The financial institution is sounding the alarm to consumers and is telling people to “speak to your bank” if they are affected. In this particular case, people are getting tricked into fake loan scams which are resulting in them losing their hard-earned cash. According to Lloyds, savers are losing upwards of £200 to this latest example of fraud which is hurting innocent people.

As part of the scam, victims are usually contacted after searching online for a loan and entering their contact details onto a website which seems legitimate at face value.

The fraudster will then pretend to be a representative from a genuine company and will send over documentation that appears real.

After this, the victim will be approved for a loan. However, before the money is released, the criminal will create a reason why an upfront fee will need to be paid.

In some cases, the scammers will continue to ask for more payments to attempt to get as much money as possible.

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At some point, the victim of the scam stops hearing from the fake company and the loan is never eventually received.

So far, reports of this example of fraud have gone up by more than 90 percent within the past year.

The bank is currently seeing the number of cases rise sharply with more expected in the months ahead.

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“They know that some people will need more support with their money, and victims in these cases often have a poor credit score or may already be in financial difficulty.

“The important thing to remember is that a genuine loan company will never ask for an upfront payment before releasing the funds.

“If you’re concerned in any way about your finances there are lots of organisations that can help, and it always makes sense to speak to your bank first.”