Types of Fraud
Some fraudsters pretend to come from the very organisations tackling fraud, including SOCA. They even offer previous victims ‘professional’ help in recovering their money as a means of establishing trust and deceiving them a second time. This is known as fraud recovery fraud. SOCA and its partners never send members of the public unsolicited mail asking for their bank account details or cash. If you have doubts about the authenticity of a message you have received from SOCA please contact us on 0370 496 7622.
Be suspicious of high return share offers which promise little or no risk – they could be boiler room scams. Fraudsters often use hard sell techniques to pressure people into making quick decisions. They provide convincing and impressive looking documents and use authentic jargon to make the offer seem credible. They also try to persuade you that secrecy will maximise the value of the investment - in reality this is just to keep their crime hidden.
Fraudsters will impersonate lawyers or legal officials to carry out inheritance scams. They will offer you their services in securing money left to you by a distant relative, and charge you for the various ‘fees’ involved. There is always just one more process and one more fee to be paid before the money can be released. The sum at stake is so large that paying several thousand pounds may seem worth it. Finally they ask for bank account details to pay in the inheritance funds – at which point they empty the account and disappear.
A ‘missed call’ fraud will call a mobile phone for one ring only to entice people to ring back. When they do, they are calling a specially set up premium rate phone number without knowing it. Some fraudsters even use a recording of a phone ringing to keep people on the line for longer and so take more money off them.
Counterfeit cheque fraud is used to exploit people selling personal goods or renting out properties. The cheque is sometimes made out for more than the agreed price and the buyer asks for the difference to be refunded by money transfer. The cheque appears to clear but it takes several days before the counterfeit is identified, by which time the goods have been sent on without being paid for, on top of which the fraudster has been handed a sum of cash which you won’t get back from the bank.
Romance fraud is growing and there have been cases of kidnap linked to it. The victim meets someone online, or gets a response to an advert they have placed. Considerable investment goes into building trust, to the point where the victim will send cash to help with air fares or medical bills. Some romance frauds go on for many months.
Ponzi schemes ask people to pay into an investment scheme, but pay subsequent investors from those funds rather than from profits. Like boiler room scams, they will use smart documents and credible language to lend authenticity. They will also advise secrecy to protect returns, but in fact just want to avoid discovery.