RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) -

Local consumer advocates are warning about an online payday loan company targeting the public. Tom Gallagher, with the Richmond Better Business Bureau, is sounding the alarm. The organization is suspicious about an online payday loan company called Qxlonline.

“The very first thing they ask you, go right to their splash page and before anything, they want your social security number and some other personal information,” Gallagher said.

The company has an “F” rating with the BBB. Gallagher says attempts to reach anyone with Qxlonline has been unsuccessful. There have been at least five complaints in Virginia. They include threatening collection calls about loans consumers say they never applied for — and the company obtaining personal information then locking customers out of the website.

“This is really tragic because the victims in these things are just desperate,” said Gallagher.

He says there have been over 600 inquires about the company. Gallagher says a big problem, no one seems to know where the company is located. Victims have reported the company could be located in Pakistan and Australia.

“Wherever it is, you don’t want to be doing business with these people. It is an advance fee loan operation - an advance fee loan online is illegal in Virginia,” Gallagher told us.

On the website, there is no email or address information, only a phone number. We called and all you get is an automated message asking for your social security number. The BBB is not only consumer organization warning about Qxlonline - Dana Wiggins, with the Virginia Poverty Law Center and Virginia Partnership to Encourage Responsible Lending, says consumers should stay away from any company offering online payday loans.

“Bottom line people need to understand that online payday loans are not an easy road to money, they are and easy road to get scammed,” she said.

Beware: Online Payday Loan Traps

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Get help if you are stuck in an internet payday loan

Published: August 23, 2012

“I can’t blame anyone but myself,” Covington, 61, of Manassas, said. “But it’s highway robbery.”

Virginia’s car title-lending business is booming, but consumer advocates say it’s nothing to celebrate. Since a change in Virginia law last year, the commonwealth has become a magnet for people who need cash but live in the District, Maryland or another neighboring jurisdiction where laws capping interest rates have effectively driven such lenders out of business.

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Jul 24, 2012 (Bloomberg)

The Internet’s “don’t-call-us- payday” lenders are making a bid for more respect in Washingtonand less control from state regulators.

Firms offering short-term online loans, including Fort Worth, Texas-based Cash America International Inc. (CSH), are ramping up political contributions, hiring lobbyists and asking Congress to largely transfer oversight from states to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. A House committee today will hold a hearing on the proposal, which the OCC itself opposes.

As the $11 billion online loan industry bulks up in Washington, it also aims to shed the “payday lenders” label, according to talking points drafted by Peter Barden, a spokesman for the Online Lenders Alliance.

The memo advised lenders making lobbying visits to Capitol Hill this summer to “avoid using the term ’payday.’ Talk about short-term, small-dollar lending.”

Behind it all is more spending. The political action committee for Cash America is on pace to double its annual campaign contributions from the $200,000 it gave in 2007, according to federal election records, and the lender is bankrolling a new coalition to push for the legislation.

The core of the bill, sponsored by Representatives Blaine Luetkemeyer, a Missouri Republican, and Joe Baca, a California Democrat, would give the OCC authority to designate lenders as National Consumer Credit Corporations and require the regulator to treat storefront and online lenders equally.

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