Money scamming outfits are now hiding behind online lending platforms to rob Ugandans of large sums of money.
That is the latest trick they use. They are registered and actually lend out small amounts of money. These come easily around the 15,000-50,000 bracket.
Then they hit. “Dear Client, because of your good reputation, we have upgraded your record,” they begin.
That is after you pay back the small first and possibly second instalment. “You can now borrow between 1.5 million and 50 million.”
They promptly ask for an Application Fee of 106,000 promising a payout in Two Minutes flat. After that, they claim you application needs a “Boost” so you have to pay an extra 156,000.
Then they disappear. One such online platform is called “One Loan”.
These suspected scammers claim to have offices in different capitals of the world. What they do is locate genuine operators in these capitals and then claim to be allied to them.
The Ugandan office is claimed to be operating from a building in Jinja City’s Iganga Road, headed by one John Sessanga.
They claim that office is in Room 8 on the Second Floor of Jonada Plaza, next to Bethel Institute.
That building does not exist. Curiously for such a large outfit, they do not have a Kampala address.
When we called Sessanga on their given , he claimed the Kampala Office was located in Bunga, *Tangore Building.*
We could not establish whether that office exists. Our contact said the London Office has a completely different registered lender.
Sessanga said that office was shut down temporarily because there were “Management issues” but it would be re-opened after these were resolved.
While they use *One Loan* as their — apparently legitimate Online lending platform — they switch their identity to *Credit Loans Uganda* for the supposed larger loan.
Their official *Credit Loans* WhatsApp chatline constantly posts inadvertent promises to pay saying their Funding Platform has crashed.
They urge the client to be patient as they work on this matter. As they do, their apparent hope is you will give up and lose your money.
One Borrower paid up to three times before they stopped responding to his messages.
When challenged about their spurious claims, the agency claimed they had a lot of Funds in one of Uganda’s commercial banks .
We were not able to immediately confirm this account exists.
The Mobile Money number they give, is registered in the names of one *Daniel Ngode*.
Our public online search identified him as a young, Nigerian IT specialist.
They are apparently also registered with Airtel as they have a Payment Code. If a cleint defaults on payment even for a minute they illegally use his phonebook to start harassing calling all the contacts registered there to pay back the loaned money .
Police spokesman Lucas Oweyosigire advised one complainant to report the case for investigation.
Ugandans should be alert and cautious while dealing with the fraudsters who are now giving out “loans” online!
