automated to have access to the borrower’s phone contacts, as earlier, in the application process they stated that the contacts of the customer wouldn't be shared to the third party.
Yusuf, the victim said "For a loan of N14,000, I ended up being debited of N21,546 by Fastmoney, after they had tried everything to drag my integrity in the mud by sending bulk text messages to all my phone contacts that I have been declared wanted by Nigerian police force and anti-graft agency" Idris urged Nigerians to avoid patronizing Fastmoney and any soko subsidiary company in Nigeria.

Yusuf said Fastmoney makes dubious direct deductions from customers’ bank accounts, having being in possession of the client’s debit card details. “Sometimes, they will also call you on phone and threaten you to pay directly into a particular bank account, after which they will claim it was a ‘ghost worker’ that made the call.

Therefore, The attention of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other relevant agencies need to urgently investigate the activities of Fastmoney and curb them from scamming more people.

Investigation conducted by Desert Herald Newspaper in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital revealed on how a poor lady fall victim of the Fastmoney company which led the culmination life of the peasant lady.

Arike Ade and Odukuru Oghenewede Ejiro, residents of Ibadan, Oyo state capital lamented over the incident happened to the poor lady who committed suicide due to the  pressure, embarrassment and harrassement mounted on her by Fastmoney lending company according to the duo the incidence happened in  Ibadan, Agbowo Area. They told Desert Herald Newspaper that dead woman was found with a note after committing suicide because of the #8000 loan she received from Fastmoney and could not pay back at stipulated time. In the note, the loan was to be due in two weeks with a very huge interest of N7000. So in total, she was supposed to pay #15,000 back in 14 days for a loan of #8000, but failed repay and later begged the customer care of the company to give her till the month end, being a salary earner, as her loan was due since 15th of January, but they treated her badly and harassed her through the phone. Then 4 days later they started calling and messaging her contacts with her picture as a criminal wanted by Nigerian police force. They have called 49 of her contacts before she eventually took her life.

In a similar incidence, Rebecca Ulrick, told Desert Herald that the Lagos State Police Command is on the search of the Suspect online. We are on the look for staff of FastMoney Company using this phone numbers below 09026003565, 09135087961 for the murder of one Mr Johnson Ototo Bulu a Lagos base business man who was murder a month ago following the visit of the Fast Money Company staff to the deceased office a month ago same day the deceased was murdered and the Nigeria Police are informing the general public for the search of the user of the numbers above... We hereby declared the user of this numbers wanted needed for proper questioning. We hereby order Fast Money Company to review her details to the police. Address and photos of the suspect. If not the company will be held liable for resisting arrest of the suspect.