We all know about scams. We may not know the details of who carries them out and how they operate but we are all aware that scams exist. The extent to wish they occur may come as a shock though. According to the Office Of Fair Trading (OFT).
“Mass marketed scams are a problem in the UK. They can take the form of bogus and fraudulent offers sent by post, telephone or email. Fake lottery and prize draw wins, bogus psychic predictions, get-rich-quick investment cons and ‘miracle’ health cures are just some of the tricks used by scammers. Nearly half of the UK adult population has been targeted by a scam, and more than three million adults – one in 15 people – fall victim to scams, losing a total of £3.5 billion every year.”
Three million adults fallen victim to scams? That is staggering. No wonder these scams are such big business these days but perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised.
There was a time when anyone involved in the financial and investment businesses was a respected person or company and reputation was everything but times have changed and business these days operates in a similar way to the way the scams do.
For example. You get a phone call claiming to be from a credit card company and straight away they are asking you to give them information to prove who you are. Surely it is they who should be expected to prove who they are when they ring you like that?
So, when someone phones up supposedly from a company you previously had some dealings with you may be puzzled but it is human nature to give them the benefit of the doubt. It has become the norm for any business to push there products at you these days. Not content with you deciding for yourself that you want to use their services every business from your bank to your mobile phone company to BT will try to push you into choosing their service and/or additional services.
So the scammers do not seem that unusual when they phone you unexpectedly and offer you a perfectly reasonable sounding explanation of who they are and what they are offering. They sound very similar to these other legitimate companies promoting their services. Perhaps this goes some way to explaining how come so many people have been scammed.
The OFT are trying to make people more aware of the risks of scams and the Scamnesty campaign is part of the OFT’s ongoing work to build awareness of scams. Among their promotions is the option to give them your scam emails and postal mail. From mid-January there will be Scamnesty pages on Consumer Direct which will be fully Scamnesty branded and include an e-bin for email scams and a postal bin locator. This will allow people to search for their nearest Scamnesty bins by postcode.
So now you know what to do with all those junk emails and dubious offers you receive in the mail. The basic rule must be to be automatically suspicious of anything you are not expecting and have not requested. If your credit card company phones you up you can always tell them you will ring them back and dial the number on your credit card statement.
The same applies to any other financial or investment company that calls you but if it is a company who you don’t recall dealing with before be extremely cautious. If what they say sounds interesting ask them to send something in writing. If they ask for your address be extra vigilant since they claim you had some previous dealing s with them. Not that having an address means anything these days since they are easily obtained.
When you get emails claiming to be from your bank and telling you that security has been compromised/updated or they are checking security of accounts just delete them and never open attachments on such emails as they may well contain trojans, adware, viruses and other dubious pieces of automatic software that can take over your computer or copy everything that you type.
It is a sad fact that these days anyone in the world can set up a scam and appear to be someone local to you but if we remain vigilant we can hopefully avoid the worst of the problems they present. Finally if ever you are tempted to invest thousands of pounds with someone who phones you up out of the blue just stop and think for a minute.
If it sounds too good to be true then it probably is and you should run away. It would be sensible to discus with a registered qualified financial advisor any investment you are considering but most especially if this is the result of a phone call from someone you have no reason to trust.
You can read more about scams and how they operate at the OFT website by CLICKING HERE
