London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Sunday, Aug 10, 2025

Loan sharks target new victims via WhatsApp and Facebook

Loan sharks target new victims via WhatsApp and Facebook

Criminals have been using social media – from dating sites to local community groups – to find, threaten and control people in debt
Local WhatsApp groups have been one of the silver linings of the pandemic, creating community ties and support networks. Yet loan sharks are increasingly using these groups to extort money from their victims, according to England’s Illegal Money Lending Team (IMLT), an organisation that prosecutes illegal lenders and supports victims.

Such lenders are also targeting their victims online – the IMLT’s 2020 victim statistics report shows that one in 10 victims met the loan shark via social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Snapchat and Facebook, or through dating websites. Criminals are also creating their own WhatsApp and Facebook groups that appear to be for local communities but are actually ways to maintain control over their victims, according to Tony Quigley, the head of the IMLT. “It looks like a local community group,” he said. “They will say ‘come and join the group’, ‘see what’s going on’. But it has a more sinister side to it.”

Loan sharks operate by offering victims short-term loans, then increasing their repayments arbitrarily and adding extra costs, often with threats of violence if money is not repaid.

“The illegal moneylender uses the group to apply pressure to the individual,” he said. “’I can’t give out loans this week, because Doris still owes me money’, that sort of thing. As well as ‘if you don’t pay me this week, I’ll put a note on the WhatsApp group about how you owe money’.”

The economic impact of the pandemic means that the IMLT fears there could be an increase in the number of loan-shark victims.

“What we find is that wherever there is financial difficulty, then the illegal moneylenders will exploit that to their own advantage,” said Quigley.

“But it can take as long as two years for people to come through and ask for help – when people are at their most desperate.”

The IMLT said that in one case, a lender allegedly paid a Snapchat influencer to promote its loans.

Another victim was targeted on a dating website, where some loan sharks set up profiles offering loans. The woman was tricked into taking out a £3,000 loan after revealing she had financial problems. The IMLT said the loan shark demanded £10,000 and sexual favours to pay off her debt.

Victims have also described being blackmailed on social sites used by the LGBTQ community by loan sharks threatening to download and share private photographs if they fail to pay their debts.

Those who introduce loan sharks to their victims are also vulnerable, Quigley said: “If you introduce somebody to the illegal moneylender and they don’t pay, then that debt can be moved to you.”

Charities supporting victims of crime say gangs have been using family debt as a way to force children into county lines drug dealing.

Bali Rodgers, the founder of the Safer Communities Alliance, a Kent-based community interest company, said they had recently supported a 17-year-old whose mother was a drug user.

“She has mental health problems and ran up a £3,000 debt and the son has taken responsibility for paying it off by doing county lines drug dealing,” she said. “For the gangs it is all about power and control, and one of the currencies of control is cash.

“They hold debts over vulnerable people as a way of hot-wiring their entire lives. We have assisted families in south-east London, many of whom had to pay back spiralling interest of alleged drug debts for their children.

“This is just the tip of the tip of the iceberg. The coronavirus pandemic has amplified the situation for women. It’s getting worse, not better.”

Quigley said the depiction of loan sharks in soap operas, most recently an EastEnders storyline where Karen Taylor, played by Lorraine Stanley, is threatened over a £10,000 debt, had helped raise awareness of how they operate.

“We’ve put illegal moneylenders on the agenda now. It’s been in all the soaps, whereas before it never had been. It’s a real issue that anyone could be affected by.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Street justice isn’t pretty but how else do you deal with this kind of insanity? Sometimes someone needs to standup and say something
Armenia and Azerbaijan sign U.S.-brokered accord at White House outlining transit link via southern Armenia
Barcelona Resolves Captaincy Issue with Marc-André ter Stegen
US Justice Department Seeks Release of Epstein and Maxwell Grand Jury Exhibits Amid Legal and Victim Challenges
Trump Urges Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan to Resign Over Alleged Chinese Business Ties
Scotland’s First Minister Meets Trump Amid Visit Highlighting Whisky Tariffs, Gaza Crisis and Heritage Links
Trump Administration Increases Reward for Arrest of Venezuelan President Maduro to Fifty Million Dollars
Armenia and Azerbaijan to Sign US-Brokered Framework Agreement for Nakhchivan Corridor
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
OpenAI Launches GPT‑5, Its Most Advanced AI Model Yet
Embarrassment in Britain: Homelessness Minister Evicted Tenants and Forced to Resign
President Trump nominated Stephen Miran, his top economic adviser and a critic of the Federal Reserve, to temporarily fill an open Fed seat
The AI-Powered Education Revolution: Market Potential and Transformative Impact
Chikungunya Virus Outbreak in Southern China: Over 7,000 Hospitalized
French wine makers have seen catastrophic damage to vines that were almost ready to be harvested after the worst fires in more than 70 years burned through the south of the country
US Lawmaker Probes Intel CEO’s China Ties Amid National Security Concerns
Brazilian President Lula says he’ll contact the leaders of BRICS states to propose a unified response to U.S. tariffs
Trump Open to Meeting Putin as Soon as Next Week, with Possible Trilateral Summit Including Zelenskiy
Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau spark dating rumors, joining high stakes world of celeb-politician romances
US envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow to seek a breakthrough in the Ukraine war ahead of President Trump’s peace deadline
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Karol Nawrocki Inaugurated as Poland’s President, Setting Stage for Clash with Tusk Government
Trump Signals JD Vance as ‘Most Likely’ MAGA Successor for 2028
US Charges Two Chinese Nationals for Illegal Nvidia AI Chip Exports
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
U.S. Tariff Policy Triggers Market Volatility Amid Growing Global Trade Tensions
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
Representative Greene Urges H-1B Visa Cuts Amid U.S.-India Trade Tensions
U.S. House Committee Subpoenas Clintons and Senior Officials in Epstein Investigation
Sydney Sweeney Registered as Republican as Controversial American Eagle Ad Sparks Debate
Trump Accuses Major Banks of Politically Motivated Account Denials and Prepares Executive Order
TikTok Removes Huda Kattan Video Over Anti-Israel Conspiracy Claims
Trump Threatens Tariffs on India Over Russian Oil Imports
German Finance Minister Criticizes Trump’s Attacks on Institutions
U.S. Proposes Visa Bond of Up to $15,000 for Some Applicants
U.S. Farmers Increase Lobbying Amid Immigration Crackdown
Elon Musk Receives $23.7 Billion Tesla Stock Award
Texas House Paralyzed After Democrats Walk Out Over Redistricting
Mexican Cartels Complicate Sheinbaum’s U.S. Security Talks
Mark Zuckerberg Declares War on the iPhone
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
Tesla Seeks Shareholder Approval for $29 Billion Compensation Package for Elon Musk
Nvidia is cutting prices on its RTX 50-series graphics cards after sales slowed and inventories piled up
Ghislaine Maxwell Transferred to Minimum-Security Prison Amid Ongoing DOJ Discussions
U.S. Tariffs Surge to Highest Levels in Nearly a Century Under Second Trump Term
×