Scams and swindles

A scam is a scheme designed to con you out of your cash. Scams come in many forms and are getting more sophisticated all the time. So, even if you think you would never be fooled, make sure you remain skeptical about offers that seem too good to be true – they usually are!

Scammers aim to con us all. Deceptive premium rate competition scams, bogus sweepstakes and lotteries, get–rich–quick schemes and fake health cures are some of the favored means of separating the unwary from their money. And the number of scams just keeps on growing.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is campaigning to stamp out scams – see related links:

• lotteries scams
• premium rate phone scams
• letters predicting the future
• pyramid selling
• miracle health cures
• work from home scams
• foreign money offers and advance fee scams
• email spam scams
• bogus holiday clubs
• career opportunity scams
• online dating scams
• investment scams
• phishing
• charity publishing
  

Types of other scams that are around at the moment include:

• Bogus FSA and FOS communications – letters or emails claiming to be from the FSA or FOS asking for your personal information or money.
• Bank charge cold callers – telephone calls or emails out of the blue, offering to help reclaim your charges – often claiming to be from the OFT.
• Identity fraud – someone impersonates you without your knowledge, often by stealing discarded or lost documents.
• Advance fee schemes – letters or emails that offer you vast sums if you make payments up front.

Investment scams

• Share scams (also known as boiler rooms) – a stranger rings you out of the blue and tries to offer you shares in a company you have never heard of.
• Affinity fraud – investment scams that target members of a group, such as a community or a religious, ethnic, elderly or professional group.
• Chain letters – letters or emails that contain a list of names and guarantee you a huge return for your small initial investment.

Online scams

• Fund transfer schemes – money–laundering scams that tempt you to use your bank account by offering a commission. But you could wind up with a prison sentence too.
• Online fraud (phishing) – fake bank websites that crooks use to try and get your personal details and money.