AAP FACTCHECK – Scammers are impersonating notable charities and offering “interest-free loans” to Australians struggling through the cost-of-living crisis.
One Facebook page, which features the Anglicare Sydney tree logo, promotes “Anglisure Credit” and claims it is “building brighter futures, one loan at a time”.
On the page, a post claims to help people “access interest-free loans” and suggests to “send a Dm if you need a loan”.
Another post in November 2024 claiming to be about a Youth Week event is taken from a legitimate post by Anglicare Sydney from April 2024.
Anglicare Sydney is a Christian non-profit advocacy organisation that provides a variety of community care services, including adoption as well as refugee services.
Maiy Azize is deputy director of Anglicare Sydney’s parent organisation, Anglicare Australia. She told AAP FactCheck she could confirm “definitely … this page isn’t ours”.
The Anglisure Credit page appears to have now been deleted, though it’s visible in archived screenshots taken by AAP FactCheck.
Similar pages can still be found, however, such as one that calls itself “AngliSure Lending” but uses Anglicare Sydney logos.
“There is no program called Anglisure Lending or Credit,” Ms Azize said.
“We do offer no-interest loans in various parts of the country, but we don’t use that name anywhere.”
Anglicare Sydney CEO Simon Miller said online scam activity is sadly widespread, with scammers impersonating a range of trusted charities.
“It is incredibly disheartening and disturbing to see these pages targeting those who can least afford to be scammed,” he said.
Ms Azize said the organisation had reported multiple fake pages to Facebook in recent months, including some that appeared to be scams.
“It wasn’t a major issue for us and then all of a sudden it was everywhere. We even had a page masquerading as an Anglicare agency offering people free fridges to harvest their details.”
Anglicare Sydney has set up a “Be scam aware” page to alert people about possible scams and what to look for.
The organisation, Mr Miller confirmed, will never ask for myGov, banking, or any other passwords, nor assess people for help over social media.
AAP FactCheck has discovered further scam pages, including one calling itself Support Through Salvos that claims to be linked to The Salvation Army.
It says it offers interest-free loans and urges those in need of help to send a message through the Facebook page.
The Salvation Army did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
However, a featured post on the organisation’s genuine Facebook page confirms it will never ask for any banking or identification details over social media.
The Verdict
False – The claims are inaccurate.
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