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Lawmakers call for regulation of 'Wild West' loan industry Lisa Loving Of The Skanner News March 20, 2012 She was desperate to pay a handful of crucial bills, so she went online and researched digital loans.

She read about Internet payday loan companies and how they work but she found one that seemed better than the others.

In order to find out if I qualified I had to give them my bank account and social security number like you would for any loan, she told The Skanner News. There was my first stupid thing.

This Oregon resident -- who has requested anonymity because she hasnt yet told her family that a $400 loan turned into a $1,000 nightmare -- has helped touch off a national effort by Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI) to regulate the billion-dollar offshore payday lending industry.

Merkley and Akaka this month officially requested that Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Richard Cordray take action against such payday lenders, who appear to be reaching right into unwary consumers bank accounts and siphoning out everything they can get.

Merkley brought the issue to the National Newspaper Publishers Association last week in Washington D.C., during Black Press Week.

Millions of Americans are affected by the abusive and deceptive payday lending practices across our country and over the Internet, Merkley says. While Oregon is lucky to have state legislation in place to stop the worse practices, there are still loopholes and offshore websites that are dragging Oregon families into black holes of debt.

We have to bring order to the Wild West of the lending market.

Read this article:
Online Payday Lenders: Consumer Ripoffs by Offshore Corporations