Before outlining the six red flags, let’s define a scam artist lender. Ross said that a scam artist lender is “going to be people who are actually trying to steal your money and other people who are just completely and totally wasting your time.” So, a scam artist is the Zimbabwe King that emails you asking for your personal information so they can send you millions of dollars, a newbie lender that doesn’t know what they’re doing, and everything in-between.