Online Payday Lenders Face Payback With Federal Litigation
To its chagrin, the Kansas City area has become a hotbed for abusive online payday loan operations. A couple of dozen or more area businessmen have made quick fortunes by offering short-term cash to low-income consumers and then slamming them with ruinous interest rates and fees.
The amount of money to be made by trapping people into endless debt is mindboggling. One Johnson County businessman sold his internet payday loan business for $50 million in 2012. Scott Tucker of Leawood, the most notorious of the online lenders, used his earnings to finance a fleet of race cars, a private Learjet and an $8 million vacation home in Colorado.
Payday for at least some of these lenders may be coming to an end, however. A number of federal agencies are cracking down on unscrupulous practices. And none too soon.
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