Wonga, the online loans company, is facing questions about whether its checks to prevent children from borrowing cash are adequate following evidence that it has allowed under 18s to build up debts.

It is the high-interest loans company which came from nowhere to become one of the fastest growing finance firms in Britain. Wonga has faced widespread criticism over its interest rates, allegedly heavy-handed debt collection methods and, most recently, its £24 million shirt sponsorship deal Newcastle United football club, which some say will tempt impressionable young fans to get into debt. Now Wonga.com is facing new concerns over evidence it has allowed children to borrow cash, getting themselves, their family, and friends into debt, because its checks to prevent them applying are an inadequate. Under-18s are banned from taking out loans with the firm, and Wonga dismisses it as "fraud", but a Sunday Telegraph investigation suggests that young people are finding ways to convince Wonga’s "automated, real-time risk and decision system" that they are eligible for its 4,214 per cent APR loans.

The evidence includes:

Read more HERE

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