The Virginia Poverty Law Center has teamed up with the law firms of Kelly and Crandall and Consumer Litigation Associates.  Our goal is to “bite” unlawful internet lenders in a way that sends a message: Your loans violate state and federal law and are hurting Virginians by trapping them into extremely high-cost debt, ruining their credit and making their personal information available to scammers.  We won’t actually bite them—instead, we want to take a piece out of them where it counts, their pockets. And why not? They have drained millions from the bank accounts of Virginians.  We are asking the courts to make them pay restitution to Virginians harmed by their products, stop harassing Virginians to collect their illegal loans, and order them to stop making loans in Virginia.  We filed six lawsuits against internet lenders in the past few weeks.   We settled a class action lawsuit against a large internet lender a few months ago, and with the help of the Virginia Attorney General’s Office, we obtained $15 million in relief for 15,000 Virginians.  We are suing these lenders for violating Virginia usury laws (charging interest as high as 600%!) and violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

Help us take a bite out of this activity! If you have an internet loan or know someone who does—contact us for help or just to tell us your story! Email stories@vplc.org or call our Predatory Loan Hotline: 866-830-4501.