Warning issued over HMRC message

Over the past couple of weeks authorities have had to issue warnings over a new email scam that was doing the rounds claiming to be from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. Read more

Tags: Business Finance, email scams, result, scam, Fair Trading

OFT sends out ’scam’ texts to warn consumers

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has announced it is to send out fake ’scam’ text messages to consumers as part of their Scams Awareness month.

According to the OFT, an estimated six per cent of scam victims are aged between 15 and 24, which is part of the motivation for the campaign.

Mike Haley, director of consumer protection at the OFT said that young people can be vulnerable to consumer scams offered through new forms of technology.

“We hope that our innovative approach of sending fake scam text messages will remind young consumers to be on their guard if they receive a suspicious offer,” he said.

The text message reads as ‘Urgent! U may have won £1k cash with ‘2 Good 2 B True’ and is expected to be followed by a second message making it clear that there is no prize and that the message has been sent by the OFT to warn about scams.

According to the OFT, up to three million consumers are victims of scams per year.

Tags: Mike Haley, GBP, Scams Awareness month, fake scam text, Awareness

International cheque scam foiled

An international scam involving fake cheques and postal orders that were destined for London has been foiled by the government’s Serious Organised Crime Agency.

Investigations have been on-going for a month in Nigeria, and as a result £8 million worth of fake cheques and postal orders have been seized. The scam has been described as sophisticated by officials, and a number of people in Britain have been arrested for their involvement in the fraud.

According to reports around sixty arrests have been made in countries around the world in connection with the scam, including arrests in Spain, Canada, Nigeria, the United States, and the Netherlands. During the operation fake passports were also discovered in addition to the fake cheques and postal orders. Around three thousand forged cheques that were due to go to an address in London were seized, along with an additional fifteen hundred forged cheques going to other London addresses.

UK residents have to pay out billions of pounds each year because of fake cheques that are used to purchase goods or get cash, and then bounce. Some of the cheques that were seized as part of the operation were already filled in for amounts ranging between three and seven thousand pounds. One of the scams in which such fake cheques are used in where consumes are told that they have won money or inherited money, and are asked to send in a fee to make their claim. They then receive a fake cheque, which then bounces once the bank discovers that it is fake.

Another scam involves consumers being told that the cheques are work processing cheques, and they send in the amount of money to cover the cheque and then bank the cheque, which later bounces.

Tom Smith
11th November 2007

Tags: scam, order, cheques, international, fraud, money, postal

Barclays customers hit by fraudsters over festive period

Many consumers that bank with Barclays have been receiving fraudulent emails from scam artists over the festive period, with the content of the emails designed to persuade them to provide their financial data such as account details and personal information. Millions of emails were sent out to Barclays customers over the Christmas period, with the fraudsters claiming to be from the Protection Department of the UK banking giant.

The emails that were sent out had the official Barclays logo on, as well as links to help line numbers. The emails went on to ask consumers to complete their account and financial information online. The conmen were then able to use this information to access customers’ accounts and conduct further fraudulent activity. The process of sending out fraudulent emails and setting up fake websites to obtain customers’ financial and personal details is known as phishing, and this is an activity that has seen a real increase over recent years.

Barclays officials have gone on to advise consumers that they should never respond to this type of email, as the bank states it would never send out an email asking a customers to provide their financial details. The bank also warned that anyone that has already responded to these emails by providing their data should contact the bank as soon as possible in order to get their bank account frozen to minimize the risk of further fraudulent activity on their account.

One Barclays spokesperson stated: ‘This is a mean thing to do at this time of the year. What these are, and our anti-fraud guys will have picked them up, are phishing emails. Barclays would never ask customers for personal details in e-mails. If customers get them, they should delete them straight away and not enter any details.’

For more free advice try any of the following sites:

• Citizen’s Advice
• Direct Gov
• FSA’s Money Made Clear

Tags: christmas, Banking, fraud, customers, scam, email