Category: Scammer

Pension Fraudsters Use Anti-Scam Messages

Some pension fraudsters are using genuine anti-scam messages on their websites to try to make their sites look authentic. This is a very cynical ploy.

Recent pension freedom reforms have allowed over-55s to access their retirement savings pots and this has made them a target for scammers.

Fraud experts say that a combination of new rules, investors looking for returns and pensioners withdrawing large sums of cash have created a potentially fertile hunting ground for scammers.

Pension scammers simply copy official scam alerts onto their websites to dupe savers into thinking they are dealing with legitimate businesses, warned the Pensions regulator.

“Scammers are always developing new ways to try to get their hands on people’s pensions so everyone needs to be on the look-out for potential traps.”

Phrases Pension Fraudsters Commonly Use:

  • The offer won’t last long
  • You’re entitled to a free government review
  • There’s a guaranteed 7 per cent return
  • We’ll send a courier over with your documents
  • There’s a legal loophole
  • You’re a sophisticated investor
  • It’s free
  • Your pension company might try to talk you out of it – they just want to keep your money

Be careful.

Do Share this post on social media – click on the post title then scroll down to the social media share buttons.

Fightback Ninja Signature

UK Mystery Shopper

Respectable websites carry adverts for UK Mystery Shopper.

Such as a picture of the Aldi supermarket sign plus the words “Free £100 Voucher”

Sounds interesting but it’s a link to the UK Mystery Shopper website where the story is rather different.

UK Mystery Shopper describes itself as a website where consumers can access and read our member’s reviews of some of the UK’s most popular restaurants and stores.

Surprisingly there are very few reviews to be read.

The sales lines follow:

  • Earn £10 per hour with our jobs.
  • Mystery Shopping Jobs Giveaway £100 in free shopping if selected.
  • Free food shopping

And so on

There is an APPLY Now button. Simply enter your details and they’ll let you know if you’ve been chosen as a mystery shopper.

But you have to pay £34 to register.

Why?

If you have to pay to register an interest in a job then it’s a scam.

What do you get for your £34?

They may send you a list of companies that supposedly use mystery shoppers.

But the companies that do this are easily found on the Internet and they pay peanuts because there are so many people who want these jobs.

Is this in effect an illegal lottery where hundreds or thousands of people pay £34 but there’s little payout or maybe occasionally someone gets a voucher.

Not a good deal. Better to play the actual lottery.
As for getting a job through them as a mystery shopper – there’s probably more chance of winning a jackpot on the lottery.

Do enter your email address and click on the subscribe button on top right to keep up to date with new posts.

Warning: As Shown on Shark Tank

Shark Tank Is an American TV series about entrepreneurs pitching their new product or service to a group of very successful business people. If they like it then they may invest their own money in the new company.

It’s a similar format to Dragons Den shown in the UK, which is based on a Japanese show and lots of countries now have their own version.

Shark Tank is a big ratings success and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Structured Reality Program three times. A ninth season is currently being planned.

However, all is not as it seems. The sharks don’t have long to assess the businesses, products and services in front of them and a lot has to be taken on trust.

Many, and possibly a majority, of the deals made on the show are never enacted, due to the investors’ vetting process following the deal, which includes product testing and the examination of the contestants’ personal and business financials. In some cases, the entrepreneurs themselves have backed out of the deal after admitting that they only wanted to appear on the show for the publicity.

Lots of spam and scam emails for products include “As Seen on Shark Tank” and use quotes from the programme.

These may or may not be fake but appearing on Shark Tank really does not prove anything is genuine. Being liked by the Sharks does not prove a product is any good.

Many of the deals made on Shark Tank never happen because due diligence shows up the entrepreneurs either lie about their situation or product or something goes wrong in tying up the deal.

So if you see something advertised as ‘As Seen on Shark Tank” then reach for the salt and certainly do not believe it.

If you’ve enjoyed this post or found it useful then do share – click on the post title then scroll down to the social media share buttons.

Scumbag Awards 2017 Dating and Romance Scams

Category: Dating and Romance

1.      Online Dating

There are countless people looking for love, romance and commitment and scammers think these people are easy marks. Numerous scammers spend their days pretending to be in love with various people and building a relationship to the point where they ask for money and sometimes get it. When the prospective partner stops paying then the scammer moves on to new victims.

This is cynical, nasty and immoral.

An Austrian woman (we’ll call her firefly) decided to give online dating a try. It had been about a year since Firefly got divorced. Firefly spent a lot of time on her profile, thinking she needed to be entirely honest and open if she hoped to really connect with someone. Within 10 minutes of posting, she had a handful of virtual suitors — and one stood out. He suggested they ditch the dating site and switch to email.

Her new boyfriend had a complicated backstory: He was an American soldier serving in Iraq, and he had a son living in Ghana. But she had revealed to her new online beau how much she wanted children, and soon his 14-year-old son was emailing her. (I know; red flag.)

Then, after about a week of heavy correspondence, Firefly’s boyfriend announced his son’s birthday was coming up, and suggested she send him a gift. So she wired a few hundred euros to Ghana. It was pretty gratifying, she says; the son was ecstatic.

But soon after, she learned that the son had had an accident at school and needed help paying hospital bills — urgently. “Of course I was sending money again to Western Union,” Firefly says.

Scarcely had the boy recovered when he was struck by cholera, which required another expensive course of treatment. Within the space of about three months, Firefly wired the equivalent of about $1,000 to Ghana. She decided to do a little research online and discovered that, yes, cholera is a problem in Ghana, and yes, treating it can be expensive — except that Ghana actually has a free cholera treatment program.

She finally realised she’d been scammed.

2.      The Fake Military Personnel Scam

This follows the usual path of fake dating online leading to the fake military man asking for money to get leave or to visit the person.

https://fightback.ninja/test/the-fake-military-personnel-scam/

3.      Fake Investigators:

Once someone has been scammed, they are labelled as easy prey and some scammers will approach them with a new story and offer help.  There are fake investigators offering to find the original scammer and get the money back and have the perpetrators brought to justice. However, this is impossible to do and will just lead to more money being paid to another scammer.

Vote by email for your favourite to [email protected]

 

The Kitchenware Car Park Scam

This has happened before in Surrey but now theses scammers are at it again.

They have approached people in Waitrose car park in Cobham and at Painshill car park.

You’re in a car park and maybe just getting out of your car or heading back to your car and you are stopped by someone. You expect they want directions to somewhere but they start telling you a story. Sometimes they hang around schools trying to talk to the waiting parents or sometimes they just knock on doors.

The story is roughly as follows:-

 I was on my way to the airport to fly home but I have too many samples left. Kitchen knives, cutlery, crockery – all top quality sets as you can see for yourself (shows the product).

 I can’t take them on the plane as they are too heavy so I have to sell them off quickly.

I can offer these professional products to you at a very much discounted price if you buy now.

The products have designer names and appear to be Swiss made and top quality but when the victim’s inspect them at home, they realise they are poor quality copies and not worth what was paid.    

The scammers have German accents and speak good English.  They are clearly very convincing as people keep falling for this scam and some spend over £1,000 only to find out their purchases are near worthless.

The Police do know about these scammers but if you are approached by them then do tell the Police.

If you know anything about these scammers or have been conned by them – let me know.