Need a loan? The new Web site Prosper combines MySpace-like profiles with loan requests to turn the search for cash into an exercise in social networking. The result: peer-to-peer finance that cuts out the usurious banks and could get you a lower interest rate. It’s also kind of wacky. Here are a few of Prosper’s strangest would-be borrowers.
- Brian Lam
Borrower: Xander
Location: Evanston, Illinois
Amount: $16,500
To remodel an “adult entertainment venue.” “If you’d like to see pictures of my building or my dancers, just let me know.”
Borrower: Wiggy
Location: Jonesboro, Georgia
Amount: $25,000
To start a company that’ll sell high-end wigs and weaves à la “Beyoncé’s hairpiece.”
Borrower: Speedfreak7986
Location: Stockton, California
Amount: $10,000
To buy a new car, because Speedfreak7986 is scared to drive his “death mobile.”
Borrower: GreenEnterprises
Location: Oakland, California
Amount: $3,000
To market “cutting-edge nanotechnology” code-named the “Air Force 1.”
Borrower: ForHisGlory
Location: Duluth, Georgia
Amount: $6,000
To make a house payment – the borrower quit his job to work for a church.
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