Online Title Loans Are Spamming the Internet

1. O N L INE T I TLE L O A NS : A NEW WAVE OF INTERNETSPAM

2. In the old days , you would have to go to a bank or a wealthy community member and ask for their temporarycharity. • Lenders saw this as an opportunity tocapitalize The Rise of Online TitleLoans • If they could provide a quick, easy, and confidential way of obtaining a short they could make some seriousprofits • Thus payday and title loan services wereborn. -term loan,then

3. Benefits of OnlineLoans Make all ofyourweekly or monthlypayments online Privacy You don’t have to physically meet somebody Time Saving

4. Uploading personal items opens up the window for ha ckers to do their dirty work Risks of OnlineLoans Lack ofcredibility Residual trojan or phishing viruses can leak your personalinformation Fake lenders who will scam yourmoney

5. Payday loans are based on how much you make on yourpaycheck • After talking with a loan officer, you’ll usually be approved within hours. They’ll either cut you a check or direct deposit the amount into your bank account. • Before they give you your money, they will give you a set interest rate and will set your payment dates up in a ccordance with your payschedule • In some cases, they will even take your bank a ccount information andwithdraw the money after you deposityour • paycheck. How Do Payday LoansWork?

6. Title loans operate under the same principle, except instead of basing your loan off your weekly income, they’ll base it on the value of yourcar. • Title loans can give borrowers a little bit more flexibility and allow them to take out a larger loan thana • payday loan, especially if they have a newer model vehicle • If you fail to pay them ba ck, they are legally permitted to take your car and resell it to get their money back. • In the case of an online title loan, you’ll be expected to fax or email them a copy of your vehicle’s title and send them pictures of your vehicle for appraisal purposes How Do Title LoansWork?

7. Why Is ItHappening? • Affiliatecommissions • Lendersthemselves In some cases, one particularly large lender will create multiple websites all listed as different companies to give borrowers the illusionof competition. While not illegal, this is dishonest and gives people an ina ccurate view of theiroptions. Example If you search Yelp for title loans in SouthFlorida,60% – 70% of the “different” listings all led back to one online lender. A man named Martin Contreras who lived halfway across the country in Idaho wasresponsible. The Rise of Title LoanSpam • How Does This Affect Borrowers? • Borrowers can’t trust whether a company really is who they say theyare • This gap in trust preventsthe • honest loan c ompanies whostick to one listing from being able to compete • This, in turn, leaves very limited options to theborrowers • Lack ofsecurity

8. What Can Be Done To Stop Title Loan Spam? • Search engines need to cra ck down on fakelistings • They should also carefully screen affiliate sites and eliminate reviews that are obviouslybiased, • misleading, orfake • Reducing the excessive title loan spam is the only way to restore borrowers’ faith in lending companies, and allow the small local businesses tocompete.

9. R E F E R E N C ES • https://www.savingadvice.com/articles/2018/01/20/1053963_online -title- • loans-new-wave -internet-spam.html • http://edition.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/10/08/aa.car.title.loans/ • https://titleloansfaq.org/best- car-title-loans-near-me/