A young woman from Lachute lost $ 1,750 at the hands of a con artist posing as an online lender.
On its website mario-moreau.ca, the bogus lender presented conditions as advantageous as those of a real mortgage with a bank.
“He was offering 2%,” says Kassandra Giroux, 23. It was too good to be true, but when you want to get out of it, you just accept anything. “
When she contacted him, “Mario Moreau” immediately agreed to lend him $ 10,000, despite his bad credit history.
“You’re in good hands with me Kassandra,” he wrote to her in July, before asking her for $ 1,750 in “bank activation fees.”
“He sent me a contract drawn up by a notary in France,” she said. I wrote him the checks by Interac transfer to an email address. “
When he asked her for more money before sending her her loan, she realized she had been duped and complained to the police.
Promise the impossible
By calling the phone number found online on his site, our journalist pretended to be a potential client. The scammer has ensured that he grants loans at as little as 2% interest.
“I don’t have a money problem, so it’s just to help those who need it,” says the fraudster without laughing.
On the line, “Mario Moreau” has an accent from French-speaking Africa, despite his French-Canadian sounding name.
Its website, hosted on French servers, takes up the marketing of real online lenders.
“The online personal loan is the best way to have an immediate result in the event of financial problem, claims the site. In addition, your request will be completely free and without any commitment on your part. “
Such arguments directly target vulnerable consumers like Kassandra Giroux, who do not have access to quality credit, but still want money quickly for an emergency or to have a little indulgence.
From 2016 to 2019, she experienced long periods of unemployment caused by health problems.
Another victim
Our Bureau of Investigation spoke to another victim, who asked to remain anonymous because she was ashamed of having fallen into the trap of the bogus lender.
“On August 4 and 5, I transferred $ 2,100 to her for a ‘file opening fee’ and other stuff. When he asked for another $ 1,200, I said “It doesn’t work”, and I just stopped communicating with him, ”he says.
And that’s not all…
But his ordeal was not over. To get his loan, he sent in his banking information.
“They entered my account and wired each other $ 5,000,” he says.
Nothing to fix his finances: He too had financial problems after losing his job due to COVID-19.
In a press release at the beginning of November, the Autorité des marchés financiers and the Office de protection du consommateur warned the population against “fake money lenders, who use social media to recruit their” clients “.
The website in question, mario-moreau.ca, is no longer online.
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