-Consumers Seeking Online Loans Should Know the Signs of Scams and Fraud, Look For OLA Seal, and Use OLA’s Consumer Hotline To Report Issues-
ARLINGTON, Va. (March 6, 2025)—With National Consumer Protection Week taking place this week (March 2-8, 2025), the Online Lenders Alliance is highlighting its efforts to protect consumers seeking products in the online lending marketplace from scams and fraud. OLA’s Code of Conduct and Best Practices are built around a core of protecting consumers and treating them fairly, and OLA maintains several year-round initiatives to identify and remediate scams and fraud.
All OLA members are required to adhere to industry-leading best practices designed to protect consumers. These best practices cover advertising and marketing, application and origination, payment processing, collections, and data security. OLA also operates an aggressive website monitoring program that scours the internet for misleading terminology regularly used by fraudsters and scammers looking to take advantage of consumers. Since this program was initiated in 2016, OLA’s efforts to police URLs have resulted in more than 849,240 violations flagged. 97% of these violations have been resolved through OLA enforcement actions.
Consumers looking to report suspected fraud or get assistance navigating the online lending landscape can also use the OLA Consumer Hotline. To access this free resource, consumers can call 1-866-299-7585 or send an email to complaints@oladc.org. Last year, this hotline received more than 6,575 consumer calls, approximately 464 of which were complaints about fraud, and these are sent to the Federal Trade Commission each year.
Like in many industries, consumers should be wary of potential financial and lending scams, and they should be particularly vigilant when seeking financial resources or being contacted about their finances. Signs of a potential scam include:
- Offers of loans or credit that require a consumer to first pay a “processing fee” or other financial obligation before the creditor transmits the funds to their account or a prepaid card. Creditors will not ask you to pay them with ‘gift cards.’
- Lending companies that will not provide a loan agreement without proper disclosures, such as those required by the Truth in Lending Act (TILA).
- Unexpected communications from a lender seeking to collect on a debt.
- Unsolicited requests for personal or financial information, whether they are from your existing financial provider or someone new.
- Companies or customer service representatives who engage in aggressive or pressure tactics—like a “limited time offer”—to push a consumer into a financial product or make a financial decision.
- Solicitations that seem too good to be true, especially those that include wording such as “guaranteed,” “no credit check,” “funds immediately,” or “all applications approved.
Lastly, consumers seeking online loans should always remember to look for the OLA seal on their prospective lender’s website. The OLA seal is a public declaration that the company, through its membership in OLA, is committed to the highest standards of conduct, dedicated to ensuring the best possible experience for its customers, is fully compliant with applicable laws, and is working hard to protect consumers from fraud.
National Consumer Protection Week, led by the Federal Trade Commission, falls annually on the first full week of March and organizations across the country highlight ways to avoid scams, fraud, identity theft, and other relevant consumer protection issues.
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About The Online Lenders Alliance
The Online Lenders Alliance (OLA) is the first trade association in FinTech. OLA is focused on credit inclusion, bringing together a diverse group of innovative companies who share a common goal: to serve hardworking Americans who deserve access to trustworthy credit. Our members are entrepreneurs, publicly-traded companies, lenders, credit bureaus, advertisers, lead generators, compliance professionals, and software developers who are leveraging technology to responsibly improve consumers’ financial health. Consumer protection is our top priority and OLA members abide by a rigorous set of Best Practices and Code of Conduct to ensure consumers are fully informed and fairly treated. For more information, please visit www.onlinelendersalliance.org.
