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* Latest Scams *
Reclaiming unfair bank charges scam
A increase has been seen in 'companies' cold calling people offering to
assist them claim back excessive unauthorized overdraft charges.
Often they refer to the last six years and offer up to 10% interest on the
money. They attempt to gain the confidence of their target by
quoting the phone no. (yes, the one they've just rung!) and address - then
attempt to gain bank details or supply a costly information pack. Never
give your bank details to people who call you unexpectedly and always
call your bank with the number on their documents rather than one you may
be given. In fact, the reclaiming of any unfair bank charges is free
and information is freely available from many legitimate websites, eg: Money
Saving Expert.
Sinister new twist to prize draw scams
A network of elderly prize draw fraud victims has been uncovered, some of
whom were 'groomed' by scammers into unknowingly acting as money mules to
launder other victims' money.
The sophisticated scam involved being rung by the fraudsters and
informed they had won a prize draw of up to £500,000 and told fees were
required to release winnings. To do so they were told to send
cheques for thousands of pounds to UK 'agents' who turned out to be other
scam victims who banked the cheques and innocently transferred the money
to the scammer overseas. Victims were encouraged to borrow large
sums after their life savings had been depleted, some losing upwards of
£50,000. The scam appeared more legitimate as victims were less
suspicious by sending/receiving money to/from UK addresses.
A genuine prize draw, sweepstake or lottery would never ask you to pay
any fee to release winnings.
Boiler Room fraud
This one is now back on top of the list as the scammers appear to have
ramped it up during the current financial turmoil.
Boiler room fraud is the high pressure telephone sales of worthless or
fake shares and has increased at an alarming rate. Victims, usually
middle aged and with money to invest include not just the gullible or
novices, but experienced investors too.
Boiler room fraudsters are often based in Spain, Switzerland or the US,
but may use UK addresses, agents and bank accounts to appear
legitimate. They make their money by cold-calling UK investors and
selling them shares which, if they exist, often carry very high risk and
are often worth a lot less than you pay. The sales staff are very
persuasive and persistent, never taking 'no' for an answer and phone their
victims every day until they finally make a sale. Once you've parted
with your money you'll either receive worthless share certificates or hear
no more.
In most cases it is illegal to attempt to sell shares in this way, so
don't be taken in by the caller's smooth manner, technical jargon or
special offers, just hang up. All companies selling financial
services in the UK have to be registered with the FSA, asking the scammers
for their FSA registration number will usually cause them to hang
up. More information on the Stock
Watchers website. If you've been a victim you should report the
matter to the FSA.
Other Recent Scams and Frauds...
Clothing Collection Charity Scam
There are many organisations currently operating in the UK who claim to be
charities or imply they're doing charitable work. In fact, they're
just money-making exercises who only benefit themselves. These
organisations claim to be helping families in Eastern Europe, Third World
countries or the unemployed, but there's little evidence to back this
up. Many of these companies are currently being investigated by the Office
of Fair Trading.
A community
website have started an e-petition on the No.10
Downing Street site to stop companies implying that they are doing
charitable work when they are not. Call Consumer
Direct on 08454 04 05 06 to report suspicious collections. If
you have an appeal leaflet you don't recognise you can check whether it's
legitimate on the Charity
Commission website or calling 0845 300 0218.
Compensation scam
Householders were taken aback when a visitor arrived claiming to have had
her little finger bitten by their dog as she posted a leaflet through the
door. With threats of legal action and fear that their beloved dog
might be destroyed, the householder made an appointment to hand over £500
in compensation. Police became involved and the transaction did not
take place. Beware of such scams!
Bogus debt collection scam
A threatening letter arrives from a company called 'Astradelph
International Debt Collection' based in the Czech Republic which tells the
recipient that they owe money, usually between £250 and £650, and that
if the money is not paid legal action will be taken. At the bottom
of the letter are premium rate telephone numbers - which connect to an
answering machine playing a dialling tone, tricking the caller into
thinking they haven't yet been connected. The letter also gives
account details so that payments can be made directly to the
scammers. This scam is intended to obtain large amounts of money
from people ringing the premium lines or sending money to the account.
Premium rate phone scam
Here's another 09 premium rate scam. Householders are given a
number to call, beginning 09, with reference to parcel delivery. The
number is at premium rate and could incur high charges.
Fake order & credit card debit
An e-mail arrives advising that a transfer or debit has been taken from
your account for GBP xxx.xx for the purchase of goods you know nothing
about. Another variation is advising you your mobile phone bill is
available to view online and that an amount will be collected. Both
are a variation on the now common phishing scam that entices you to visit
a fake website and enter your bank account details.
Telephone credit card scam
Your credit card company Fraud Department rings up saying that they're
calling to verify an unusual purchase pattern asking if you made a
purchase for a named item for £xxx.xx. When you say no, they tell
you they will be issuing a credit to your account, but need you to confirm
the 3 digit security number on the back of your card.
Now this should ring alarm bells as your credit card company will
already know your card details and will never ask for them on the
phone. If you give the fraudsters the number you'll find your
account debited for the quoted amount shortly afterwards!
Get rich property schemes
A number of seminars currently in operation offer the chance to learn
"how to become a property millionaire". Typically,
investors attend a free presentation and are told they can learn how to
deal in property starting with little or no capital.
Those who sign up typically pay thousands of pounds for the
course. Schemes vary, but may involve the opportunity to buy blocks
of properties as buy-to-let investments, or buying development properties
at a discount, which have yet to be built. The companies may also
offer no deposit finance deals to get the investor started. While a
few people may have made a million, the vast majority are losing thousands
of pounds.
Another variation is the buy-to-let property scheme, where companies
offer to source, renovate and manage properties, claiming healthy returns
will be made from rental income. In reality, the properties are
often derelict and worth a fraction of the money paid for them, and the
promised tenants are non-existent. Few investors see the returns
they are led to expect.
Spanish traffic fines
A letter supposedly from the Spanish police arrives asking for Euro's to
settle your traffic violation incurred while on holiday - even if you've
not been to Spain or not driven there! Ignore.
Spanish Identity Theft scam
A letter from Spain advises the recipient that they have won Euro's
and goes on to ask for personal, passport and banking details.
Anyone receiving this letter should destroy it, this is an identify theft
scam intended to gather the recipient's personal information in order to
steal their identity. Unfortunately a number of people have been
taken in and responded with their personal details.
There are many variants on this, often sent as emails and saying you
have won a large sum of money or prize (for no outlay!) but your details
are required to process your winnings. All are designed to steal
your identity. See our crime advice
page for details of actions to take to minimise identity theft.
Dating SMS text message
A text message arrives advising that someone you know is trying to contact
you by a dating service and to ring a given number to find out who it
is. The number has to be called from a landline and incurs cost of
£1.50 per minute and can involve a lengthy call. It's a scam purely
intended to encourage the recipient to call the number the scammers have
set-up, for which they receive a high percentage of the call costs.
And there is no date either!
If you receive any text encouraging you to ring a number, treat
with the up most caution. Advise younger and more vulnerable members
likewise.
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Cash machine security fraud
The pictures below show an ATM before and after a portable card reader
has been fitted by fraudsters to clone card details:
Do not use a machine with this in place! Report it to the bank or
police straight away. Further details on ATM
scams.
£50 per minute premium rate call charges
There have been recent well intended reports of some phone scams
running up bills at the rate of £50 per minute. Be assured that the
highest premium rate that can be charged by any phone company is a maximum
of £1.50 per minute.
Dial-up Internet scam
This scam installs a new dialler on your computer's Dial Up
Networking. The new dialler connects to a premium rate number and
can run up bills at the rate of £1.50 per minute for the length of time
you're online. Never download any software you're not sure
of, even if it appears to come from your service provider. Always
check the number your computer is set to dial whenever you connect, make a
note of the correct number for reference. If you've moved to
broadband, remove your dialler(s) completely. See our PC
security page.
Job offers
These take the form of an e-mail with a too-good-to-be-true offer of
high salary/low hours/part-time work. The text is easy to spot as
it's written in poor English. The scam is intended to gain your bank
account details, supposedly so you can be paid. Instead, the details
are used to access the money in your account. See example e-mail
below:
Our company
"Zhong Altern International" is located in South Korea
(motherland for such brands as Samsung, Daewoo and others). Our company
profile is law and economical services for Korean citizens wishing to
operate at foreign markets. We help with financial and personal
representation of our customers in 48 different countries, including USA,
Australia, countries of European Union and UK.
For now we have a demand in increasing the number of our part time
employees in United Kingdom. According to this we are ready to offer you
the part-time job in our company with the salaries starting from GBP 200
to GBP 700 weekly for 1-2 hours of employment time daily (5 working days a
week).
The title for the position is "Junior financial representative".
Main tasks are:
- Receiving some calls on behalf of our customers.
- Receiving some business correspondence on behalf of our customers
- Receiving some business transactions on behalf of our customers
.and some others.
This tasks won't take more than 2 hours of your time daily and the
starting salary would be GBP 300/week, which would be increased depending
of your enthusiasm.
Now of course you wouldn't fall for this would you, but some people
have!
High pressure telemarketing investment
You receive a phone call with an offer of a 'never to be repeated', or
'only a few left' or 'today only' investment, but they won't give details
of their firm or the investment. They say you've been specially
selected, but you're one of many they're trying to get to commit without
giving you time to check or seek professional advice. Never
make an instant decision to such a call and hang up.
Transfer of funds from overseas
This one offers online customers payment for the receipt of and transfer
of funds overseas. Funds used in this type of incident are usually
the proceeds of fraud and if you participate in such a scheme you will
become involved in a police investigation!
You've won a prize scam
An e-mail, SMS text or recorded phone message informs you that you've won
a large prize and instructs you to ring a number to claim it. This
results in a call to a premium rate number to listen to a lengthy recorded
message costing £1.50 per minute of which the scammers rake off a large
percentage. Of course there's no prize anyway!
Latest: European scammers behind this one have now been
brought to justice. USA ones informing of a free luxury holiday are
still continuing...
A variant of this scam is a single ring to your phone which shows up as
a missed call, you then ring back to see who called only to listen to a
lengthy message at premium rates!
Data Protection registration
An official looking letter arrives at your business advising that you need
to be registered under the Data Protection Act and that you're not on
their database. They then offer to register you for a larger than
needed fee. Contact the Information
Commissioner if you need to register for Data Protection purposes.
Phoney bank e-mail fraud
This one is so common now that most people with an e-mail address have
seen it many times over!
The so called phishing e-mail purports to come from your bank and asks for
your PIN and/or password details. All the major banks have been
targets. The e-mail often has poor spelling and grammar so should be
easy to spot. Remember that your bank will never ask for
these details in this way! Do not reply or follow any links
in the e-mail as they take you to an authentic looking website which
encourages you to fill in your details - straight into the hands of the
fraudsters! With this information they can then access your bank
account. If you receive such an e-mail delete it off your computer
(shift-delete key combo).
A sample scam e-mail is shown below:
Dear Valued Customer,
- Our new security system will help you to avoid frequently fraud
transactions and to keep your investments in safety.
- Due to technical update we recommend you to reactivate your account.
Click on the link below to login and begin using your updated Abbey
account.
To log into your account, please visit the online banking http://xxxxx.com
If you have questions about your online statement, please send us a Bank
Mail or call us at 1-800-xxx-xxxx
We appreciate your business. It's truly our pleasure to serve you.
Abbey Customer Care
This email is for notification only. To contact us, please log into your
account and send a Bank Mail.
(included link/phone no. removed)
(Barclays is misspelt Barcalys in the Barclays version)
See Bank
Safe Online for the latest banking online scams.
Further to the recent 'phishing' incidents (e-mail scams) Microsoft
have now released a security patch for Internet Explorer versions 5.01,
5.50 and 6. You can download the security patch from Microsoft's
website. There are other, more modern and secure browsers
available, see our PC security page.
Domain Names
Fraudsters are targeting UK businesses suggesting Domain Name
pre-registration or advising that their domain is due for renewal. Always
register or renew via your existing provider, never as a result of a cold
call.
Nigerian funds scam
An e-mail is being circulated that asks for your help in the transfer of a
very large sum of money into the UK. It paints a sad story of a
country in turmoil and promises a high percentage of the money for your
trouble. It asks for an initial payment of several thousand pounds
from you which seems small change in comparison to the amount you're
promised. Needless to say, that's the last you'll see of your money
if you respond!
Microsoft security scam
Another scam are e-mails purporting to come from Microsoft supposedly
carrying the latest security fixes - ask yourself why would Microsoft
e-mail you out of billions of users? All this 'fix' does is load a
virus on your PC and sends itself on to everyone in your address book!
Page last updated April 2009
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