The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) has issued a warning on loan scams.

According to EOCO, the scammers call and persuade salaried workers to secure loans or propose to assist them to secure loans.

“This is done in the hope of retrieving their locked up funds at Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD),” it said in a statement.

The persons pose as staff of the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department and assure unsuspecting victims that they could secure a loan from any financial institution.

They further tell their victims the amount of money to procure after checking their affordability.

This is supposed to help ease the process of retrieving the locked-up funds owned by the victim.

The scammer will promise that CAGD will pay the lump sum to the financial institution where the loan was acquired, tiller the loan is secured, the scammer takes a percentage of the total sum.

In other instances, they persuade salaried workers and take their passport pictures and identity cards with the hope of securing the loan on their behalf. The worker receives the loan, pays the agreed percentage to the scammer, but ends up paying double the amount that was previously agreed on.

According to EOCO, once the victim realises they have been scammed, all efforts to reach the scammer prove futile.