Social media is a powerful force, reaching millions of people. The user-friendly design of the major social networking groups encourages users from all age groups and skill sets to communicate and to share information. That is exactly why social media has attracted the attention of government officials and consumer advocate organizations as a tool in the fight against advance fee loan scams. Knowledge is the best protection a person has against this type of financial predator. Social media plays two very important roles in raising public awareness by helping spread loan scam knowledge far and wide.
Advance fee loan scams, as recently reported by DirectLendingSolutions.com, continue to evolve, shifting their form, gathering a phony aura of legitimacy from what is in the public eye. When the government got involved in trying to help ease the foreclosure crisis, for example, advance fee loan modification scams began to proliferate. The site has been publishing people's loan scam experiences since 2007, and reading those first hand experiences clearly demonstrates that despite shifts in form and detail, the fundamental structure of an advance fee loan scam remains the same. These sorts of scams have become a financial industry scourge, moving government officials and consumer advocacy groups to action.
Congress requested that NeighborWorks America “to launch a national public education campaign” specifically regarding loan modification scams, according to the organization's web site. Social media is an important part of their efforts to spread advance fee loan scam information, along with numerous other groups throughout the nation that are spreading the message. There are two primary ways in which social media serves as a vital part