The Southern Alberta Better Business Bureau is hoping to warn residents of another money scam circulating in regards to loans with advanced fee payments.

Shawna-Kay Thomas, External Communications Specialist with the BBB, says complaints started to arise in September about Langridge Financial, which claimed to have offices in Calgary and New York.

"We started getting some reports in September. Consumers were complaining that they were being asked to pay to get a loan, and in Canada, this is illegal," she said.

In all of these instances, consumers were required to pay for "insurance," or because of low credit scores in order to receive the funds, however after payment was made the promised loans were not forwarded and the victims have been unable to recoup fees paid.

Thomas says they started an investigation, with complaints coming in from Calgary and New York.

"We contacted another BBB in New York, and we realized that they also were getting complaints, based on our BBB scam tracker," she said.

The company, Langridge Financial, had a live website from September that remained live until November 6th and promised consumer loans regardless of age, income or credit score.

After fee payments were made the loan was never received. Losses have been reported from $558 to nearly $3000.

Thomas adds that with a busy spending season upon us, it's likely we'll see more of these over the next couple of months.

"It's coming up to the holiday season, and we may see more of these scams popping up. Persons may need money to go shopping, we just want to warn consumers to be wary of these things, and always check with the BBB to make sure you're doing the right thing," she said.

There have been five confirmed reports since September 30th of this year, with two cases in Calgary. Mail sent by the BBB was returned and no results were found in a search of Canadian records as to the company being registered or holding a trade name.

Some tips to spot this and other scams are: vague or unclear fees charged before you get the money, avoid loan offers with guarantees that require unusual payment methods, do your research, including a company search on bbb.org.