FTC shuts down Blue Global for sharing consumer loan application data

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The Federal Trade Commission said it stopped operations from Blue Global Media after the company made millions of dollars by falsely promising to match them with low-rate loans.
In a regulation With the FTC announced today, Blue Global faced a $ 104 million judgment, which was suspended because neither the company nor its CEO, Christopher Kay, could pay it. Instead, Blue Global and Kay filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, listing the FTC as a creditor.
The FTC complaint alleged that, as of 2009, Blue Global had created sites such as cashmojo.com, clickloans.net and 100dayloans.com, which promised to connect consumers with more than 100 “trusted credit partners” and find whoever offered them the best loan terms. Of the more than 15 million loan applications received, only 2% were sold to lenders, with the remainder being sold to non-lenders.
Applications often included sensitive personal and financial information such as social security numbers, dates of birth, income, and bank account numbers. The complaint alleged that complete apps were sold, without consumer consent, “to any potential purchaser without conditions and regardless of how they would be used.” When some candidates complained, the company took no action, according to the complaint.
Blue Global’s website is now dead, while the sites mentioned in the FTC complaint all redirect to the FTC’s own website.
In a 2015 Press release touting the growth of Blue Global, Kay said, “Our platform gives the borrower the best chance of getting a loan because we use the most advanced loan matching algorithm and the largest network of lenders available in industry. According to Kay’s LinkedIn profile, he graduated in Marketing from the University of Phoenix and served as CEO of Blue Global until January. The LinkedIn page describes Blue Global as
… The world’s leading online loan market. Every month, our premium online brands connect millions of consumers and businesses to quality credit providers. We match more businesses and consumers with financial products than anyone else. No one else can match our vast reach or our advanced loan matching algorithm, we are simply “The Global Online Loan Marketplace”.
Kay is also the founder of Diego milano, a designer jeans company based in Scottsdale, Arizona.
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